An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 Indians subsisted in what is now Connecticut before the Europeans came. They comprised several tribes of the Algonkian language group. The Pequot, the most influential tribe, resided in the south near the Thames River. The Mohegan (or Mohican), an offshoot of the Pequot tribe, lived near present-day Norwich. In his novel The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper characterized the Mohegan chief, Uncas, as a model Indian. The Connecticut colonists feared the Pequot Indians because small raiding parties attacked their settlements. The Pequot perceived the colonists as a threat to their supremacy in the area. This mutual antagonism came to a head with the Pequot War of 1637, in which the Pequots were defeated. Other Connecticut tribes included the Niantic, Paugusset, Quinnipiac, Saukiog, Siwanog, Tunxis and Wangunk.