The Sakonnet people are

Native Americans in the United States Native Americans (also called American Indians, First Americans, or Indigenous Americans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of the United States, particularly of the Contiguous United States, lower 48 states and A ...

, related to the

Wampanoag people The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands currently based in southeastern Massachusetts and formerly parts of eastern Rhode Island.Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Isl ...

who spoke a dialect of the

Massachusett language The Massachusett language is an Algonquian languages, Algonquian language of the Algic languages, Algic language family that was formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is s ...

. The tribal name was applied to Little Compton, Rhode Island's Sakonnet River, Sakonnet Harbor, and other geographic features.Such as Sakonnet Cove in Mount Hope Bay, Sakonnet Point, and much later to Sakonnet Light.

Alternate spellings

The spelling "Sakonnet" has become accepted because of long use on maps, but the name is sometimes written as 'Sekonnet', 'Seaconnet', 'Sakonnet', 'Saconnet', 'Sakonett', or 'Segonet'.

References

Algonquian peoples Native American tribes in Rhode Island {{NorthAm-native-stub