Mattabesset was a region and settlement once occupied by Algonquian language-speaking Native Americans called the

Wangunk The Wangunk or Wongunk were an Indigenous people from central Connecticut. They had three major settlements in the areas of the present-day towns of Portland, Middletown, and Wethersfield. They also used lands in other parts of what were later or ...

, along the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Islan ...

. The

Mattabesset River The Mattabesset River as delineated on present-day maps flows out of Harts Ponds in the town of Berlin and travels east to the Connecticut River, passing Kensington and later forming the boundary between Middletown and Cromwell.U.S. Geological Su ...

reaches the Connecticut River near

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settlers as a town under its ...

. European settler colonists established Middletown on the part of the region on the west side of the river, and a succession of settlements on the east side of the river, including Chatham and Middle Haddam, became

East Hampton, Connecticut East Hampton is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 12,717 at the 2020 census. The town center village is listed as a census-designated place (CDP). East Hampton includes the boroughs of Cobalt, Middle Had ...

Name

Romanizations vary widely, including Mattabesec, Mattabeseck, Mattabessett, Mattabesset, and Mattabéeset. However, it is widely known to be pronounced “Matta-bess-ic” despite usually being spelled “mattabesset”

History

This region was occupied by the indigenous people named

. Dutch Europeans initially visited the region in 1614.Salwen 173 At the time of English incursions into the area, the local

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

, or Native political leader, was Sowheag, also known as Sequin. After conflict with settlers, he moved from the village of Pyquaug, later known as Weathersfield, Connecticut, to Mattabesett. Nineteenth-century historian John Warner Barber wrote:

The lands in this township were obtained from the Indians in connection with the lands in Middletown. But a
reservation __NOTOC__ Reservation may refer to: Places Types of places: * Indian reservation, in the United States * Military base, often called reservations * Nature reserve Government and law * Reservation (law), a caveat to a treaty * Reservation in India, ...
, laid out partly at Indian hill, and partly a little east of the Chatham meeting house, was held by them till about 1767; when, having dwindled to small number, they sold their right, and united with the Farmington Indians. These Indians have been sometimes called Wongonks or Wongoms, but the reservation was for the heirs of the Sowheag and Mattabessett Indians, and they were doubtless of the same tribe with the Indians on the west side of the river. A little clan inhabited, or frequented, the region about Pocotopogue pond, and had a place of rendezvous on the principal island which that encloses. These were also, probably, a part of the Mattabessett Indians.Barber 507

In 1650, the General Court of Connecticut sent researchers to the Mattabesett region, who concluded that Middletown and Chatham could support 15 families. Sowheag apparently had ceded some of the land to Governor John Haynes. Three reservations were established for the

Wangunk people The Wangunk or Wongunk were an Indigenous people from central Connecticut. They had three major settlements in the areas of the present-day towns of Portland, Middletown, and Wethersfield. They also used lands in other parts of what were later o ...

in Middletown and Chatham. One in the Newfield neighborhood of Middletown was occupied until 1713. In Chatham, one was established for a man named Sawsean and his descendants. The third, 300 acres in size, was established for Sowheag, the

of Mattabesett, and the Native peoples of Mattabesett. In a 1761 survey of indigenous peoples in Connecticut, local Native peoples still resided at "Mattabéeset (at Wongunck, opposite Middletown)."Conkey, Boissevian, and Goodard 188 Archaeologist

Bert Salwen Bert or BERT may refer to: Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert *Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname *Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album Here Comes a Son ...

writes, "Names like

Nipmuck The Nipmuc or Nipmuck people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who historically spoke an Eastern Algonquian language. Their historic territory Nippenet, "the freshwater pond place," is in central Massachusetts and nearby pa ...

Pocumtuck The Pocumtuc (also Pocomtuck or Deerfield Indians) were a Native American tribe historically inhabiting western areas of Massachusetts. Settlements Their territory was concentrated around the confluence of the Deerfield and Connecticut River ...

, and Mattabesec sometimes appear in the literature as designations for large 'tribes' or 'confederacies' (

Speck Speck can refer to a number of European cured pork products, typically salted and air-cured and often lightly smoked but not cooked. In Germany, speck is pickled pork fat with or without some meat in it. Throughout much of the rest of Europe a ...

1928a: pl. 20; Swanton 1952), but this usage does not seem to fit the seventeenth-century situation. At best, some of these names may reflect linguistic or cultural homogeneity, but the scarcity of evidence makes even linguistic identification difficult in most cases (Day 1962, 1969)." Both Salwen and

Ives Goddard Robert Hale Ives Goddard III (born 1941) is a linguist and a curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. He is widely considered the leading expert on the Algonqui ...

contest the idea of a "great

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...

-speaking

Wappinger The Wappinger () were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutches ...

-Mattabesec confederacy stretching from the Hudson to the Connecticut" rivers.

Notes

References

* * * * {{authority control Algonquian ethnonyms Connecticut Colony Former populated places in Connecticut Native American history of Connecticut

Name

History

See also

Notes

References