“River History” by Dr. Eileen Fielding. Simsbury, CT: The Farmington Watershed Association, 2014.
Dr. Fielding, Director of the Farmington Watershed Association, gave a presentation on the history of the Farmington River in 2014. She was kind enough to export that presentation on a disc for future use. Dr. Fielding provides facts on what types of fish live in the Farmington, and also the relationship the natives had with the Farmington River who lived alongside or near it.
Spiess, Mathias. The Indians of Connecticut. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1933.
Mathias writes about Connecticut natives in pre-contact times in relation to dominating outside tribes, and then describes the history behind the different English settlements in the Connecticut and Farmington River Valleys. The author tries to connect each tribe, and is one of the only authors so far who have claimed the Massacoe had absolutely nothing to do with the Tunxis natives.
Roberts, George S. Historic Towns of the Connecticut River Valley. Schenectady, NY: Robson & Adee Publishers, 1906.
In this book, one can find a description of the histories of mostly every major town in the Connecticut River Valley. Roberts specifically provides the history of Farmington and Bloomfield, which used to be called Wintonbury, and included parts of Simsbury. The author mentions an Indian Deed of 1660 that describes the land as wilderness.
Guilette, Mary E. American Indians in Connecticut: Past to Present. Aetna Life and Casualty, 1979.
In her book, Guilette gives an overview of tribes and customs in Connecticut throughout time. The author does a great job at providing information about population estimates in Connecticut at the time of settler-native contact, distinguishes between the different tribes of Connecticut and then describes native ways of life.
DeForest, John W. History of the Indians of Connecticut. Hartford, CT: WM. Jas. Hamersley, 1852.
DeForest tells the history of the natives in Connecticut. Along with giving a greater historical context to the surrounding Farmington Valley region, DeForest includes important facts and speculations about the Tunxis and Massacoe tribes. This includes population and relationship between the two.
Banks, Marc and Lucianne Lavin. Archaeological Site Sensitivity Analysis of the Town of Simsbury. Simsbury, CT: Simsbury Planning Department, 2002.
Banks and Lavin write a summary of an archaeological survey of Simsbury. Included are old maps, copies of deeds from the natives, and descriptions of finds based chronologically. What might be extremely useful are maps of Simsbury that indicate what locations had finds, and which locations might have the most finds if excavated. This source might tell us the most specifically about the Massacoes that lived here for thousands of years.
Wilcox II, U. Vincent. “The Lewis-Walpole Site of Farmington, Connecticut: A Preliminary Report”. ASC 35 (1967): 5-48.
Wilcox gives details on the finds at the Lewis-Walpole Site in Farmington, Connecticut. The author lists all finds, and describes how many of each item was found.
Banks, Marc. “Aboriginal Weirs in Southern New England”. ASC Bulletin 53 (1990): 73-83.
Bancs writes a brief, yet informative essay about what fishing weirs are, how they were used, and how they were built in pre-contact and post-contact times. The essay provides details on known locations of old weir sites, what natives might have caught and the complexity of finding the ruins of an old weir today.
Trocchi, Jim. Connecticut Indians. Windsor Historical Society.
Trocchi writes informatively about the natives of the Farmington Valley, and in Connecticut. Included are details about types of food, housing structure, language, individual tribes and possible sites in the Northwest corner on Connecticut.
Stiles, Henry R. The History of Ancient Windsor. Vol. 1. Hartford, CT: Press of the Case, Lockwood, and Brainard, 1891.
Stiles’ lengthy work includes not only the history of Windsor, but also the histories of all areas that surround Windsor in the Connecticut River Valley. Stiles includes important and useful quotes from letters and court decisions related to the settlement of Simsbury, and the natives in that territory.