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Lasting Marks: the Legacy of Robin Cassacinamon and the Survival of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation Shawn Wiemann

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Lasting Marks: the Legacy of Robin Cassacinamon and the Survival of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation Shawn Wiemann University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-2-2011 Lasting Marks: The Legacy of Robin Cassacinamon and the Survival of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation Shawn Wiemann Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Recommended Citation Wiemann, Shawn. "Lasting Marks: The Legacy of Robin Cassacinamon and the Survival of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/83 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LASTING MARKS: THE LEGACY OF ROBIN CASSACINAMON AND THE SURVIVAL OF THE MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT NATION BY Shawn G. Wiemann B.A. in History, SUNY Geneseo, 2001 M.A. in History, College of William & Mary, 2003 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2011 iv ©2011, Shawn G. Wiemann iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, Jeanne, and my sisters, Elizabeth and Samantha, who have been a source of constant support. I would not have gone this far without them. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To Dr. Margaret Connell-Szasz, my advisor and dissertation chair, for continuing to encourage me over the years, and mentoring me in the classroom and over course of writing and editing these chapters. Your guidance will remain with me as I continue my career. Thank you for your patience, wisdom, and countless letters of support. I also thank my committee members, Dr. Melvin Yazawa, Dr. Michael Oberg, and Dr. Paul Hutton, for their valuable recommendations pertaining to this study and assistance in my professional development. Dr. Oberg helped start me on this scholarly path, and I am forever grateful. I also wish to thank Dr. Ferenc Szasz, who began this project with me, but was sadly unable to see its completion. He is missed, but I hope that some of his spirit and love of the craft can be felt within these pages. To Dr. Kevin McBride, thank you for your insights and for pointing me in the right direction. I am also indebted to the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, and the librarians, archivists, and researchers at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Mashantucket, CT, as well as those at the Connecticut State Archives in Hartford, for their invaluable help and resources. You all made this project possible. To Nathan Wilson, thank you for the many years of support, advice, and friendship. To Todd Leahy, thank you for your friendship and for kindly reading these pages. To my sisters, Beth and Samantha, your encouragement is greatly appreciated. And finally to my parents, Kevin and Jeanne, your love and support have sustained me throughout this process. Thank you both. v Lasting Marks: The Legacy of Robin Cassacinamon and the Survival of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation BY Shawn G. Wiemann ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2011 Lasting Marks: The Legacy of Robin Cassacinamon and the Survival of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation by Shawn G. Wiemann B.A., SUNY Geneseo M.A., College of William & Mary Ph.D., University of New Mexico ABSTRACT My dissertation is a political and cultural history of seventeenth-century Anglo- Algonquian New England. Between the Pequot War of 1637 and King Philip‘s War in 1675-76, a covalent Anglo-Algonquian society existed in New England. This created conditions which allowed the Pequots to reconstitute their communities after the devastation of the Pequot War. Robin Cassacinamon was instrumental in this process. His skills as an interpreter, diplomat, intermediary, and community leader connected Cassacinamon to the surviving Pequots and to important regional Algonquian and Puritan figures of the time. Cassacinamon became Pequot sachem, leading his people until his death in 1692. His work provided the Pequots with essential tools needed for long-term survival as an identifiable people: a land-base and the ability to form and maintain Pequot communities. Cassacinamon and the Mashantucket Pequots navigated this conflicting political climate to pursue their own agenda. The period between the Pequot War and King Philip‘s war provided a finite window of opportunity by which Cassacinamon could exploit the seventeenth-century Native strategies outlined in Eric Spencer Johnson‘s work. These strategies included alliances, marriages, settlement patterns, coercion, and others. Cassacinamon‘s deep ties to the Pequots and other Algonquian groups, as well as with the Winthrop family and other colonial leaders, let him exploit various political and social tools. Cassacinamon‘s skills made him an essential part of regional negotiations between these Algonquian and English polities. By operating in the gaps and intersections where these polities met, Cassacinamon and the Pequots carved out a place for themselves within the regional social and political power structure. By focusing on Cassacinamon‘s story, a greater understanding of how the Pequots survived after the Pequot War is reached. Cassacinamon‘s biography also broadens our understanding of this seventeenth Anglo- Algonquian society, as well as what happened when the Anglo-Algonquian frontier shifted to an Anglo-Iroquoian frontier after King Philip‘s War. Thus, my dissertation is not just a biography; it is a political and cultural study of New England, with broader Atlantic World elements. It provides insight as to how an indigenous North American population exploited overlapping political and social systems and tactics to survive in a changing colonial world. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION.................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................................v ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………….…..vi INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 Historiography ...............................................................................................................3 Chapter Breakdowns ....................................................................................................15 CHAPTER 1: PEOPLE OF THE SHALLOW WATERS ..........................................21 Cassacinamon v. Uncas ...............................................................................................21 Origin of the Pequots ...................................................................................................23 Office of the sachem ..............................................................................................41 Wampum and reciprocity .......................................................................................44 Impact of disease....................................................................................................45 Arrival of the Dutch .....................................................................................................48 English in southern New England................................................................................51 John Winthrop Jr. ....................................................................................................56 Rise of the Pequots.......................................................................................................58 Summary ......................................................................................................................59 CHAPTER 2: "YOUR FEET SHALL BE SET UPON THEIR PROUD NECKS" - THE PEQUOT WAR OF 1637 ......................................................................................61 Pequot hegemony and threats to the Pequots .....................................................................61 Attempts at peace ...............................................................................................................68 Endicott expedition ............................................................................................................70 ix Narragansetts and English..................................................................................................75 Battles at Saybrook ............................................................................................................78 Pequot retaliation and Uncas sides with the English .........................................................83 Mohegan interests ........................................................................................................85 Anglo-Algonquian forces...................................................................................................87 Fort Mystic .........................................................................................................................92 The massacre ......................................................................................................................95 The closing days of the war .........................................................................................98 The Mohawks and the death of Sassacus .........................................................................108
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