Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center

By the beginning of the 19th century, fewer than one hundred Pequots remained at Mashantucket -- the remnants of a tribe depleted by war and disease, and by the Christian Indian movement of the 1700s. In the century ahead, the Pequots' decline would continue, as the tribe absorbed the impact of a massive land loss.

"By 1805, we’ve seen most of the population at Mashantucket leave. In fact, the overseers basically state that the only people left behind are sick, they’re old, they’re women, they’re children. They say the best of their young men have left. But the sense that I get is that there is a core of people on this reservation that are simply refusing to leave, who are doing anything they can do to maintain their presence on the land and to maintain their identity."

Dr. Kevin McBride, Director of Research, Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center

"More and more people are forced to leave the reservation for economic reasons," explains Dr. Kevin McBride, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Connecticut and Director of Research at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. "The remaining 200 acres after 1855 is the poorest of the Mashantucket land. It’s very rocky, it’s very stony, there’s very little you can do to farm it. The majority of the individuals, particularly the men, are working off the reservation, whaling, farmhands, other kinds of industries."

Members of the Pequot tribe moved back and forth between Mashantucket and their jobs on local farms or in distant cities. Some settled off the reservation for good, and by 1910, fewer than 30 tribal members remained at Mashantucket. The conditions that had forced so many to depart showed no signs of letting up in the years ahead.