:''
Sassacus :'' Sassacus is also a genus of jumping spiders.''
Sassacus (Massachusett: '' Sassakusu'' (fierce) (c. 1560 – June 1637) was born near present-day Groton, Connecticut. He was a Pequot ''sachem'', and he became grand sachem after his father, ...
is also a genus of
jumping spiders
Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family Salticidae. As of 2019, this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders at 13% of all species. Jumping spi ...
.''
Sassacus (
Massachusett
The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...
: '' Sassakusu'' (fierce) (c. 1560 – June 1637) was born near present-day
Groton, Connecticut
Groton is a town in New London County, Connecticut located on the Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United States Navy. The Naval Submarine Base New London is ...
. He was a
Pequot
The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or th ...
''
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 ...
'', and he became grand sachem after his father, ''sachem'' Tatobem was killed in 1632. The
Mohegan
The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the east ...
s led by ''sachem''
Uncas
Uncas () was a ''sachem'' of the Mohegans who made the Mohegans the leading regional Indian tribe in lower Connecticut, through his alliance with the New England colonists against other Indian tribes.
Early life and family
Uncas was born n ...
rebelled against domination by the
Pequots
The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or t ...
. Sassacus and the Pequots were defeated by
English colonists along with their
Narragansett and Mohegan allies in the
Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place between 1636 and 1638 in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragans ...
.
Sassacus fled to what he thought was safety among the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
Mohawks in present-day
New York, but they murdered him. They sent his head and hands to the
Connecticut Colony
The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...
as a symbolic offering of friendship.
Sassacus possibly had a brother who married
Ninigret
Ninigret (also known as Juanemo according to Roger Williams) (c. 1610 This source confirms 1662 as the date of his land sales.-1677 This source suggests a date of 1667 for his land sales and a 1647 war against the Mohegans.) was a sachem of the ea ...
's daughter, and his sister-in-law may have married
Harman Garrett
Harman Garrett (c. 1610 – c. 1678) (also known as Cashawashett or Wequashcook II or Herman Garrett or Harmon Garrett) was a Niantic sachem and then governor of the Eastern Pequots slightly east of the Pawcatuck River in what is now Westerly, Rh ...
.
[Pulsief, ed., Acts of the Commissioners, I, 100, 169]
Footnotes
References
* Oberg, Michael Leroy, ''Uncas, First of the Mohegans'', 2003,
* Vaughan, Alden T. (1995). ''New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians, 1620-1675'', p. 150. University of Oklahoma Press. ,
1560s births
1637 deaths
17th-century Native Americans
Murdered Native American people
Native American leaders
People from Groton, Connecticut
People murdered in New York (state)
Male murder victims
Pequot
People of colonial Connecticut
Native American people from Connecticut
Murder in 1637
Murder in the Thirteen Colonies
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