Niantic

Member of an American Indian people who inhabited the northeast Great Lakes region of Connecticut and other parts of New England in the 1600s. Their language comes from the Algonquian family. Known as warriors, they separated into two factions in the early 17th century: the Western Niantic, who allied with the Pequot over fur-trading interests, and the Eastern Niantic. The Western Niantic and Pequot were almost wiped out in the Pequot War (1636–37), and dispersed by the English and Mohegan to New York, Wisconsin, and Connecticut. The Eastern Niantic were relocated to Rhode Island, where they merged with the Narragansett after 1680 under that name.

In the 1600s, the Niantic traded fur with the Dutch along the New England seaboard. The Western Niantic joined the Pequot in protecting their trading business, leading to battles with the English and other Indian rivals. Attacks by the English, including those sustained during the Pequot War, reduced the Western Niantic to a population of 100 by the mid-17th century. Along with surviving Pequot, the English gave the Western Niantic as slaves to the Mohegan, who treated them so harshly that the English removed some of the Pequot and Western Niantic and placed them on their own reservation in Connecticut. From about 1788 many of the Western Niantic who has stayed with the Mohegan joined the Brotherton people, a group of Delaware (Lenni Lenape) living on the Brotherton Reservation, New Jersey. The Brotherton moved to upstate New York after 1796, and between 1822 and 1834 relocated with the Oneida and Mohican to Wisconsin.

The Eastern Niantic, who for the most part had remained neutral with regard to the English, were given a reservation in Rhode Island. In 1680 about 500 Narragansett joined them, and they are now known as the Narragansett people.