Connecticut, Early Inhabitants

At the beginning of the 17th century, Connecticut was the home of a number of different Native American groups, all of whom spoke related Algonquian languages. Archaeological sites indicate these people lived largely by hunting deer, catching fish and shellfish, and growing corn, beans, and squash. They migrated from forest to coastal areas to take advantage of seasonal resources. The total native population is estimated at about 7,000 people in the early 1600s, after an epidemic that decimated Native Americans throughout New England.

Most powerful among the Connecticut people were the Pequot, who lived in the east and along the shore of Long Island Sound, an area they had conquered from other native groups at the end of the 1500s. Early in the 1600s, a number of Pequots split off from the main group. Led by a chief named Uncas, they called themselves Mohegan, and controlled an area near the Thames River.

Other native groups were the Nipmuc in the northeastern sections of Connecticut; the Niantic along the eastern coast; and the Hammonasset, Quinnipiac, Paugussett, Siwanoy, Podunk, Poquonock, Massacoe, and Tunxi in the central and western sections.

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Most of the Native Americans were generally friendly to the colonists. Some native groups invited the English to settle nearby, hoping for trade and for allies against the aggressive Pequots, who dominated the area. Settlers purchased land from the native people, and though whites often encroached on native territory, disputes were usually settled without violence.

The exception to these friendly relations was friction between the Pequots and settlers, which soon escalated into New England's first major war, the Pequot War of 1637. The causes of the war are unclear, but it involved a series of killings, raids and reprisals on both sides. In May 1637 Connecticut declared war on the Pequots. With the help of both the Mohegan and the Narragansett to the east, the colonists launched a surprise attack on a Pequot village at Mystic River. They set the village on fire and killed Pequot inhabitants as they fled the flames. Hundreds of native villagers died, including many women and children, and most of the remaining Pequots were killed or captured. The few who survived were scattered throughout New England or sold into slavery, and the Pequot all but disappeared.

from: "Connecticut," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The Mattabesic

Mention is often made of the Wappinger and Mattabesic Confederations, but these organizations never really existed. In truth, the Mattabesic and Wappinger were not even tribes within the usual meaning of the word. What they really were was a collection of a dozen, or so, small tribes which spoke Algonquin, shared a common culture, and occupied a defined geographic area. The name of the Mattabesic comes from a single village that was on the Connecticut River near Middletown.

Population

Although some estimates have ranged as high as 20,000, the combined total of all of the Mattabesic tribes in western Connecticut in 1600 was probably near 10,000 living in as many as 60 villages. Just before the arrival of the first English colonists at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620, three major epidemics swept across New England and the Canadian Maritimes. Since the migration of several thousand Pequot-Mohegan into eastern Connecticut at this time masked the losses of the original tribes, the effect on the native population in Connecticut is not entirely clear. The best guess is there were about 5,000 Mattabesic in 1620. Contact with the Dutch and English became frequent after this, and disease took a steady toll - smallpox in 1633-35 being a major killer.

In the years immediately following the Pequot War (1637), the lands of the Mattabesic tribes adjoining the Connecticut River and the coastline of western Connecticut were taken by English settlement. There was little warfare involved with this displacement. A few tribes were conquered and incorporated into the Mohegan, but as a rule, the others separated into small groups and moved west to the Housatonic Valley and were absorbed by the Paugussett tribes. By 1700 the native population in western Connecticut had fallen to less than 1,000, but because settlement was slow to expand into this area, the Mattabesic still controlled over 500,000 acres. This, of course, did not last very long. By 1800 encroachment, fraud, intermarriage, disease, and migration had reduced the Mattabesic to 77 people living on 1,700 acres at the tiny reservations at Golden Hill, Turkey Hill, Naugatuck, and Schaghticoke. After another century of attrition, there were only 20 Mattabesic.

Currently, the Golden Hill Paugussett and Schaghticoke are recognized only by the state of Connecticut and not the federal government. Golden Hill at Trumbull, Connecticut is the oldest Indian reservation in the United States, but its size has been steadily reduced over the years until there are only 0.26 acres. In 1979 the Golden Hill Paugussett, who have a membership of 120, used a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs to purchase 108 acres near Colchester, Connecticut. The Schaghticoke (or Scaticook meaning "branching waters place" and NOT to be confused with the other Schaghticoke in New York which was Mahican) have a 400 acre reservation near Kent, Connecticut. Their 350 members are descendants from a mix of Paugussett and several other Mattabesic tribes. Other descendants of the Mattabesic can still be found among the Stockbridge and Brotherton Indians in northern Wisconsin.

Names

The Algonquin tribes in Connecticut west of the Connecticut River apparently did not have a collective name for themselves. Mattabesic is the name of a single village along the Connecticut River, and its use to describe this group of independent tribes is entirely arbitrary. Various other names (none of which has proven satisfactory) have been: Paugussett, Quiripi, Skeetambaugh, Wampano, and Wappinger. For historical reasons, the Wappinger, who lived in New York on the east side of the lower Hudson River, have been covered as a separate tribe.

Sub-Nations

• Hammonasset - mouth of the Hammonasset River.
• Massaco (Mussauco) - near Simsbury and Canton.
• Menunkatuc - on the coast near Guilford.
• Paugussett Proper (Milford Indians, Pangusset, Paugasuck, Paugeesukq) - east side of the Housatonic River as far north as Waterbury.
• Peaquanock (Pauquanuch, Pisquheege, Poquannuc, Poquaunnuch) - west of the Housatonic as far north as Danbury.
• Podunk - east side of the Connecticut River near East Windsor and East Hartford.
• Poquonock - west side of the Connecticut River near Windsor Locks.

• Mattabesic tribes allied with the Pequot in 1633.
• Mattabesic tribes allied with the Pocumtuc after 1650.

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