Chief Squantz was a leader of the people of the
Schaghticoke tribe who lived until 1724. Chief Squantz refused to sell the land that is now called the towns of
Sherman, Connecticut
Sherman is the northernmost and least populous New England town, town of Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 3,527 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town was formed in 1 ...
, and
New Fairfield, Connecticut
New Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,579 at the 2020 census. New Fairfield is one of five towns that surround Candlewood Lake, the largest lake in Connecticut. The town is located nor ...
, to a group of twelve colonists called "The Proprietors" who came from Fairfield to find land for a new colonial township.
Chief Squantz died during the winter of 1724–25, and his four sons and heirs refused to sell the land when The Proprietors returned in the spring of 1725. The land was later sold in 1729 for the equivalent of $300.
[
]Chief Waramaug
Waramaug succeeded Squantz in 1725 as sachem of the Potatuck Native American tribe, folded into the current Schaghticoke tribe, who lived along the length of the Housatonic River, until his death in 1735. He was succeeded as sachemship of the Pot ...
succeeded Chief Squantz in 1725 in 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 ...
ship of the Potatuck.
One of Chief Squantz's sons was Mauwehu, who was said by DeForest as having "possessed something of energy and commanding character for which his nation was once distinguished"; he succeeded Waramaug.
References
18th-century Native Americans
Native Americans in Connecticut
1720s deaths
Schaghticoke tribe
Native American leaders
Year of birth unknown
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