In their society, villages were organized by patrilineal clans with names appointed by animal totems.

[2] The indigenous people who settled in the area named it Hammonasset, which roughly translates to “where we dig the ground.”[3] They subsisted by fishing and hunting, and raised corn, beans, and squash.

[1] In 1640, Uncas, sachem of the Mohegan, added the daughter of Sebequanash of the Hammonassets to his several wives.

This marriage gave Uncas some type of control over their land which he promptly sold to New England colonists.

[citation needed] They were once a band of Quinnipiac people, who were recorded living near Guilford, Connecticut.