Siccanemos

Siccanemos was an early name recorded for the Mystic River, a tidal waterway in Pequot country opening onto Long Island Sound. Pequot villages overlooked its banks, and the river offered a sheltered approach from the coast. The Dutch navigator Adriaen Block explored these waters in 1614, before English settlements brought new competition to the region.

During the Pequot War, English forces under John Mason and John Underhill, accompanied by Narragansett and Mohegan allies, attacked a fortified Pequot village near the Mystic River on the morning of 26 May 1637. They set it alight and killed hundreds of its inhabitants, including women and children. Survivors of the war faced captivity, enslavement and dispersal, though Pequot communities endured and later re-established homes in their homeland.