{{short description|Extinct Native American tribe from Connecticut}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Potatuck | image = | image_caption = | popplace = {{Flag|United States}} ({{Flag|Connecticut}}) | population = Extinct as a tribe (merged into the Schaghticoke) | languages = an Eastern Algonquian language | religions = Indigenous religion | related = Other Algonquian peoples }} The '''Potatuck''' (or '''Pootatuck''') were a Native American tribe in Connecticut. They were related to the Paugussett people, historically located during and prior to the colonial era in western Connecticut. They lived in what is now Newtown (in Fairfield County), Woodbury (in Litchfield County), and Southbury (in New Haven County), and along the whole Housatonic River.<ref name="Peg">{{cite news|last1=Raacke|first1=Peg|title=Town History: Housatonic Valley Indians|publisher=Citizen News (New Fairfield)|date=April 28, 1977}}</ref> One of their last sites of habitation, Little Pootatuck Brook Archeological Site, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After losses due to epidemics and warfare, they merged in the early 18th century with other remnant Native American groups in the area, forming the Schaghticoke tribe.
== Name and eponyms == The Potatuck have also been listed as Poodatook, Pootatook, Pudaduc, and Pudatuck in historical literature.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Laura E. Conkey |author2=Ethel Boissevain |author3=Ives Goodard |author1-link=Indians of Southern New ENgland and Long Island: Late Period |editor1-last=Trigger |editor1-first=Bruce G. |title=Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15: Northeast |date=1978 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington, DC |isbn=978-0160045752 |page=188}}</ref>
Prior to the 18th century, the Housatonic River was alternatively known as the Pootatuck River. Accounts differ on the origin of this name, with some claiming that Pootatuck is an Algonquian term translating to "river of the falls"<ref name = "HVA">Housatonic Valley Association. Cornwall Bridge, CT. [http://www.hvatoday.org/about-the-housatonic-valley/exploring-the-valley/history-of-the-housatonic-valley/ "History of the Housatonic Valley."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002070340/http://www.hvatoday.org/about-the-housatonic-valley/exploring-the-valley/history-of-the-housatonic-valley/ |date=2015-10-02 }} Accessed 2015-10-1.</ref><ref name="Peg"/> while others relate the term was eponymous, reflecting the name of the tribe.<ref name="cothren1854">{{cite book|last1=Cothren|first1=William|title=History of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut, from the first Indian deed in 1659 ... including the present towns of Washington, Southbury, Bethlehem, Roxbury, and a part of Oxford and Middlebury|date=1854|publisher=Bronson Brothers|location=Waterbury, Conn.|page=11|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofancient02coth#page/10/mode/2up/search/pootatuck|access-date=13 October 2017}}</ref> "Pootatuck River" eventually came to refer a lesser tributary in the Housatonic watershed which empties into the Housatonic River at Sandy Hook, Connecticut.<ref name="tunutmeg">{{cite web|title=Pootatuck River & Deep Brook - Nutmeg Trout Unlimited|url=http://www.nutmegtrout.org/fishing/where-to-go/pootatuck-river/|website=Nutmeg Trout Unlimited|publisher=Trout Unlimited: Nutmeg Chapter|access-date=13 October 2017|archive-date=30 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930155919/http://www.nutmegtrout.org/fishing/where-to-go/pootatuck-river/|url-status=live}}</ref>
Pootatuck State Forest also bears the name of the tribe.
== Subsistence == Like neighboring tribes such as the Paugusset, the Potatuck were a farming and fishing culture. The women cultivated varieties of their staple crops, such as corn, squash, and beans, as well as the tobacco valued for ritual use. They also gathered berries, nuts, and other natural resources. The men fished in freshwater much of the year, and hunted deer and small game. They may have traveled to the coast of Long Island Sound to fish from saltwater in summer months.<ref>{{cite book |ref={{SfnRef|Brilvitch|2007}} |author=Charles W. Brilvitch |author-link= |title=A History of Connecticut's Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe |year=2007 |publisher=The History Press |location= |pages=13–14 |quote= | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KSzS0H0IU4kC&pg=PA13 |isbn=978-1-59629-296-3 }}</ref>
==Post-encounter history == {{main|Schaghticoke tribe}} Many of the remnant Potatuck merged with survivors of the Weantinock, Mohegan, and other Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, after losses due to epidemics and warfare from European colonization pressures. They formed the Schaghticoke tribe in western Connecticut and eastern New York. The Connecticut colony granted them a 2,500-acre reservation in 1736, with territory on both sides of the Housatonic River. Through the 19th and early 20th centuries, state-appointed agents sold off essentially all the land to the east, reducing the reservation to about 400 acres of territory on the west bank of the river.<ref>[http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/article/schaghticoke-tribal-nation-continues-land-rights-struggle-146661 Gale Courey Toensing, "Schaghticoke Tribal Nation Continues Land Rights Struggle"], ''Indian Country Today'', 31 December 2012</ref>
== Descendants == These descendants are part of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, which recognized as a tribe by the state of Connecticut, but not federally recognized as a Native American tribe by the US Department of the Interior. In 2011, the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation was recognized by a state court as the governing authority and legitimate legal successor to the historic tribe.<ref>[http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/article/schaghticoke-tribal-nation-seeks-to-regain-rightful-status-35230 Gale Courey Toensing, "Schaghticoke Tribal Nation Seeks to Regain Rightful Status"], ''Indian Country'', 31 May 2011, accessed 17 March 2013</ref>
==Notable members== *Nonnewaug, an 18th-century leader<ref name="cothren"/> *Pomperaug, a 17th-century leader, succeeded by Aquiomp<ref name="cothren">{{cite book |last1=Cothren |first1=William |title=History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut, from the first Indian deed in 1659 ... including the present towns of Washington, Southbury, Bethlem, Roxbury, and a part of Oxford and Middlebury |date=1872 |location=Woodbury, Conn. |url=https://www.cga.ct.gov/hco/books/History_of_Ancient_Woodbury.pdf |access-date=23 August 2025|volume=2}}</ref> *Squantz, an 18th-century leader<ref name=sfn>{{cite web |title=Schaghticoke History |url=https://www.schaghticoke.info/schaghticoke-history-1 |website=Schaghticoke First Nations |access-date=26 August 2025 |language=en}}</ref> *Waramaug, an 18th-century leader and successor to Squantz<ref name=sfn/>
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Extinct Native American tribes Category:History of Fairfield County, Connecticut Category:Native American history of Connecticut Category:Native American tribes in Connecticut