The Providence Cultural Equity Initiative organized the 10th Annual New England Native American Culture Week during the last week of September 2019 which included a Drum Social, the Big Drum Powwow and a presentation on Quaiapen, a female Sachem who was killed defending her territories in King Philip’s War on September 26th. Click here for a one-hour video of the presentation about Quaiapen.
(Above) Raymond Two Hawks Watson, Neesu Wushuwunoag, Pomham Sachem of the Mashapaug Nahaganset Tribe, gave a one-hour presentation on Quaipen, at the Roger Williams University College on Empire Street in Providence. He described Quiapen as a powerful Niantic female sachem through birth and marriage who was the last Narragansett-Niantic leader to be captured or killed in King Philip’s War (1675-1676).
(Above and below) Quaiapen, with perhaps 200 warrior, women and children survivors, reportedly took refuge in Queen’s Fort, a stone fort deep in the forests of what is now Exeter, some nine miles northeast of the site of the Great Swamp Fight.
During the summer of 1676, Quaiapen and her followers, mainly women and children, sought refuge from the hostilities of King Philip’s War in Nipsachuck Swamp, Following Quaiapen’s death at Nipsachuck Swamp in the summer of 1676, 80 Narragansett men surrendered to Major John Talcott and were killed in what is now called the Warwick massacre.
