Mattabesset was a region and settlement once occupied by Algonquian language-speaking Native Americans called the Wangunk, along the Connecticut River.
However, it is widely known to be pronounced “Matta-bess-ic” despite usually being spelled “mattabesset” [citation needed] This region was occupied by the indigenous people named Wangunk.
[4]In 1650, the General Court of Connecticut sent researchers to the Mattabesett region, who concluded that Middletown and Chatham could support 15 families.
"[7] Archaeologist Bert Salwen writes, "Names like Nipmuck, Pocumtuck, and Mattabesec sometimes appear in the literature as designations for large 'tribes' or 'confederacies' (Speck 1928a: pl.
"[2] Both Salwen and Ives Goddard contest the idea of a "great Delaware-speaking Wappinger-Mattabesec confederacy stretching from the Hudson to the Connecticut" rivers.