Treaty with the Delaware Tribe, September 17,1778 (7 Stat.13). This is considered the first Indian treaty written in formal diplomatic and legal language:

Article 6: … And it is further agreed on between the contracting parties [the United States and the Delaware Nation] should it for the future be found conducive for the mutual interest of both parties to invite any other tribes who have been friends to the interest of the United States, to join the present confederation, and to form a state whereof the Delaware nation shall be the head, and have a representation in Congress. (Wilkins & Stark 61)

​“Native peoples, unlike any other groups in the United States, are sovereign nations, not minority groups. A sovereign nation is a distinct political entity that exercises a measure of jurisdictional power over a specific territory” (Wilkins & Stark 59)

​By Julianne Jennings (2018)
Indian Country News
​
(During), New England’s second colonial armed conflict ... on August 12, 1676, Philip fled to the "miry swamp" where he was assassinated by one of Captain Benjamin Church’s Indian Rangers, John Alderman. Upon inspection of Philip’s body, Church is quoted as saying “a doleful, great, naked, dirty beast.” Philip was then butchered in a manner standard with English punishment for treason by drawing and quartering. 

He was left unburied and beheaded. His head was sent to Plymouth where it was posted for twenty years and a special “Thanksgiving” was celebrated. ​Some claim that his hand was nailed up in Boston Common for many years.

​Bourne adds that in King Philip’s War, Samuel Morely, a keen Indian fighter, managed to capture 54 Narragansett prisoners (near Wickford, Rhode Island) who he sold into slavery. It was now understood that slavery was the one of the factors for continuing the war and the reality of slavery becoming a major industry of the war. ​​

Benjamin Church (1676)

• Very first Captain of the American Rangers
• 99 years before U.S. Army founded in 1775 
• 10 years before United States Declared its Independence; becoming official in 1776.

​Johnathan ​(John) Alderman (1676)

• Wampanoag Indian and close associate and counselor to Metacomet who was also named King Philip. 
• Brother was abruptly murdered by Metacomet/King Philip.
• In revenge, John Alderman changed sides from his Wampanoag Tribe and serve the Rangers to work for Benjamin Church.
• Murdered his own Wampanoag tribal leader Metacomet/King Philip.
• John Alderman was a traitor to his own Indian people.

Thirty shillings is equal to .83 cents in today's U.S. dollars. Human Indian Heads were of little value to Whites. 

Colonists illegally minted counterfeit coins (shillings). Fake coins minted in the  Massachusetts Bay Colony could pay for human Indian Heads. This 1652 silver shilling (left) sold at auction in 2021 for $351,912.  

Pequot history is an unprecedented story of redemption and restoration, which is featured at the Tribe’s world-class Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center. 
​
Today, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation owns and operates one of the largest and most successful resort casinos in North America and a variety of other enterprises.

• Foxwoods Resort Casino 
• Lake of Isles Golf Course 
• Pequot Pharmaceutical Network 
• Spa at Norwich Inn 

All together, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation remains one of the State of Connecticut’s highest tax payers and largest employers, and has contributed more than $3 billion to Connecticut through the first-of-its-kind tribal gaming revenue-sharing agreement, enacted in 1993.

​Likewise, the Tribe provides generous assistance to nonprofit organizations that support its local communities. For more information, contact us at MPTNCommunications@mptn-nsn.gov.

By Vincent Schilling
Indian Country Today

​In the spring of 2005, Jim Miller, a Native spiritual leader and Vietnam veteran, found himself in a dream riding on horseback across the great plains of South Dakota. Just before he awoke, he arrived at a riverbank in Minnesota and saw 38 of his Dakota ancestors hanged. At the time, Jim knew nothing of the largest mass execution in United States history, ordered by Abraham Lincoln on December 26, 1862. "When you have dreams, you know when they come from the creator... As any recovered alcoholic, I made believe that I didn't get it. I tried to put it out of my mind, yet it's one of those dreams that bothers you night and day." ​

Now, four years later, embracing the message of the dream, Jim and a group of riders retrace the 330-mile route of his dream on horseback from Lower Brule, South Dakota to Mankato, Minnesota to arrive at the hanging site on the anniversary of the execution. "We can't blame the wasichus anymore. We're doing it to ourselves. We're selling drugs. We're killing our own people. That's what this ride is about, is healing." This is the story of their journey- the blizzards they endure, the Native and Non-Native communities that house and feed them along the way, and the dark history they are beginning to wipe away.