Based on archaeological and linguistic evidence, the Pequot and Mohegan Tribes, indian peoples of the Algonquian language group, probably have lived in what is now southeastern Connecticut for several hundred years. Mohegan oral tradition holds that the Mohegan-Pequots, originally the same tribe, migrated into the region some time before contact with Europeans. Anthropological evidence shows that the two groups were very closely related. Just before the outbreak of war with the English, the Mohegans under a sachem named Uncas split from the Pequots and aligned themselves with the English.
At the time of the Pequot War, Pequot strength was concentrated along the Pequot (now Thames) and Mystic Rivers in what is now southeastern Connecticut. Mystic, or Missituk, was the site of the major battle of the War. Under the leadership of Captain John Mason from Connecticut and Captain John Underhill from Massachusetts Bay Colony, English Puritan troops, with the help of Mohegan and Narragansett allies, burned the village and killed the estimated 400-700 Pequots inside.
The battle turned the tide against the Pequots and broke the tribe's resistance. Many Pequots in other villages escaped and hid among other tribes, but most of them were eventually killed or captured and given as slaves to tribes friendly to the English. The English, supported by Uncas' Mohegans, pursued the remaining Pequot resistors until all were either killed or captured and enslaved. After the War, the colonists enslaved survivors and outlawed the name "Pequot."
Hmmm, someone forgot to tell Herman Melville. Maybe he wrote it in New York!
The pattern of Indians dividing and allying with the English (or French, or Spanish) for advantage is a pretty consistent one. Even Custer had his Crows and Shoshonis.
At Little Big Horn, the Sioux killed the Crow scouts out-of-hand. Who knew it was coming, and sang their death-songs before the battle. The Italian lieutenant in Custer's command -- I forget his name -- sent my great-grandfather, Jack Riley, and the other white scouts away on the eve of the battle; "we have to go down there tomorrow; we're Army and we're under orders -- but you're civilians, and you don't have to go with us; leave now." (One of them, IIRC, was a Californio scion named, by my great-grandfather and his friends, "Kid" Vallejo [they pronounced it, "Vall-eyo"]. Vallejo....now, where have I heard that name before?)
Which is why I'm here, and my sister and my cousins.