Description
The Niantic are a tribe of Algonquian-speaking American Indians who lived in the area of Connecticut and Rhode Island during the early colonial period. They were divided into eastern and western groups due to intrusions by the more numerous and powerful Pequots. It is likely that the name Nantucket is derived from the tribe's endonym, Nehantucket. The Western Niantic were nearly destroyed by the Pequot War (1637), and remnants joined the Mohegans. The Eastern Niantic remained neutral during King Philip’s War (1675–76), and at its close many of the defeated Narragansett Indians and their allies settled among them. Thereafter the combined tribes were called Narragansett. By 1870, the state of Connecticut declared the Niantic tribe extinct and sold its 300-acre reservations on the Black Point peninsula for commercial development.
Language
The division of the Niantics became so great that the language of the eastern Niantics is classified as a dialect of Narragansett,
Culture
Niantic men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Niantic women were farmers and also did most of the child care and cooking. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine. In the past, Niantic chiefs were always men, but today a Niantic Indian woman could be chief too. Prior to European colonization of their lands, the Niantics spent their summers fishing and digging the shellfish which were abundant there and for which the area is famous. They cultivated the Three Sisters: maize, beans, and squash. They also hunted, fished, and collected nuts, roots, and fruits. During the Late Woodland period, they also dined on snake and turtle meat.