Editing Pequots (section)

==History==
[[File:Mystic Massacre in New England 1638 Photo Facsimile.png|thumb|Depiction of the Mystic Massacre, by Massachusetts Bay colonists in 1637]]
[[File:Basket MET TR.165.4.2011.jpeg|thumb|Pequot basket, {{circa|1840}}–60]]

===Etymology===
''Pequot'' is an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] word whose meaning is disputed among language specialists.  Considerable scholarship on the Pequot claims that the name came from ''Pequttôog'', meaning "the destroyers" or "the men of the swamp".  [[Frank Speck]] was a leading specialist of the [[Mohegan-Pequot language]] in the early twentieth century, and he believed that another term was more plausible, meaning "the shallowness of a body of water", given that the Pequot territory was along the coast of [[Long Island Sound]].<ref>Frank Speck, "Native Tribes and Dialects of Connecticut: A Mohegan-Pequot Diary", ''Annual Reports of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology'' 43 (1928): 218.</ref><ref>"The Pequot Relationships, as Indicated by the Events Leading to the Pequot Massacre of 1637 and Subsequent Claims in the Mohegan Land Controversy", ''Archaeological Society of Connecticut Bulletin'' 21 (1947): 26–33.</ref>

Historians have debated whether the Pequot migrated about 1500 from the upper [[Hudson River]] Valley toward central and eastern [[Connecticut]]. The theory of Pequot migration to the [[Connecticut River]] Valley can be traced to Rev. William Hubbard, who claimed in 1677 that the Pequot had invaded the region sometime before the establishment of [[Plymouth Colony]], rather than originating in the region.  In the aftermath of [[King Philip's War]], Hubbard detailed in his ''Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England'' the ferocity with which some of [[New England]]'s tribes responded to the English. Hubbard described the Pequot as "foreigners" to the region; not invaders from another shore, but "from the interior of the continent" who "by force seized upon one of the goodliest places near the sea, and became a Terror to all their Neighbors."<ref>William Hubbard, ''The History of the Indian Wars in New England'' 2 vols. (Boston: Samuel G. Drake, 1845), vol. 2, pp. 6–7.</ref>

Much of the archaeological, linguistic, and documentary evidence now available demonstrates that the Pequot were not invaders to the Connecticut River Valley but were indigenous in that area for thousands of years.<ref>For archaeological investigations disproving Hubbard's theory of origins, see Irving Rouse, "Ceramic Traditions and Sequences in Connecticut," ''Archaeological Society of Connecticut Bulletin'' 21 (1947): 25; Kevin McBride, "Prehistory of the Lower Connecticut Valley" (Ph.D. diss., University of Connecticut, 1984), pp. 126–28, 199–269; and the overall evidence on the question of Pequot origins in Means, "Mohegan-Pequot Relationships," 26–33. For historical research, refer to Alfred A. Cave, "The Pequot Invasion of Southern New England: A Reassessment of the Evidence," ''New England Quarterly'' 62 (1989): 27–44; and for linguistic research, see Truman D. Michelson, "Notes on Algonquian Language," ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 1 (1917): 56–57.</ref>  By the time of the founding of [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth]] and [[Massachusetts Bay]] colonies, the Pequot had already attained a position of political, military, and economic dominance in central and eastern Connecticut. They occupied the coastal area between the [[Niantic people|Niantic]] tribe of the [[Niantic River]] of Connecticut and the [[Narragansett (tribe)|Narragansett]] in western [[Rhode Island]]. The Pequot numbered some 16,000 persons in the most densely inhabited portion of southern New England.<ref name="snow">Dean R. Snow and Kim M. Lamphear, "European Contact and Indian Depopulation in the Northeast: The Timing of the First Epidemics," ''Ethnohistory'' 35 (1988): 16–38.</ref>

The [[smallpox]] epidemic of 1616–1619 killed many of the Native Americans of the eastern coast of New England, but it did not reach the Pequot, Niantic, and Narragansett tribes. In 1633, the Dutch established a trading post called the House of Good Hope at [[Hartford]]. They executed the principal Pequot ''sachem'' Tatobem because of a violation of an agreement. After the Pequot paid the Dutch a large ransom, they returned Tatobem's body to his people. His successor was [[Sassacus]].

In 1633, an epidemic devastated all of the region's tribes, and historians estimate that the Pequot suffered the loss of 80 percent of their population.  At the outbreak of the [[Pequot War]], Pequot survivors may have numbered only about 3,000.<ref>Refer to Sherburne F. Cook, "The Significance of Disease in the Extinction of the New England Indians," ''Human Biology'' 45 (1973): 485–508; and Arthur E. Spiro and Bruce D. Spiess, "New England Pandemic of 1616–1622: Cause and Archaeological Implication," ''Man in the Northeast'' 35 (1987): 71–83.</ref>

===Pequot War===
{{main|Pequot War}}

Members of the Pequot tribe killed a resident of [[Connecticut Colony]] in 1636, [[John Oldham (colonist)|John Oldham]], and war erupted as a result.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackhawk |first=Ned |title=The Rediscovery of America |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2023 |isbn=9789401920063}}</ref> The [[Mohegan]] and the [[Narragansett (tribe)|Narragansett]] tribes sided with the colonists. Around 1,500 Pequot warriors were killed in battles or hunted down, and others were captured and distributed as slaves or household servants. A few escaped to join the [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]] and the [[Niantic people|Niantic]] tribes on [[Long Island]]. Eventually, some returned to their traditional lands, where family groups of friendly Pequots had stayed. Of those enslaved, most were awarded to the allied tribes, but many were also sold as slaves in Bermuda.<ref>Lion Gardiner, "Relation of the Pequot Warres," ''History of the Pequot War: The Contemporary Accounts of Mason, Underhill, Vincent, and Gardiner'' (Cleveland, 1897), p. 138; Ethel Boissevain, "Whatever Became of the New England Indians Shipped to Bermuda to be Sold as Slaves," ''Man in the Northwest'' 11 (Spring 1981), pp. 103–114; and [[Karen O. Kupperman]], ''Providence Island, 1630–1641: The Other Puritan Colony'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 172.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~massasoit/bermuda.htm|title=Rootsweb: Pequot-Bermudian Reconnection Festival 2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217141058/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~massasoit/Bermuda.htm|archive-date=2008-12-17}}</ref> The Mohegans treated their Pequot captives so severely that officials of Connecticut Colony eventually removed them. Connecticut established two reservations for the Pequots in 1683: the Eastern Pequot Reservation in [[North Stonington, Connecticut]] and the Western Pequots (or Mashantucket Pequot Reservation) in [[Ledyard, Connecticut|Ledyard]].

=== 19th century ===
The poor treatment the Pequot received at the hands of the colonists was remembered almost two centuries later by other [[Tribe (Native American)|Native American tribes]] such as some groups of [[Shawnee|Shawnees]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Kenneth C. |title=Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned |date= |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-06-008381-6 |edition=1st |location=New York |page=155 |author-link=Kenneth C. Davis}}</ref> It was commonly thought that they had disappeared entirely due to violence against Native Americans provoked by American colonists,<ref name=":0" /> although this was not true.

===Modern history===
The 1910 census numbered the Pequot population at 66,<ref>"Thirteenth Census of the United States taken in the year 1910" ''United States Bureau of the Census'', 
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office (1912–1914).</ref> and they reached their lowest number several decades later. Pequot numbers grew significantly during the 1970s and 1980s, especially the Mashantucket Pequot tribe which opened a casino in the same timeframe, and tribal chairman [[Richard A. Hayward]] encouraged them to return to their tribal homeland.  He worked for Federal recognition and economic development.<ref>See Laurence M. Hauptman and James Wherry, eds. ''The Pequots in Southern New England: The Fall and Rise of an Indian Nation'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990); Wayne J. Stein, "Gaming: The Apex of a Long Struggle," ''Wíčazo Ša Review'', vol. 13, No. 1. (Spring, 1998), pp. 73–91; Jeff Benedict, ''Without Reservation: How a Controversial Indian Tribe Rose to Power and Built the World's Largest Casino'', Harper Books, 2001; Brett Duval Fromson, ''Hitting the Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History'', Grove Press, 2004.</ref>

In 1976, the Pequots filed suit with the assistance of the [[Native American Rights Fund]] (NARF) and the Indian Rights Association against landowners and residents of North Stonington to get their land, which the Pequots claimed had been illegally sold in 1856 by the State of Connecticut, and they settled after seven years. The Connecticut Legislature passed legislation to petition the federal government to grant tribal recognition to the Mashantucket Pequots, and the "Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claims Settlement Act" was enacted by Congress and signed by President [[Ronald Reagan]] on October 18, 1983.<ref>See Reagan's initial response in "Message to the Senate Returning Without Approval the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Claims Settlement Bill", April 5, 1983, [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/40583d.htm University of Texas.]</ref>  This settlement granted federal recognition to the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, enabling them to buy the land covered in the Settlement Act and place it in trust with the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]] (BIA) for reservation use.<ref>'' Mashantucket Pequot Indian Claims Settlement Act'' (1983), S. 366.</ref> In 1986, they opened a bingo operation, followed by the first phase of [[Foxwoods Resort Casino]] in 1992.  Revenue from the casino has enabled the development and construction of a cultural museum which opened on August 11, 1998, on the [[Mashantucket Pequot Reservation]] where many members of the tribe continue to live.

The [[Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation]] was recognized in 2002. Since the 1930s, both Pequot tribes had serious tension over racial issues, with some people claiming that darker-skinned descendants should not be considered fully Pequot. Two groups of Eastern Pequots filed petitions for recognition with the BIA, and they agreed to unite to achieve recognition. The state immediately challenged the decision, and the Department of the Interior revoked their recognition in 2005. That same year, it revoked recognition for the [[Schaghticoke tribe]] who had gained recognition in 2004. The Connecticut state government and Congressional delegation opposed the BIA's recognition because residents were worried that the newly recognized tribes would establish gaming casinos.