Page "Pequot people" Paragraph 7

In 1637, long-standing tensions between the Puritan English of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay colonies and the Pequot escalated into open warfare.

There was much confusion on both sides and when the tribe killed an Englishman thinking he was Dutch, war was soon upon them.

The Mohegan and the Narragansett sided with the English.

Perhaps 1, 500 Pequot were killed in battles or hunted down.

Others were captured and distributed as slaves or household servants.

A few escaped to be absorbed by the Mohawk or the Niantic on Long Island.

Eventually, some would try to return to their traditional lands, while family groups of " friendly " Pequots stayed.

Of those enslaved, most were awarded to the allied tribes, but many were also sold as slaves in Bermuda.

The Mohegan in particular treated their Pequot hostages so severely that colonial officials of Connecticut Colony eventually removed them.

Two reservations were established by 1683.

While both of their land bases were exceedingly reduced by what would eventually became the state of Connecticut, they continue to exist to the present.