Wyandanch (sachem) - Dispute With Ninigret

Dispute With Ninigret

Soon after the sachem of the Niantics, Ninigret, tried to assassinate the chief of the Shinnecocks, Mandush, for his having made an alliance with Wyandanch. However, the would be assassin was captured before he could carry out his orders and was executed by Wyandanch and Mandush, who then burned his body as an insult to the Niantic leader. Ninigret attempted to get revenge starting in 1652, after the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War. After getting a tacit promise from the English (according to Roger Williams) that they would not intervene in a Niantic-Montaukett war, Ninigret attacked a Montaukett settlement, killed thirty men and carried off fourteen prisoners, among whom were two of the tribes sachems and Wyandanch's own daughter. Soon, however, a peace settlement was reached and the captives released, though the exact terms of the agreement are uncertain. According to Ninigret, Wyandanch swore allegiance to him, agreed to pay tribute and allowed the Niantic chief to sell his land. Wyandanch however claimed that he had simply paid ransom for the captives, through the intermediation of Lion Gardiner. Additionally, Roger Williams gave the credit for the peace to English in their role as mediators.

Wyandanch broke the agreement in 1654, perhaps in a calculated move to demonstrate his independence, by launching a surprise attack against the Niantics. At the same time, Wyandanch brokered an agreement between members of his tribe and the English settlers on Long Island in relation to cattle grazing rights. As a result, by 1655, he received substantial military support from the colonists in his war against Ninigret. This included an English sloop which patrolled Long Island Sound and sank any Niantic canoes that were trying to make their way across.

Ninigret in turn attempted to use colonial institutions to get back at Wyandanch and accused the Montaukett sachem before the English. The three charges were that Wyandanch had broken the peace treaty, that he had personally murdered an Englishman named Drake, and that he had been practicing witchcraft in an attempt to kill the Mohegan chief Uncas (Uncas made a similar charge at about the same time). Wyandanch was exonerated on all three charges because Ninigret's witnesses failed to show up on time, and because the English colonists of Long Island testified on Wyandanch's behalf in the Plymouth court. The trial however did demonstrate the greater use and reliance of the Native American tribes in the area on colonial institutions.