Ninigret
Ninigret | |
|---|---|
Niantic leader | |
| Personal details | |
| Resting place | "Burying Hill" near Miantonomo |
| Children | Son Ninigret; daughter |
| Nickname | Juanemo |
Ninigret (also known as Juanemo according to
Ninigret is credited with keeping the Niantics out of King Philip's War, in which the colonists fought to prevent their homes and settlements from being destroyed by certain Indian tribes.[3]
Biography
Ninigret was the son of
In 1644, the New England Confederation raised an army to protect their ally, Uncas, against Ninigret.[5] Humphrey Atherton lead the expedition into Narraganset country with the aim of renewing alliances. Ninigret and his men abandoned their siege. Atherton, who held the rank of Captain at the time, marched into the wigwam of Ninigret and threatened Ninigret’s life. This step had the desired effect and the sachem allegedly begged for his life, and promised submission.[6]
Ninigret passed the winter of 1652-53 among the Dutch colonists in
On October 13, 1660, Ninigret gave
The Puritans achieved little in trying to convert the Narragansetts and Niantics to Christianity. Roger Williams recorded his discouragement about it. Thomas Mayhew asked Ninigret to allow him to preach to his tribe, and he replied: "Go and make the English good first."[2][4]
Successors
Ninigret's daughter succeeded him as sachem. At her death, she was succeeded by her half-brother Ninigret, who granted a large portion of his people's lands to the colony of Rhode Island in 1709. This cession of land later created difficulties for the Niantics. The younger Ninigret died about 1722, leaving sons Charles Augustus and George. Charles Augustus died shortly afterward and left an infant son. Some of the tribe acknowledged the boy as their sachem, while another portion adhered to his uncle George, who assumed the entire government in 1735.[4]
George's son Thomas Ninegret became chief in 1746. He sold additional Niantic lands to the colony of Rhode Island which caused discontentment among his people, some of whom tried to depose him. They appealed for relief to Sir William Johnson, the colonial superintendent of the Indians in the Northeast (he was based in upstate New York). They made the case that the Niantic lands which Thomas Ninegret had sold were needed to support the families of men who had died serving the English king in the French and Indian War. In one letter to Johnson, they addressed the question of whether they had the authority to depose a sachem: “As it was in the power of the nation to put him in, we think it in the power of the nation to turn him out.” The controversy continued for several years, but Rhode Island ultimately obtained the lands.[4]
A small remnant of the Niantic people were still living in Rhode Island in 1812.[4] The tribe no longer exists, but some descendants are still among the residents of New England today.
Places named after Ninigret
Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge
- Fort Ninigret
- Ninigret Pond
- Ninigret Park
- Ninigret Beach
- Ninigret Cove (in Quonochontaug Pond, at the Charlestown/Westerly border)
Legacy
The local oysters are referred to as Ninigret Nectars. They are smaller than most other oysters from New England.
Footnotes
- New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. This source confirms 1662 as the date of his land sales.
- ^ a b Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). . Encyclopedia Americana. This source suggests a date of 1667 for his land sales and a 1647 war against the Mohegans.
- ^ Frederic Denison, Westerly (Rhode Island) and Its Witnesses: For Two Hundred and Fifty Years, 1626-1876: Including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond Until Their Separate Organization, with the Principal Points of Their Subsequent History, (J.A. & R.A. Reid, Providence: 1878), pg.22 [1] (accessed June 19, 2009)
- ^ a b c d e f g One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- ^ Moore, Jacob Bailey (1823). Collections, Topographical, Historical, and Biographical Relating ..., Volume 2.
- ^ Great Events in the history of North and South America; from the alleged discovery of the continent, by the northmen, in the tenth century to the present time by Charles A. Goodrich. 1851.
- ^ Dr. David J Silverman, "Guns, empires and Indians Multilateral imperial politics triggered an indigenous arms race and led to the violent transformation of Native America" (Harvard University, 2016 Press) https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-the-introduction-of-guns-change-native-america
- ^ Shawn G. Wiemann, Lasting Marks: The Legacy of Robin Cassacinamon and the Survival of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation (University of New Mexico, Dissertation, 2011), p. 204 http://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=hist_etds ; citing ―Simon Willard to John Winthrop, Jr., with Enclosures, 1654,‖ Winthrop Papers, 6: 458; ―Agreement of Captive Pequot Indians, Pauquatcuck, 16.8.1654,‖ WP, 6: 459-462; ―Agreement of Ninigret, 18.8.1654,‖WP, 6: 463-464; ―Order for Resettling the Pequots, with Enclosure, October 23, 1654,‖ WP, 6: 465-466;―Pequots Submitting Themselves to English Rule, October 23, 1654,‖ WP, 6: 467.
Further reading
- Harold M. Chapin, Sachems of the Narragansett. Providence, 1931.
- Julie A. Fisher and David J. Silverman, Ninigret, Sachem of the Niantics and Narragansetts: Diplomacy, War, and the Balance of Power in Seventeenth-Century New England and Indian Country. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014.
- Michael L. Oberg, Uncas, First of the Mohegans. (New York, 2003). Glen LaFantasie, ed., The Correspondence of Roger Williams, 1629–1653, Vol. 1 (Providence, 1988).
- Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 2nd Ser. VIII (1826), 59.
- Lafarge, Oliver. (MCMLVI). A Pictorial History of the American Indian Crown Publishers Inc. Page 81.
- Yale University Brief Biography
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