The Pequot Fort was a fortified Native American village in what is now the Groton side of

Mystic, Connecticut Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton and Stonington, Connecticut, United States. Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in 1784. Mystic Seaport, located in ...

, United States. Located atop a ridge overlooking the

Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts. In the Massachusett language, means "large estuary", alluding to the tidal ...

, it was a

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...

d settlement of the

Pequot The Pequot ( ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut includin ...

tribe until its destruction by

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

and

Mohegan The Mohegan are an Indigenous people originally based in what is now southeastern Connecticut in the United States. They are part of the Eastern Algonquian linguistic and cultural family and historically shared close ties with the neighboring ...

forces in the 1637

Mystic massacre The Mystic massacrealso known as the Pequot massacre and the Battle of Mystic Forttook place on May 26, 1637 during the Pequot War, when a force from the Connecticut Colony under Captain John Mason and their Narragansett and Mohegan allies se ...

during the

Pequot War The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot nation and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Na ...

. The exact location of its archaeological remains is not certain, but it is commemorated by a small memorial at Pequot Avenue and Clift Street. The site previously included a statue of Major John Mason, who led the forces that destroyed the fort; it was removed in 1995 after protests by Pequot tribal members. The archaeological site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1990.

Description

The fort was located on top of Pequot Hill along Pequot Avenue just north of the village of West Mystic. In the early 17th century, the Pequots were the largest and politically dominant tribe in what is now eastern Connecticut. In the 1630s tensions rose over a variety of issues between the Pequots and their neighbors, among them the Narragansetts to the east, the

Mohegans The Mohegan are an Indigenous people originally based in what is now southeastern Connecticut in the United States. They are part of the Eastern Algonquian linguistic and cultural family and historically shared close ties with the neighboring ...

to the north, English settlers of the

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

and Saybrook colonies, and the Dutch colony of

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

. The

broke out in 1636, after English trader John Oldham was found murdered on his boat near

Block Island Block Island is an island of the Outer Lands coastal archipelago in New England, located approximately south of mainland Rhode Island and east of Long Island's Montauk Point. The island is coterminous with the town of New Shoreham, Rhode Isl ...

. The Pequots were accused of sheltering the murderers, and one of their villages was burned by a

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

force led by

John Endecott John Endecott (also spelled Endicott; 1588 – 15 March 1665), regarded as one of the Fathers of New England, was the longest-serving governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which became the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He s ...

. The Pequots responded by making attacks on Saybrook, Connecticut, and other Connecticut communities, to which they latter responded by organizing another expedition. Captain John Mason led 90 colonists and 100 Mohegan Indians, later augmented by a band of Narragansetts, against the Pequot fort at Mystic. In the

on May 26, 1637, this force slaughtered 400 to 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Indian Tribe, and burned the fort. This action put the remaining Pequots to flight, and by the end of the war they had been destroyed as a viable polity. In 1889 a statue of John Mason, designed by sculptor James C.G. Hamilton, was placed on Pequot Hill near the site where the massacre occurred. The memorial included a plaque recalling Mason's role in leading the attack on the fort. In the early 1990s, members of the Pequot tribe petitioned for the statue's removal, claiming offense at the commemoration of a killer of innocent people, and that its location was ground they considered sacred. After several years of debate, the statue was moved to Windsor in 1996. The circle where the statue previously stood is now home to what the Pequots consider a

tree of life The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythology, mythological, religion, religious, and philosophy, philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The ...

Archaeological site

Archaeological investigation of the summit area of Pequot Hill has yielded numerous Native American and early colonial artifacts, with features that are interpreted as a palisaded village. The finds are consistent with post-destruction documentation of the site from the 17th to 19th centuries.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in New London County, Connecticut Pequot War Groton, Connecticut Former Native American populated places in the United States Forts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut Colonial forts in Connecticut 1637 establishments in North America

Description

Archaeological site

See also

References