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Mashantucket Pequot
Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation. The Pequot are a tribal nation of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre eliminated the Pequot as a viable socio-political entity in southern New England.
Today, there are two independent Pequot tribal nations in Connecticut-- the Mashantucket Pequot and the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation (a.k.a. Paucatuck Pequot).
History

Etymology of "Pequot"
Pequot is an Algonquian word, the meaning of which is in dispute among French language specialists. Much of the scholarship pertaining to the Pequot claims that the name comes from "Paquatauoq," meaning, "the destroyers," and thus, relies on the speculations of an early twentieth century authority on Algonquian languages. However, Frank Speck, a leading specialist of Pequot-Mohegan had doubts, and believed that another term the translation of which referred to the shallowness of a body of water seemed much more plausible.
The Question of Origins
The Pequot and the Mohegan were at one time a single socio-political entity. Anthropologists and historians contend that sometime before contact with the English, the Pequot were split into the two warring groups.
   Debate still exists as to whether the Pequot migrated toward what is now central and eastern Connecticut sometime around 1500, from the upper Hudson River Valley. The theory of Pequot migration to the Connecticut River Valley can be traced to Rev. William Hubbard who, in 1677, claimed that the Pequot, rather than originating in the region, had invaded it sometime before the establishment of Plymouth Colony. In the aftermath of King Philip's War, Hubbard had sought in his Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England, to explain the unmitigated ferocity with which New England's Native peoples responded to the English. Seeking answers not in Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay Colony's own failed diplomacy and the colonial rapacity for Native lands, Puritan divines such as Hubbard may have projected their own position and behavior onto the Pequot by defining the Pequot as "foreigners" to the region-- invaders not from another shore, but "from the interior of the continent" who "by force seized upon one of the goodliest places near the sea, and became a Terror to all their Neighbors."
   Much of the archaeological, linguistic, and documentary evidence now available clearly reveals that the Pequot were not invaders to the Connecticut River Valley; that they were in fact indigenous to it. Certainly, contemporaneous to the establishment of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, the Pequot had already assumed a position of political, military, and economic dominance in what is now central and eastern Connecticut. Occupying the coastal area between the Niantic tribe of the Niantic River of present-day Connecticut and the Wecapaug River and Narrangansetts in what is now western Rhode Island, the Pequot numbered some 16,000 persons in the most densely inhabited portion of southern New England.
   The smallpox epidemic of 1616-19, which killed roughly 90% of the Native inhabitants of the eastern coast of present-day New England, failed to reach the Pequot, or the Niantic and Narragansett. In 1633, The Dutch established a trading post at present day Hartford, called the House of Good Hope. Because of a perceived violation of an agreement, the Dutch seized the principal Pequot sachem Tatobem. They paid the Dutch a large ransom and received Tatobem's murdered body in return. Tatobem's successor was Sassacus.
   In 1633, an epidemic devastated the entirety of the region's Native population. Historians estimate that the Pequot suffered the loss of 80% of their entire population. At the outbreak of the Pequot War then, the Pequot may have numbered only about 3,000.
The Pequot War
Main article: Pequot War In 1637, long-standing tensions between the Puritan English of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay colonies and the Pequot escalated into open warfare. The Mohegan and the Narragansett sided with the English. Perhaps 1,500 Pequot were killed in battles or hunted down. Others were captured and distributed as slaves or household servants. A few escaped to be absorbed by the Mohawk or the Niantic on Long Island. Eventually, some would try to return to their traditional lands, while family groups of "friendly" Pequots stayed. Of those enslaved, most were awarded to the allied tribes, but many were also sold to plantations in the West Indies. The Mohegan in particular treated their Pequot hostages so severely that colonial officials of Connecticut Colony eventually removed them. Two reservations were established by 1683. While both of their land bases were exceedingly reduced by what eventually became the state of Connecticut, they continue to exist to the present.
Modern History
By the 1910 census, the Pequot population was enumerated at a low of 66. In terms of population, the Pequot reached their nadir several decades later. Pequot numbers grew appreciably--the Mashantucket Pequot especially--during the 1970s and 1980s when Mashantucket Pequot Chairman, Richard A. Hayward was able to enjoin Pequots to return to their tribal homeland by implementing the push to Federal recognition and sound economic development.
   In 1976, with the assistance of the Native American Rights Fund and the Indian Rights Association, the Pequot filed suit against neighboring landowners to recover land that had been illegally sold by the State of Connecticut in 1856. After seven years the Pequot and landowners reached a settlement. The former landowners agreed that the 1856 sale was illegal, and joined the Pequot in seeking the Connecticut state government's support. The Connecticut Legislature responded by unanimously passing legislation to petition the federal government to grant tribal recognition to the Mashantucket Pequot. The Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claims Settlement Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan on Oct. 18, 1983. This settlement granted the Mashantucket Pequot federal recognition, enabling them to repurchase and place in trust the land covered in the Settlement Act.
   Currently, 1,250 acres comprise the Mashantucket Pequot Nation land base. As the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation settled its land claims, it also engaged in several entrepreneurial enterprises in order to become economically viable. These including the sale of fire wood, harvesting maple syrup, and the growing of garden vegetables. The Mashantucket Pequot also tried their hand at a swine project and the opening of a hydroponic greenhouse. The Mashantucket Pequot also purchased and operated a restaurant, and established a sand and gravel business. In 1986, they opened a bingo operation, followed, in 1992, by the establishment of the first phase of Foxwoods Resort Casino.
   Revenues from Foxwoods provided sufficient revenue to the Mashantucket Pequot to create a cultural museum. The ceremonial groundbreaking for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center took place on Oct. 20, 1993. This date marked the 10th anniversary of federal recognition of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation. The new facility, opened on August 11, 1998, is located on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation, where many members of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation continue to live. It is one of the oldest, continuously occupied Indian reservations in North America.
Geography
The 1130 member Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation has a reservation called "Lantern Hill." The Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation is recognized by the state of Connecticut and the United States Federal government.
   The 350 Mashantucket Pequot or Western Pequot gained federal recognition in 1983 and have a reservation in Ledyard.
   Nearly all individuals who are identified as Pequot live in the two above-named communities.
Language
Historically, the Pequot spoke a dialect of Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language, an Eastern Algonquian language. After the Treaty of Hartford concluded the Pequot War, speaking the language became a capital offense, and it became largely extinct. The Pequot from both the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and Mashantucket Pequot currently speak English as their primary language.
   The Mashantucket Pequot are currently undertaking aggressive efforts to revive the language through careful analysis of historical documents containing Pequot words and comparison with extant closely related languages. So far over 1,000 words have been reclaimed, though that's a small fraction of what would be necessary for a functional language. The Mashantucket Pequot have begun offering language classes with the help of the Mashpee Wampanoag who recently initiated the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project. The southern New England Native communities who are participants in the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project are Mashpee Wampanoag, Aquinnah Wampanoag, Herring Pond Wampanoag, and most recently, Mashantucket Pequot.

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