Pequot

See Main articles: The Pequot is a tribe of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. They were of the Algonquian language family. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre eliminated the Pequot as a viable socio-political entity in southern New England. Today, two small independent Pequot tribal nations inhabit areas of Connecticut-- the Mashantucket Pequot and the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation (a.k.a. Paucatu... more

See Main articles: The Pequot is a tribe of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. They were of the Algonquian language family. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre eliminated the Pequot as a viable socio-political entity in southern New England. Today, two small independent Pequot tribal nations inhabit areas of Connecticut-- the Mashantucket Pequot and the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation (a.k.a. Paucatuck Pequot). Pequot is an Algonquian word, the meaning of which is in dispute among language specialists. Considerable scholarship pertaining to the Pequot claims that the name came from Paquatauoq, meaning, "the destroyers," or "the men of the swamp". This relies on speculations of an early twentieth century authority on Algonquian languages. However, Frank Speck, a leading early 20th specialist of Pequot-Mohegan, had doubts. He believed that another term meaning "the shallowness of a body of water" seemed much more plausible. The Pequot and... less