{{Short description|Narragansett Sachem and leader of Native American troops (died 1676)}} {{For|the village in Hopkinton, Rhode Island|Canonchet, Rhode Island}}
'''Canonchet''' (also ''Nauntenoo''<ref>:de:Elmar Engel Elmar Engel "Uncas, der letzte Mohikaner", Verlag Lamuv, 1999, Seite 193</ref> or ''Cononchet'' or ''Quanonchet'',<ref name="Drake">{{cite journal |last1=Drake |first1=James |date=March 1997 |title=Restraining Atrocity: The Conduct of King Philip's War |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/366526 |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=33–56 |doi=10.2307/366526 |jstor=366526 |access-date=23 October 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> died April 3, 1676<ref name="Sheldon1895" />) was a Narragansett Sachem and leader of Native American troops during the Great Swamp Fight and King Philip's War. He was a son of Miantonomo.
Canonchet was a leader of the separatist Native community, or those who did not ally with English colonialists and did not accept the authority of European settlers.<ref name="Drake" /> He developed a reputation for resisting the colonial leaders, who viewed him as "Ringleader of almost all this mischief, and great incendiary betwixt us [the English] and the Narragansetts," and who said that as "the son of Miantonomi, and heir of all his pride and insolence, as well as his malice against the English," Canonchet was "a most perfideous villain."<ref name="Sheldon1895" /> Once, when retreating from a group of Connecticut troops, he removed and threw down his European-style clothing as a way to symbolically challenge the ways of the settlers.<ref name="Castro">{{cite journal |last1=Castro |first1=Wendy Lucas |date=Spring 2008 |title=Stripped: Clothing and Identity in Colonial Captivity Narratives |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23546568 |journal=Early American Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=104–136 |doi=10.1353/eam.2008.0003 |jstor=23546568 |s2cid=145000015 |access-date=23 October 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Bennett">{{cite journal |last1=Bennett |first1=M. K. |date=October 1955 |title=The Food Economy of the New England Indians, 1605-75 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1826569 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=63 |issue=5 |pages=369–397 |doi=10.1086/257706 |jstor=1826569 |s2cid=154207490 |access-date=23 October 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Sheldon1895" /> After the Narragansetts were driven from their tribal lands, he is said to have said: "We will die, to the last man, but we will not be slaves to the English."<ref name="Slade">{{cite journal |last1=Slade |first1=M. B. C. |date=December 16, 1876 |title=Distinguished Indians |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44771663 |journal=New England Journal of Education |volume=4 |issue=23 |pages=272–273 |jstor=44771663 |access-date=23 October 2021}}</ref> He proposed using the region of Northampton, Massachusetts as a refuge for children and the elderly.<ref name="Sheldon1895">{{cite book | author = George Sheldon | date = 1895 | title = A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts: The Times when the People by Whom it was Settled, Unsettled and Resettled, Volume 1 | publisher = Press of E.A. Hall & Company | pages =145–147 | oclc = 1037205541 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=W2wWAAAAYAAJ}}</ref>
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."<ref name="Drake" />
Canonchet was surprised and captured in Narragansett territory on April 2, 1676.<ref name="Leach">{{cite journal |last1=Leach |first1=Douglas Edward |date=September 1961 |title=The "Whens" of Mary Rowlandson's Captivity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/362932 |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=352–363 |doi=10.2307/362932 |jstor=362932 |access-date=23 October 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Calloway" /> He was executed by the Mohegan sachem Oneco, the Pequot warrior Robin Cassacinamon, and the Niantic sachem Harman Garrett (or his son).<ref>''American National Biography'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) p. 34</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Richard Anson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aJAsAAAAYAAJ |title=History of the First Congregational Church, Stonington, Conn., 1674-1874: With the Report of Bi-centennial Proceedings, June 3, 1874. With Appendix Containing Statistics of the Church |date=1875 |publisher=T. H. Davis & Company |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Calloway">{{cite journal |last1=Calloway |first1=Colin G. |date=June 2006 |title=Review: [Untitled] |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4486074 |journal=The Journal of American History |volume=93 |pages=1 |doi=10.2307/4486074 |jstor=4486074 |access-date=23 October 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Pulsipher">{{cite journal |last1=Pulsipher |first1=Jenny Hale |date=2003 |title="Subjects... Unto the Same King": New England Indians and the Use of Royal Political Power |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25081179 |journal=Massachusetts Historical Review |volume=5 |pages=29–57 |jstor=25081179 |access-date=23 October 2021}}</ref><ref name="Drake" /><ref name="Sheldon1895" />
==References== {{reflist}} '''Attribution''' *{{Appletons'|wstitle=Miantonomo|year=1900}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canonchet}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:1676 deaths Category:17th-century Native American leaders Category:Native American people of the Indian Wars Category:Narragansett people Category:People of King Philip's War