The Mystic Massacre was an armed invasion of a Pequot village at Mystic, Connecticut in New England that took place on May 26, 1637, during the Pequot War of 1636. The relentless struggle among the Native tribes for sovereign control of the European fur trade led to a series of murders and raids that finally culminated in the Pequot War, pitting the dominant Pequot tribe against its close relatives (now turned enemies), the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes, which were allied with English colonists.
Prior to the arrival of the Dutch in 1611, the Pequot and Mohegan tribes existed together as a united entity. However, that changed after the discovery of an abundance of beautiful Native American shelled beads and beaver fur in the territory. The subsequent cultivation of the fur trade made it the biggest and most lucrative business in the region, and heralded the dawn of a period of animosity and rivalry between the tribes.
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