Conflict Between The Pequot Tribe And The Protagonists

Pequot War

The Pequot War was a conflict between the Pequot tribe and the English colonists which occurred in the 1600’s. Throughout the course of the war the Pequot tribe lost about seven hundred members either by casualty or they were taken into captivity and sold into slavery. The Pequot worked forcefully to extend their area of control over several of the other tribes in the region. This created a large amount of tension between the tribes-the tribe intended for political dominance and control of the European fur trade. A harsh smallpox epidemic ravaged the tribal community over the previous three decades which greatly reduced the population due to lack of immunity to the disease. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pequot_War)

Many countries

from Western Europe were also determined to expand the reach of their trade into this region currently occupied by the Pequot and a few other tribes. During this period of time the Dutch and English colonies were practically brand new to the area and so began to develop a trading post in order to build business relationships and riches with the natives.
Before the war began, Fur trades had created quite a bit of tension between the two sides resulting in several conflicts against the two sides. John Stone, an English smuggler and about seven of his crew were murdered by the Pequot. According to the Pequot they did that in retaliation for the Dutch having murdered Pequot sachem Tatobem, and were unaware of the fact that Stone was English and not Dutch. Tatobem boarded a Dutch vessel with intentions of trading but instead of conducting trade, the Dutch held him captive until they received a ransom for his safe return. The Pequot quickly sent bushels of wampum, but received only Tatobem's dead body in return. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pequot_War)
Stone had been exiled from Boston for his wrongdoing but since he was known to have connections in the colonies as well as London, he was expected to use them against the Boston colony. Setting sail from Boston, Stone abducted two Western men of the Niantic tribe, forcing them to show him the way up the Connecticut River. Soon after, he and his crew were attacked and killed by a larger group of Western Niantic. Reaction to Stone’s death initially was met with mixed emotions in Boston due to reputation that Stone had created with his previous behaviors. They did not accept the Pequot’s' excuses that they had been unaware of Stone's nationality. The Pequot sent some wampum in condolences for the murders, but refused the colonists' demands that the warriors responsible for Stone's death be turned over to them for trial and punishment. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pequot_War)
In 1636, a respected trader named John Oldham was attacked on a trading voyage. He and several of his crew were killed and his ship was looted by Indians who wanted to discourage English settlers from trading with their Pequot rivals. In the next few weeks, colonials assumed the Narragansett tribe were likely responsible for the attacks. The Puritans became quite suspicious of the Narragansett tribe, However, Narragansett leaders were able to convince the English that the culprits were being protected by the Pequot tribe.
Oldham's death became the talk of the town in the Massachusetts Colony. Governor Vane sent a man by the name of John Endecott to demand vengeance on the Indians of Block Island. Endecott's party of 90 men sailed to Block Island and attacked two Niantic villages that were apparently already deserted. Most of the Niantic escaped and the English fabricated a story leading everyone to believe that they killed 14 of them, but later Narragansett reported that only one Indian was killed. The Puritan militia burned the villages to the ground. They carried away crops which the Niantic had stored for winter, and destroyed what they could not carry.
The English were not happy about the killings but agreed that some of them would accompany Endecott to the coast to a Pequot village where he repeated the demand of payment for the death of Stone and Oldham. After some discussion Endecott determined that the Pequot were stalling and in turn attacked them. The Pequot scam had worked, and most of them had escaped into the woods. Endecott had his forces burn down the village and crops.
As a result, the English had to deal with the anger of the Pequot.

The Pequot attempted to get their allies to join their cause but were only somewhat successful. People who ventured outside were killed as a result of the Pequot who stepped up their raids on Connecticut towns believing that the English had returned to Boston, the Pequot sachem Sassacus took several hundred of his warriors to make another raid on Hartford. It was estimated that "six or seven Hundred" Pequot were there when the English assaulted the stockade. As some 150 warriors had accompanied Sassacus to Hartford, the residents left behind were largely Pequot women and children, and older men and they were brutally murdered by barricading them in an enclosure and setting it a blaze.

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Justifying their actions against the Pequot, the English declared that the attack against the Pequot was the act of a God who "laughed his Enemies and the Enemies of his People to scorn making the Pequot people as a fiery Oven.

Of the estimated 600 to 700 Pequot people, only seven survived to be taken prisoner, while another seven escaped to the woods. Many of the tribes recruited to fight against the Pequot were so horrified by the actions of the English in the manner in which the chose to murder the members of the Pequot tribe made many of those tribes to end their participation in the war and return home. The English believing that their mission was a complete success left for home when they came within close proximity of returning Pequot warriors. The warriors saw the aftermath of what the English had done and gave chase but with little

success.
The English later set out with 160 men and 40 Mohegan scouts and as they caught up with the refugees at Sasqua, a Mattabesic tribe in which they had surrounded in a nearby swamp, the Pequot refused to surrender. The English allowed several hundred, mostly women and children, to leave before the battle began. Sassacus broke free with approximately 80 warriors, but in turn 180 Pequot men were killed or captured. The colonists memorialized this event as the Great Swamp Fight.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pequot_War)
Sassacus and his followers had hoped to gain refuge among the Mohawk. However the Mohawk tribe killed Sassacus and his warriors and sent Sassacus' scalp to Hartford as a symbolic offering of Mohawk friendship with the English Colony. English colonial continued to hunt down what remained of the Pequot months after the war was over.
In the end, Mohegan and Narragansett tribes met at the General Court of Connecticut and agreed on the disposition of the Pequot and their lands. The agreement, known as the Treaty of Hartford, was signed on September 21, 1638. About 200 Pequot old men, women, and children survived the war. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pequot_War).