Quaiapen

Quaiapen (died 1676) (also known as Magnus or Matantuck or Old Queen or Watowswokotaus) was a Native American leader in Rhode Island who was a "Niantic female sachem (saunkskwa) through birth and marriage and was the last Narragansett-Niantic sachem to be captured or killed in King Philip’s War."[1]

Queen Quaiapen's stone fort (Queen's Fort) in Exeter

Quaiapen "was a sister of Ninigret and married Canonicus’ eldest son, Mixan (or Mexanno) in 1630. When Mixan died in 1657, she took control of his lands around Cocumscussoc."[2] Quaiapen and Mixan had " two sons, Scuttup and Quequakanewett, and a daughter Quinimiquet. A possible union with the Eastern Pequot leader Mamoho may have produced another daughter, Oskoosooduck."[3] By "1667, Quaiapen and Ninigret began a campaign against Metacom’s attempts to forge a Wampanoag-Nipmuck alliance, sending her men to attack the Nipmuck at Quantisset."[4] John Eliot attempted to mediate a dispute regarding a tribute between the Quantisset Nipmucs and Quaiapin.[5] After the Great Swamp Fight in December of 1675 many Narragansetts including Quaiapen retreated to southern swamps and the Connecticut River valley. After the Great Swamp massacre, Quaiapen spent time in Queen's Fort on what is now the Exeter/North Kingstown line. In the summer of 1676 when Sachem Quaiapen went with one hundred Narragansetts to northern Rhode Island to recovered caches of planting corn. While there the Connecticut militia with three hundred soldier along with one hundred Mohegan and Pequot soldiers attacked Quaiapen's group in the Second Battle of Nipsachuck in what is now North Smithfield where Quaiapen and many others were killed by Major John Talcott's forces while seeking refuge in a swamp.[6][7][8][9][10]