Settlement Strategies and Trade during the Pequot War

Megan Willison is a doctoral candidate at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on early 17th century indigenous settlement patterns, spatial organization of household remains, and cuprous trade items from sites located in southern Connecticut associated with the Pequot War (1636-1637). One of the most iconic moments of the Pequot War was the massacre at Mystic Fort, an event which occurred on May 26, 1637 and took the lives of hundreds of Pequot men, women, and children. Immediately following the massacre, the English retreated back to their ships and were followed by returning Pequot warriors.

Throughout the process of documenting this retreat route, multiple seventeenth century Pequot domestic sites were discovered. These sites represent the “largest assemblage of early seventeenth century indigenous sites associated with a single Native group ever identified in southern New England” (McBride et al. 2016:20) and are dated, based upon their material signature, to be between 1611 (the arrival of the Dutch) and 1637 (the conclusion of the Pequot War of 1636-1637).

Join Megan for the initial analysis of her excavations, focusing on these domestic sites and their material signature.