Western Niantic Tribe

Western Niantic Indians. An Algonquian tribe formerly occupying the coast of Connecticut from Niantic bay to the 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 1 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 2 several mixed Niantic Mohegan live at Mohegan, Connecticut, 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.


Collection:
Hodge, Frederick Webb, Compiler. The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology, Government Printing Office. 1906.

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Citations:
  1. Kendall, Tray., 1809[]
  2. Speck, inf’n, 1907[]

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