This is the first comprehensive study of American Indians of southern New England from 1500 to 1650. Focusing on Natives in their own right, rather than on their relationship with Europeans, anthropologist Kathleen J. Bragdon portrays a unique people who maintained and developed their own culture despite the advancement of colonization.

Ninnimissinuok is the term Bragdon uses to designate the Natives of southern New England, who include the Pawtucket, Massachussett, Nipmuck, Pocumtuck, Narragansett, Pokanoket, Niantic, Mohegan, and Pequot. Bragdon discusses the common features of these groups as well as their significant differences.

To draw such a complex portrait, she makes frequent reference to the writings of European observers but balances that perspective with important evidence, some of it entirely new, from archaeology and linguistics. As a result, she corrects stereotypes of American Indians, both negative and positive, that originated from outsiders and persist to the present day.

Although she acknowledges the impact of the Europeans, Bragdon shows how internally developed customs and values were the primary determinants in the development of Native culture.

Employing current theory in anthropology and ethnohistory, Bragdon illuminates various aspects of Ninnimissinuok life, such as diet, farming and hunting, trade, diplomacy, politics, language, and spirituality. Of particular interest is her analysis of the role of Ninnimissinuok women, who contributed enormously to the economy of the region yet whose status was not commensurate with that of men.

With its wealth of detail on all aspects of southern New England Native life and its wide selection of drawings, photographs, and maps, this book is an indispensable reference for scholars as well as for anyone wishing to know more about the region's rich cultural past.