New Haven.

Early in the colonial period Europeans conceived the idea of taking most of the land in a particular area for their own use and setting aside undesirable lands for use by native peoples. In New England a combination of military defeats and diseases weakened native peoples' will to resist. In November 1638 the Puritan leaders of the colony of New Haven forced the surviving members of the Quinnipiac tribe (who numbered fewer than sixty) to surrender land around the mouth of the Quinnipiac River and its harbor. The Indians were allowed to keep about twelve hundred acres east of the river's mouth. The Quinnipiacs agreed to have little or no contact with the English and were required to obtain the consent of the Puritan colonists before admitting any outside Indians to their reservation. The English had the right to appoint a superintendent to oversee...