A student of Narragansett language and culture, Providence’s founder Roger Williams (see entry for 1636) compiles A Key into the Language of America. The book is among the earliest works on Indian language written by a non-Indian. As well as recording Narragansett words such as succotash and squash, which have entered the colonists’ language, Williams also notes that the Narragansett have adopted versions of English words, including moneash for money and pigsuck for pig.
The Susquehannock drive off Maryland settlers.
Frustrated by the movement of Maryland settlers onto their lands, the Susquehannock ask their Swedish trading partners (see entry for 1638) living along Delaware Bay for help. The Swedes give the Indians advice as well as guns and ammunition, which the Susquehannock use to force the whites off their territory.
The Iroquois become Dutch allies.
The powerful tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy negotiate a treaty of alliance with the Dutch. In the agreement, the Indians promise to give the Dutch furs in exchange for guns—an arrangement that will spell doom for many of the Iroquois’ enemies. In the next decade, the Iroquois wage war against the Huron, Petunia, Neutral, and Erie (see entries for MARCH 1649, 1650, and 1654).
Mohegan leader Uncas kills Narragansett chief Miantonomo.
Colonial leaders grow tired of dealing with Mian-tonomo, a Narragansett Indian leader who resists the whites’ constant demands for land and their increasing efforts to subjugate his people. On the instructions of English officials, the troublesome chief is assassinated by Mohegan leader Uncas. Born a Pequot, Uncas formed the Mohegan tribe and supported the English in their brutal war against his people (see entry for MAY 25, 1637). (See also entry for 1847.)
The Dutch massacre 100 Indians at Pavonia.
Just after midnight, 80 Dutch soldiers set upon a camp of Wecquaesgeek Indians seeking refuge from Mohawk raiders at the Dutch settlement of Pavonia in present-day New Jersey. The Dutch had ignored the Wecquaesgeek’s pleas for help and allow the Mohawk to attack their camp. Although the surviving Wecquaesgeek pose no threat to Pavonia, Governor Willem Kieft orders a Dutch force to kill all of the Wecquaesgeek men and take the women and children prisoner. The soldiers instead brutally murder every Indian they can. The Dutch bring 30 prisoners back to New Amsterdam and publicly torture them to death.
In addition to avenging the murder of two Pa-vonia settlers who were murdered by Hackensack Indians two years before (see entry for 1641), the horrible slaughter is intended to frighten other tribes into submission. Instead, it motivates the Indians to exact their own revenge for the Wecquaesgeek massacre in a series of bloody attacks against Dutch settlements.
“When it was day, the soldiers returned to the fort, having massacred or murdered eighty Indians, and considering they had done a deed of Roman valor, in murdering so many in their sleep; where infants were torn from their mother's breasts, and hacked to pieces in the presence of their parents, and the pieces thrown into the fire and in the water, and other sucklings were bound to small boards, and then cut, stuck, and pierced, and miserably massacred in a manner to move a heart to stone.”
—Dutchman Willem DeVries on the Pavonia Massacre
English force against Indian settlements in present-day New York and Connecticut. Underhill’s men stage a relentless and bloody campaign, culminating in a brutal attack on an Indian settlement at Pound Ridge. With fire and guns, the colonists kill more than 500 Tankiteke, Wiwanoy, and Wappinger. Worn down by the attacks, the Indians negotiate a peace with the Dutch.
The Narragansett ask the English Crown for protection.
Fearing attack from English colonists, the Narra-gansett leaders appeal directly to Charles I for help. They promise to submit themselves to the king “upon condition of His Majesties royal protection.” They maintain, however, that they will not bow to the demands of the colonists “having ourselves been the chief Sachems, or Princes successively, of the country, time out of mind.” (See also entry for 1645.)
Opechancanough leads a Powhatan uprising.
Twenty-two years after masterminding a devastating surprise attack on the Virginia colonists (see entry for MARCH 22, 1622), the elderly Powhatan leader Opechancanough plans a second uprising. His warriors stage a series of assaults on English villages and kill about 500 colonists. Troops led by colonial governor William Berkeley quickly move in to retaliate. The fighting will continue for two years (see entry for 1646).
World History
