Pequot
The Pequot were members of an Algonquian -speaking Indians tribal, of the Thames Valley in what is now the state of Connecticut lived. In the early 17th century, the Pequot and Mohegan were run jointly by the Pequot-Sachem Sassacus until the tribe split and the Mohegan achieved independence under their Sachem Uncas . After the crushing defeat in the Pequot War by the English in 1637, most of the survivors of the Pequot and their residential areas came under the control of the Mohegan.
Livelihood and culture
The Pequot were semi-settled, cultivated arable land and partly surrounded their villages with palisades . In winter they lived in long houses that housed several families. They used elm bark to cover these houses. Elm bark was also used to make containers such as bowls and barrels and to build canoes . A village group of up to several hundred people was seen as a basic social, economic and political unit. The men built houses, erected palisades, fished, hunted, traveled, traded, played, defended their villages against attacks and went on the warpath. Groups of women worked outside the villages under the guidance of an older, experienced woman on corn, bean and pumpkin fields. After the harvest, hunting groups went far out into the woods to hunt deer, camped there, and returned in the middle of winter. The spring schools of fish attracted the families to the nearby rivers and bays of the lakes.
Each village had a council of grown men that advised one or more village chiefs. The Pequot loved gatherings and spent considerable time in council meetings. The composition of the council meetings was determined by location, gender, age and specific topic. For each meeting there was a separate protocol and certain rules in order to reach a consensus .
The Pequot were belligerent and feared by their neighbors. Warfare was deeply ingrained in Pequot society and self-respect was dependent on achieving personal prestige . Prisoners of war were enslaved or adopted to replace dead family members and formed part of the Native American population in the late 17th century.
Surname
Pequot is an Algonquin word, the meaning of which is controversial among etymologists . Some early 20th century linguists assumed the word came from Paquatauog and meant destroyers or men of the swamp . According to Frank Bacon , it refers to the territory of the Pequot, the coast of Long Iceland Sound and mean shallows of a water body (ger .: shallowness of a body of water ). Speck (1881–1950) was an anthropologist and expert on Algonquian languages in New England.
history
Split of Pequot and Mohegan
The Mohegan and the Pequot were jointly led by the chief Sassacus until a rebellion by the sub-chief Uncas split the tribe. Uncas refused allegiance to Sassacus and eventually left the Pequot villages with 50 warriors and their families. They settled in a new village on the Connecticut River north of what is now Lyme and now called themselves Mohegan. Uncas finally managed to enlarge his group to such an extent that Sassacus could no longer force them to return.
After first contact around 1620, Pequot and British settlers initially lived peacefully side by side. Gradually, however, the resentment of the Pequot towards the new colonists, who invaded their residential area in an often arrogant manner, increased. In 1634 an incident occurred when the Boston captain and trader John Stone, known as a slave hunter, was killed by Western Niantic while trying to capture Native American women and children on Block Island . His death caused outrage among the colonists. Since the Niantic were allies of the Pequot, Sassacus set out for reconciliation talks. The Puritans, however, did not allow themselves to be appeased by furs and wampum , but demanded the extradition of the guilty. No agreement was reached, Sassacus and the Puritans parted in anger.
The Massachusetts authorities sent a punitive expedition to destroy native villages and fields. Puritan clergy supported the violence against the Pequot, whom they viewed as unbelievers. The British settlers willingly took up arms.
Pequot war
In the short but merciless Pequot War of 1637, under the command of Captain John Mason and with the help of the allied Mohegan and Narraganset warriors, the main fort of the Pequot on the Mystic River in Connecticut was attacked and burned down. 500 to 600 residents were burned alive or slaughtered.
The commander of the Puritans, John Mason, wrote: But God came upon them, who laughed at his enemies and the enemies of his people, to despise them, and turned them into a burning furnace: thus those who were proud of heart were corrupted, after they had their last sleep, and none of their men could find their hands. So the Lord judged the Gentiles and filled the place with corpses! Another eyewitness account has come down to us: More than 500 Indians roasted in the fire and rivers of blood seeped through the palisades. The stench was terrible, but the victory was a sweet sacrifice and we all prayed to God to thank Him for his assistance.
The land conquest increasingly resembled ethnic cleansing for both material and religious reasons. Puritans killed Indian dogs when the number of dead Indians was too few. They demanded parts of the body of their common enemy from Indian tribes allied with them as a token of their loyalty and in response to supplications to God. Captive Indians had their limbs ripped off one by one. The authorities hired civilians to hunt Indians and to prove the success of the hunt with the head of the killed.
The Pequots did not know such warfare. There was no major, multi-tribal alliance against the settlers, and the Pequot did not realize until late that the Puritans wanted to wage war against them. Defeated, split into small groups, the Pequot fled their land. Numerous refugees were killed or captured by the English or their allied Indians. Some were sold as slaves to New England or the West Indies , while the Mohegan got control of the Pequotland. Those that surrendered were distributed to other tribes, but suffered such bad treatment that in 1655 they were taken under the direct care of the colonial government and resettled on the Mystic River. Two reservations were made for them there, the Mashantucket reservation at Ledyard (1666) and the Paucatuck reservation at Lantern Hill (1683).
King Philip's War
In King Philip's War , Pequot warriors united with the Mohegan to fight the allied New England tribes. You were involved in the capture of the Narraganset sachem Canonchet. The Indians of New England suffered the highest losses proportionally compared to other colonial wars in North America. By the end of the war, of the 20,000 Native Americans in New England, 3,000 had lost their lives, which was about 15%. Although small groups lived on the Connecticut River until the 19th century, numerous tribes disappeared as an organized group. The war also brought heavy losses for the British: 600 colonists and soldiers were killed, a total of 90 settlements were attacked and 13 of them were completely destroyed.
Current situation
The US census 2000 lists 1,283 Pequot. In detail: Mashantucket Pequot 511, Paucatuck Eastern Pequot 46, other Pequot 726. Tribal members found out that the US state of Connecticut illegally and contrary to previous contractual agreements with the tribe of Pequot 600 acres (approx. 2.5 km²) in 1856 Had sold tribal land to whites. In the course of the strengthening of the indigenous peoples in the 1970s, the tribal representatives succeeded in regaining part of the land rights and US $ 700,000 in a lawsuit against the state of Connecticut. In addition, the strain was formally recognized in 1983.
With Malaysian equity participation, a tribal casino was opened in 1992 . The Foxwoods is the most profitable of all the casinos in Indian hands. 8,600 so-called slot machines , plus a theater with 4,000 seats, restaurants, a spa and other facilities brought high income not only to the tribal members of the Mashantucket Pequot. Since 1992 alone, the state has received $ 2.6 billion, 25% of the revenue came from the slot machines. The huge casino offers around 10,000 jobs, another 30,000 are indirectly dependent on it. Together with neighboring Mohegan's casino, Mohegan Sun , the house has annual sales of around $ 2.5 billion.
The profits are invested in social services, be it educational institutions, kindergartens, hospitals or nursing homes, and unknown amounts are paid to the individual tribal members. A museum will also be financed from it. This museum presents the history of the Pequot tribe and its association with the history of other tribes, as well as US and literary history.
reception
Pequod is the name of Captain Ahab's ship in the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Mohegan History
- ↑ a b c Handbook of North American Indians - Chapter: Indians of Southern New England and Long Island: Early Period, page 160ff
- ↑ Original: "The shallowness of a body of water", from: Frank Speck: Native Tribes and Dialects of Connecticut: A Mohegan-Pequot Diary. In: Annual Reports of the US Bureau of Ethnology. 43, 1928, p. 218.
- ↑ John Mason and Paul Royster: " A Brief History of the Pequot War "
- ^ Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States . Harper Perennial, 2005, pp. 14-15.
- ^ The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut - 1675 King Philip's War
- ↑ According to Reuters in: Claudia Parsons: Gambling success brings controversy for tribe , June 9, 2008.
- ^ Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center , accessed December 18, 2011.
literature
- Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15. Northeast . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978 ISBN 0-16-004575-4
- Alvin M. Josephy: 500 Nations, The Illustrated History of the Indians of North America , Frederking & Thaler, Munich 1996
- Stephan Maninger: War and Violence in Puritan New England 1620-1676 , then, June 2007