Ninigret (also known as Juanemo according to Roger Williams) (c. 1610[1]-1677[2]) was a sachem of the eastern Niantic Indian tribe in New England at the time of colonization, based in Rhode Island. In 1637, he allied with the colonists and the Narragansetts against the Pequot Indians.
Ninigret is credited with keeping the Niantics out of King Philip's War, in which the colonists fought to prevent their homes and settlements from being destroyed by certain Indian tribes.[3]
Biography
Ninigret was the son of Sachem Saccious, the cousin or the uncle of Miantonomo, and the uncle and brother-in-law of Harman Garrett. He was first known to the colonists as Janemo and was sachem of the Niantics, a tribe of the Narragansett people. He did not participate in the Pequot war of 1632, and he aided the colonists in the Pequot war of 1637. About a year after the death of Miantonomo, he formed a plan for expelling the colonists and sent a messenger to Long Island sachem Waiandance to engage him in it. Waiandance tied up the messenger and sent him to the fort at Saybrook. They sent him on to Hartford, but the party was forced to put in at Shelter Island, where the messenger escaped.[4]
In 1644, the New England Confederation raised an army to protect their ally, Uncas, against Ninigret.[5]Humphrey Atherton lead the expedition into Narraganset country with the aim of renewing alliances. Ninigret and his men abandoned their siege. Atherton, who held the rank of Captain at the time, marched into the wigwam of Ninigret and threatened Ninigret’s life. This step had the desired effect and the sachem allegedly begged for his life, and promised submission.[6]
Captain Humphrey Atherton and his men enter Ninigret’s wigwam using force
Ninigret passed the winter of 1652-53 among the Dutch colonists in Manhattan and the western Indians. New England's colonists suspected Ninigret of plotting against them, and suspected that he was seeking stockpiles of guns and forming alliances with other well-armed Indian groups.[7] Ninigret waged war against the Long Island Indians who had placed themselves under the protection of the New England colonists. In September 1654, the Connecticut colonists demanded his appearance in Hartford and the payment of tribute that had long been due from his Pequot subjects. Ninigret refused to appear and sent them a haughty answer. The Massachusetts Bay Colony then declared war against him and put 270 infantry and 40 horsemen under the command of Major Simon Willard. Willard's instructions were to go to Ninigret's quarters, demand the tribute, and insist that he end the war against the Long Island Indians. On the approach of the troops, Ninigret fled to a distant swamp and was not pursued,[4] but the Pequots who had been under his control were transferred to Harmon Garrett to oversee.[8]
The Puritans achieved little in trying to convert the Narragansetts and Niantics to Christianity. Roger Williams recorded his discouragement about it. Thomas Mayhew asked Ninigret to allow him to preach to his tribe, and he replied: "Go and make the English good first."[2][4]
Successors
Ninigret's daughter succeeded him as sachem. At her death, she was succeeded by her half-brother Ninigret, who granted a large portion of his people's lands to the colony of Rhode Island in 1709. This cession of land later created difficulties for the Niantics. The younger Ninigret died about 1722, leaving sons Charles Augustus and George. Charles Augustus died shortly afterward and left an infant son. Some of the tribe acknowledged the boy as their sachem, while another portion adhered to his uncle George, who assumed the entire government in 1735.[4]
George's son Thomas Ninegret became chief in 1746. He sold additional Niantic lands to the colony of Rhode Island which caused discontentment among his people, some of whom tried to depose him. They appealed for relief to Sir William Johnson, the colonial superintendent of the Indians in the Northeast (he was based in upstate New York). They made the case that the Niantic lands which Thomas Ninegret had sold were needed to support the families of men who had died serving the English king in the French and Indian War. In one letter to Johnson, they addressed the question of whether they had the authority to depose a sachem: “As it was in the power of the nation to put him in, we think it in the power of the nation to turn him out.” The controversy continued for several years, but Rhode Island ultimately obtained the lands.[4]
A small remnant of the Niantic people were still living in Rhode Island in 1812.[4] The tribe no longer exists, but some descendants are still among the residents of New England today.
↑ Frederic Denison, Westerly (Rhode Island) and Its Witnesses: For Two Hundred and Fifty Years, 1626-1876: Including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond Until Their Separate Organization, with the Principal Points of Their Subsequent History, (J.A. & R.A. Reid, Providence: 1878), pg.22 (accessed June 19, 2009)
↑ Shawn G. Wiemann, Lasting Marks: The Legacy of Robin Cassacinamon and the Survival of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation (University of New Mexico, Dissertation, 2011), p. 204 http://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=hist_etds; citing ―Simon Willard to John Winthrop, Jr., with Enclosures, 1654,‖ Winthrop Papers, 6: 458; ―Agreement of Captive Pequot Indians, Pauquatcuck, 16.8.1654,‖ WP, 6: 459-462; ―Agreement of Ninigret, 18.8.1654,‖WP, 6: 463-464; ―Order for Resettling the Pequots, with Enclosure, October 23, 1654,‖ WP, 6: 465-466;―Pequots Submitting Themselves to English Rule, October 23, 1654,‖ WP, 6: 467.
Further reading
Harold M. Chapin, Sachems of the Narragansett. Providence, 1931.
Julie A. Fisher and David J. Silverman, Ninigret, Sachem of the Niantics and Narragansetts: Diplomacy, War, and the Balance of Power in Seventeenth-Century New England and Indian Country. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014.
Michael L. Oberg, Uncas, First of the Mohegans. (New York, 2003). Glen LaFantasie, ed., The Correspondence of Roger Williams, 1629–1653, Vol. 1 (Providence, 1988).
Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 2nd Ser. VIII (1826), 59.
Lafarge, Oliver. (MCMLVI). A Pictorial History of the American Indian Crown Publishers Inc. Page 81.
The Pequot are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or the Brothertown Indians of Wisconsin. They historically spoke Pequot, a dialect of the Mohegan-Pequot language, which became extinct by the early 20th century. Some tribal members are undertaking revival efforts.
King Philip's War was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands against the English New England Colonies and their indigenous allies. The war is named for Metacom, the Pokanoket chief and sachem of the Wampanoag who adopted the English name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Plymouth Colony. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay on April 12, 1678.
Miantonomoh, also spelled Miantonomo, Miantonomah or Miantonomi, was a chief of the Narragansett people of New England Indians.
Uncas was a sachem of the Mohegans who made the Mohegans the leading regional Indian tribe in lower Connecticut, through his alliance with the New England colonists against other Indian tribes.
The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes. The war concluded with the decisive defeat of the Pequot. At the end, about 700 Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity. Hundreds of prisoners were sold into slavery to colonists in Bermuda or the West Indies; other survivors were dispersed as captives to the victorious tribes.
The Narragansett people are an Algonquian American Indian tribe from Rhode Island. Today, Narragansett people are enrolled in the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe. They gained federal recognition in 1983.
Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin was the sachem or leader of the Wampanoag confederacy. Massasoit means Great Sachem. Although Massasoit was only his title, English colonists mistook it as his name and it stuck.
The Niantic are a tribe of Algonquian-speaking American Indians who lived in the area of Connecticut and Rhode Island during the early colonial period. The tribe's name Nehântick means "of long-necked waters"; area residents believe that this refers to the "long neck" or peninsula of land known as Black Point, located in the village of Niantic, Connecticut.
John Mason was an English-born settler, soldier, commander and Deputy Governor of the Connecticut Colony. Mason was best known for leading a group of Puritan settlers and Indian allies on a combined attack on a Pequot Fort in an event known as the Mystic Massacre. The destruction and loss of life he oversaw effectively ended the hegemony of the Pequot tribe in southeast Connecticut.
Sassacus was a Pequot sachem who was born near present-day Groton, Connecticut. He became grand sachem after his father, Tatobem, was killed in 1632. The Mohegans led by sachem Uncas rebelled against domination by the Pequots. Sassacus and the Pequots were defeated by English colonists allied with the Narragansett and Mohegans in the Pequot War.
Wyandanch (c. 1571 – 1659) was a sachem of the Montaukett Indians in the mid-17th century on eastern Long Island. Initially he was a minor chief among the Montaukett, but due to his skillful manipulation of various alliances and his accommodating stance towards the European colonists who gave him substantial military and economic support, he eventually became an influential "alliance chief" (a sachem who was responsible for maintaining friendly relations between his tribe and the settlers).
The Great Swamp Massacre or the Great Swamp Fight was a crucial battle fought during King Philip's War between the colonial militia of New England and the Narragansett people in December 1675. It was fought near the villages of Kingston and West Kingston in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The combined force of the New England militia included 150 Pequots, and they inflicted a huge number of Narragansett casualties, including many hundreds of women and children. The battle has been described by historians as "one of the most brutal and lopsided military encounters in all of New England's history."
Canonchet was a Narragansett Sachem and leader of Native American troops during the Great Swamp Fight and King Philip's War. He was a son of Miantonomo.
Fort Ninigret is a historic fort and trading post site at Fort Neck Road in Charlestown, Rhode Island, built and occupied by European settlers in the seventeenth century. At its 1883 dedication, Commissioner George Carmichael, Jr. referred to it as "the oldest military post on the Atlantic coast."
Wequash Cooke was allegedly one of the earliest Native American converts to Protestant Christianity, and as a sagamore he played an important role in the 1637 Pequot War in New England.
Tobias Saunders was a Deputy to the Rhode Island General Assembly, a Conservator of the Peace and a founding settler of Westerly, Rhode Island.
The Treaty of Hartford was a treaty concluded between English colonists in Connecticut, the Mohegan nation and the Narragansett nation on September 21, 1638, in Hartford, Connecticut.
Harman Garrett was a Niantic sachem and then governor of the Eastern Pequots slightly east of the Pawcatuck River in what is now Westerly, Rhode Island. His chosen English name was very similar to that of Herman Garrett, a prominent colonial gunsmith from Massachusetts in the 1650s.
Quaiapen was a Narragansett-Niantic female sachem (saunkskwa) who was the last sachem captured or killed during King Philip’s War.
The Narragansett-Montaukett war was an armed conflict which began in 1653 and lasted to 1657 between the allies of the Niantic Sachem Ninigret and the Long Island tribes who were under the protection of the New England Confederation.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
