Sassacus

Sassacus (Massachusett: Sassakusu, "fierce") (c. 1560 – June 1637) was a Pequot sachem[1] who was born near present-day Groton, Connecticut. He became grand sachem after his father, Tatobem, was killed in 1632. The Mohegans led by sachem Uncas rebelled against domination by the Pequots.[2] Sassacus and the Pequots were defeated by English colonists allied with the Narragansett and Mohegans in the Pequot War.

Sassacus is also a genus of jumping spiders.
Sassacus
Pequot leader
In office
1632 – June 1637
Preceded byTatobem
Personal details
Bornc. 1560
DiedJune 1637 (aged 76–77)
Present-Day New York
Cause of deathMurdered by the Mohawk Tribe
Military service
Battles/wars

Sassacus fled to what he thought was safety among the Iroquois Mohawks in present-day New York state, but they murdered him and then sent his head and hands to the Connecticut Colony as a symbolic offering of friendship.[3]

Sassacus possibly had a brother who married Ninigret's daughter, and his sister-in-law may have married Harman Garrett.[4][5]

Footnotes
  1. "Pequot Indian Chiefs and Leaders". Handbook of American Indians. Retrieved 2007-02-21.
  2. Oberg, p. 48
  3. Vaughan, Alden T. (1995). New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians, 1620–1675, p. 150. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2718-X, 978-0-8061-2718-7.
  4. Glenn LaFantasie, The Correspondence of Roger Williams, (1988) 311-312
  5. Pulsief, ed., Acts of the Commissioners, I, 100, 169

References
  • Oberg, Michael Leroy, Uncas, First of the Mohegans, 2003, ISBN 0-8014-3877-2
  • Vaughan, Alden T. (1995). New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians, 1620-1675, p. 150. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2718-X, 978-0-8061-2718-7


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