American histories have long held that in May 1637---"Connecticuts Birthday"---a small force of English colonists guided by Mohegan Native allies set out to break the back of Pequot dominion in New England. According to Alfred E. Caves The Pequot War and other accounts, the English and Mohegans supposedly marched "undetected" across multiple Indian territories, and at the Pequot village of Missituc on the Mystic River, trapped and killed between 300 and 700 men, women and children---thus launching the northern English colonies first "total war" against Native Americans.
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