:'' Sassacus is also a genus of jumping spiders.'' 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 i ...

. 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 t ...

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. 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 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 {{NorthAm-native-bio-stub