The Collaborative International Dictionary
Narragansetts \Nar`ra*gan"setts\, prop. n. pl.; sing. Narragansett. (Ethnol.) A tribe of Indians who formerly inhabited the shores of Narragansett Bay.
Usage examples of "narragansetts".
This time, the perpetrators were Narragansetts (or a tribe subject to them), and although the Narragansett sachems immediately dispatched 200 warriors to avenge the deaths on behalf of the colony, the English sent Captain John Endecott to Block Island with orders to seize the Indians' stores of wampum, slaughter all the men they could find, and take captive the women and children for sale as slaves in the West Indies.
But the very competitiveness of the New England colonies made effective unified action against the Indians almost impossible, and it wasn't until the spring of 1637 that the disorganized colonial forces were able to enlist the aid of the Narragansetts, Eastern Niantics, and Mohegans--all rivals of the Pequots--in order to mount a counteroffensive.
On September 21, 1638, the Treaty of Hartford divided the Pequot prisoners of war as slaves among the allied tribes--Mohegans, Narragansetts, and Niantics--and further stipulated that no Pequot could inhabit his former country again.
Beginning about 1662, he stirred rebellion among the Narragansetts and the Nipmucks as well as his own Wampanoags.
The Wampanoags, Narragansetts, and Nipmucks lost a great many of their number.
The Narragansetts were suffered to browse on the branches of the trees and shrubs that were thinly scattered over the summit of the hill, while the remains of their provisions were spread under the shade of a beech, that stretched its horizontal limbs like a canopy above them.
At the foot they found the Narragansetts browsing the herbage of the bushes, and having mounted, they followed the movements of a guide, who, in the most deadly straits, had so often proved himself their friend.
As they were also sure of foot, the Narragansetts were greatly sought for by females who were obliged to travel over the roots and holes in the “new countries.
Knowing their lands would be taken from them bit by bit by the Narragansetts and that his people would be destroyed, the chief of Tenaco's people went to the white men and invited them to come and settle in his land, and he gave them choice land between his people and the Narragansetts.