[nativestudies-l] NEWS: Effort to list Pequot War sites on National Register

[Alyssa Mt. Pleasant]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/nyregion/connecticut/12pequotct.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=mashantucket&st=cse&oref=slogin

October 12, 2008
History


  A Move to Get Pequot Battle Sites Listed in National Register

By JOE WOJTAS

MASHANTUCKET

JUST a short stroll from the modern-day shops and restaurants of 
downtown Mystic, English settlers and their Indian allies attacked a 
fort of Pequot Indians in June 1637 and then set it on fire, killing 500 
men, women and children. Battles continued throughout the day as Pequots 
from other villages counterattacked the English as they retreated to the 
west.

That battle and others across Connecticut 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/connecticut/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>, 
Rhode Island and New York marked some of the fiercest fighting in the 
1636-38 Pequot War, a little-known conflict that allowed the English to 
defeat the mighty Pequot and set the stage for how the emerging nation 
would treat Indian tribes over the next three centuries.

Now, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Mashantucket 
and a host of other groups are trying to get the battle sites included 
on the National Park Service 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_park_service/index.html?inline=nyt-org>'s 
list of national battlefields. They would be the oldest battlefields on 
a list that includes well-known sites like Antietam from the Civil War.

"The Pequot War really set the stage for the subsequent relationships 
the colonists had with native people," said Kevin McBride, the museum's 
research director. "This was the first time native people experienced 
total warfare and cultural genocide. The English wanted to eliminate the 
Pequot as a force."

Walter W. Woodward, the Connecticut State historian, said that while 
Indian tribes in New England had engaged in violence against one 
another, they had never encountered the type of warfare employed by the 
English, who would wipe out entire villages.

"It's a battle that reverberated through the next 250 years of American 
history," Mr. Woodward said. "It needs to be firmly placed in the 
American consciousness."

Mr. McBride and Mr. Woodward, along with Nicholas F. Bellantoni, the 
state archaeologist, and various local and regional historical 
societies, are using a $27,000 grant from the National Park Service to 
begin documenting the boundaries of the battlefields and recovering 
artifacts. They are searching accounts of the battles for clues about 
their locations. A sound engineer even helped plot the location of a 
hollow where Mohegan and Narragansett warriors heard the Pequots singing 
as the two tribes camped with English soldiers before the Mystic attack.

Other sites being considered for the designation are in Old Saybrook, 
Wethersfield, Fairfield, Plainfield, Stonington, Dover Plains, N.Y., and 
Block Island, R.I. Mr. McBride said researchers were trying to pin down 
the locations of camps, routes of march and retreat and places where 
battles were planned.

"History is so much more meaningful when there are places where people 
can go and feel it," Mr. Woodward said.

The last major battle of the war was fought in Fairfield. Today 
Interstate 95 passes through the middle of the large swamp where the 
battle occurred.

"The history of the battle was instrumental in the founding of 
Fairfield," said Michael Jehle, the executive director of the Fairfield 
Museum and History Center. "Many English soldiers involved came back a 
year later and founded the town so there's a tremendous amount of 
interest in the story in this community." Researchers are reviewing any 
written accounts by and about commanders in the battles, the English 
soldiers, the Colonial governors and others.

They are also looking for information about military tactics and weapons 
that can help them identify a site. Their search has uncovered 
information about native alliances and social and political organizations.

Even with the clues, Mr. McBride said researchers still have to find 
artifacts to prove the soldiers and Indians were actually at the 
battlefields and camps, where they may have only spent a few hours.

"We're prepared to be patient and plug away because evidence of the 
battles will be minimal," he said.

Researchers will use metal detectors to look for lead shot, musket 
balls, brass arrowheads and tools. Work is scheduled to begin next 
summer at the well-known site of Mystic fort, where researchers will 
look for artifacts and try to establish the fort's borders. Examining 
all the sites is expected to take years.

Some Mystic landowners are concerned they will lose control of their 
property if it is included in a battlefield designation, but Mr. McBride 
said the demarcation would not restrict the use of property. Mr. McBride 
must get the permission of landowners to search their property. The park 
service requires that any artifacts found be donated to an acceptable 
repository, like a museum.

"Most people understand this is part of our national heritage and they 
should be kept together," Mr. McBride said.
-- 

 

 

	

 

 

Alyssa Mt. Pleasant, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

	

 

American Studies Program

Yale University

P.O. Box 208236
New Haven, CT 06520-8236

 

203-436-8169

 

	

Department of History

Yale University
P.O. Box 208324
New Haven, CT 06520-8324

alyssa.mt.pleasant at yale.edu <mailto:alyssa.mt.pleasant at yale.edu>

 

	

 

*/Neka ne ne hera teh/*

	

 

 

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