Narragansett

At the time of contact with Europeans, these Indians inhabited the area around Narragansett Bay in what is now Rhode Island. They relied on the plant and animal life of the bay’s diverse estuarial ecosystem for their subsistence. When the English settled in Rhode Island in 1636, the Narragansett had achieved a measure of dominance over many neighboring Indian communities. Their status stemmed partly from their perceived ability to avoid European diseases. From 1616 to 1619 an epidemic had decimated many of the peoples in the eastern bay but spared the Narragansett, who lived primarily along its western side. In subsequent decades the Narragansett enhanced their power through their control of a major part of the WAMPUM trade. People throughout the Northeast coveted wampum—purple and white beads manufactured from shells found along the southern coast of New England—for its economic and spiritual value. Although the Narragansett dominated much of the region, their power was limited by the authority of their leaders, or SACHEMS, who had to rule by consensus. The Narragansett also faced threats from the nearby PEQUOT’s increasing participation in the wampum ECONOMY. In 1637 some Narragansett allied with the English in the PequoT War.

Horrified by the casualties inflicted by their English allies in that war and fearful of the colonists’ rapidly growing population, relations with the English soured. Moreover, Narragansett control over some Native American communities had weakened. In 1642 the Narragansett sachem MlANTONOMO conferred with other tribal leaders about resisting the English militarily. Word of the plot leaked, and the English forced Miantonomo to sign a treaty. The next year rival Mohegan captured Miantonomo in battle and handed him over to the English. The English found him guilty of murder and had the Mohegan execute him.

After Miantonomo’s death, the Narragansett struggled to maintain their cultural integrity. Their attempted neutrality during the brief period of King Philip’s War was not successful. In November 1675 the English and their Indian allies attacked a Narragansett enclave and killed a number of people who were trying to avoid the war.

The rapid growth of the colonies in New England allowed the English not only to force the Dutch out of the region but also to become the dominant power as they eliminated the major Native polities from contention. These years of struggle to control this part of New England are often identified as the period of the wampum wars, although what are often represented as large-scale conflicts were only episodic events marking the slow expansion of European control that brought, in its wake, cultures into conflict. Throughout the next century, the Narragansett and other Native peoples in this region adapted their foraging lifestyles through various modes to coexist with the different political and economic conditions created by European immigrants. The transition was not successful on a cultural scale. A 1709 agreement between the colony of Rhode Island and Ninigret II identified him as the Narragansett leader, although his family was Niantic. An effort to establish a tribal council in 1770 and many other attempts at maintaining group integrity were not successful.

See also CANONicus.

Further reading: Ethel Boissevain, The Narragansett People (Phoenix: Indian Tribal Series, 1975).

—James D. Drake and Marshall Joseph Becker