Pocumtuck

The Pocumtuck were an Indigenous people of western Massachusetts, associated with the Connecticut River valley and the country around Deerfield. Their neighbours included the Tunxis and Narragansett, with whom they formed alliances against the Mohegan and Pequot. The river and its tributaries ran through a landscape of wooded hills and fertile bottomlands.

Smallpox and warfare devastated the Pocumtuck after European contact. During King Philip's War they joined other Indigenous peoples against the English. After the war, many fled with Nipmuc and others to Schaghticoke on the Hudson; at the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1754, many moved again, joining Abenaki communities at Saint-François or travelling farther west. The Pocumtuck warrior Gray Lock later led Abenaki bands on raids into Massachusetts.