On May 26, 1637, the Pequot massacres began with the Mystic Massacre during the Pequot War, one of the first major conflicts between colonists and Native Americans in New England. In a pre-dawn raid, English settlers and their Native American allies set fire to a Pequot village near the Mystic River in Connecticut, killing hundreds of men, women, and children. This brutal event signaled a violent, transformative period in colonial American history, significantly impacting the Native peoples of the northeastern United States.
