Niantic

Variant name of place

Nihantuk; Nihantuck; Nehantic; Nahantick

Geographic position

41.3253° N, 72.1931° W

Event

Occom’s Ordination

;

Jewett Controversy

Sources

Fisher, Linford D. The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print. http://www.niantic.com/channel/History-Niantic/3101. Geo Coordinates from https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=geographic+coordinates+of+Niantic,+Connecticut&spell=1.

General note

Niantic is a village located in East Lyme, a seaside town in southeast Connecticut on the Long Island Sound. The land was occupied by the Niantic tribe when the Europeans arrived. The Dutch claimed the area in the 17th century, but when the British claimed this same land as part of their colonies, the Dutch forfeited it to the British in a 1627 trade agreement. The village housed both preachers and a schoolhouse, and missionaries came to the village for the purpose of converting and assimilating the tribe. This effort intensified in the 1740s with the influence of the First Great Awakening. Increasingly dispersed and dispossessed of land, many Niantic Indians followed Occom and Joseph Johnson to upstate New York in the 1770's where they settled Brothertown.