Canonchet

Canonchet (also Nauntenoo or Cononchet or Quanonchet, died April 3, 1676 He also maintained that traditional Native food sources, especially corn, were essential enough that it was worth risking capture to obtain them from contested regions. He proposed using the region of Northampton, Massachusetts as a refuge for children and the elderly.

These beliefs made Canonchet a target of colonial leaders, who commissioned Pequot, Mohegan, and Niantic executioners to kill him. The English decided to have Native executioners kill him because they believed, in the words of Increase Mather, that "those three Indian Nations are to become abominable to the other Indians [after killing Canonchet], and it is now their interest to be faithfull to the English, since their own Countrymen will never forgive them." His life was offered him on condition of making peace with the English, but he spurned the proposition. When informed that he was to be put to death, he said: "I like it well. I shall die before my heart is soft, and before I have spoken a word unworthy of myself." He asked to be executed by the Mohegan sachem Uncas, since he considered Uncas to be "his fellow Prince," as they were both sons of tribal chiefs. After being shot, drawn, and quartered as a traitor in Stonington, Connecticut on April 3, Canonchet's head was sent to colonial leaders in Hartford, Connecticut, who celebrated his death.