Niantic. An Algonquian tribe
formerly occupying the coast of Connecticut front Niantic bay to
Connecticut river. De Forest concluded that they once formed one tribe
with the Rhode Island Niantic, which was cut in two by the Pequot
invasion. Their principal village, also called Niantic, was near the
present town of that name.
They were subject to the Pequot, and had no political
connection with the eastern Niantic. They were nearly destroyed in the
Pequot war of 1637, and at its close the survivors were placed under the
rule of the Mohegan. They numbered about 100 in 1638, and about 85 in
1761. Many joined the Brotherton Indians in New York about 1788, and none
now exist under their own name. Kendall (Tray., 1809) states that they had
a small village near Danbury in 1809, but these were probably a remnant of
the western Connecticut tribes, not Niantic. According to Speck (inf'n,
1907) several mixed Niantic Mohegan live at Mohegan, Conn., the
descendants of a pure Niantic woman from the mouth of Niantic river. Their
voices are commonly said to have been high-pitched in comparison with
those of their neighbors.
