History books may now have to acknowledge what Theresa H. Bell, a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, has always felt in her heart: The Pequots did not disappear in the 17th century when, ravaged by the combination of a war with the colonists and smallpox, measles and other European diseases, the tribe supposedly succumbed to European culture and was assimilated.
That is what the gently rolling woodlands of southeastern Connecticut seem to say. And the secrets archeologists are unraveling here bring vindication to a group that was sometimes derided in the 1970's for seeking Federal recognition as a tribe, the purest Pequot being a one-eighth Pequot, and the accompanying right to operate a casino.
Now, profits from Foxwoods, the Pequots' 24-hour-a-day casino, are paying for a $135 million museum and research center to house evidence found mere footsteps away from the conspicuously turquoise-and-purple gambling hall. More than $1 million has been spent on the dig itself.
The findings unearthed by archeologists suggest that the Pequots not only endured but also maintained many native practices -- what they ate, how they cooked, how many family members lived together and more -- through at least the 18th century.
''We knew there had to be a story underneath the ground that hadn't been told,'' said Ms. Bell, granddaughter of Elizabeth George Plouffe, who pressed the dispersed tribe to reunite a quarter-century ago and was the founder of the modern Pequot nation. ''This just proves what our oral history says.''
The evidence backing Ms. Bell comes from the discovery of the trace remnants of a fortified Pequot village, probably built in 1670 and abandoned in 1675, and several 18th-century dwellings.
There are fragments of wampum, nuts, flint, tools, the oldest peach pit in the Northeast (probably) and much else. The biggest treasure is an earthenware cooking pot, as big as a pumpkin, pieced together from shards. Together, these clues tell how the Pequots hung on after they began their long slide in 1637. That year, after a series of raids by English colonists intent on taking the Pequots' land and taking over their fur trade, soldiers killed about half of the tribe in a battle at Mystic that lasted less than an hour. Then they burned down the Pequots' homes.
There is much work to do to before history could actually be revised, but many experts agree it should be. ''This archeology is really going to be important,'' said Kathleen J. Bragdon, an anthropology professor at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., who has visited the sites and is the author of ''Native Peoples of Southern New England.''
Kevin A. McBride, an associate professor of archeology at the University of Connecticut at Storrs who is the director of research for the Pequots, said: ''We now understand how they survived and maintained their cultural integrity. After all this is done, we will know, in terms of the Pequots, more about natives after their contact with the Europeans than has ever been known before.''
And he sees further ramifications. ''I believe that what we're finding here is not unique, that this has broader implications'' for other Indians of New England, he said. ''The individual decisions that each tribe made were different. But they made decisions that would assure and maintain their culture.'' He said the findings supported his belief that the tribes ''were not passive,'' as the colonists had said.
In addition to traces of the Pequots' staying power, Mr. McBride has also found material that places their ancestors backward in time: vestiges of a prehistoric camp site dating back 10,000 years, with hints, as yet unproven, of evidence from 11,000 years ago.
''Ten thousand years is very old for a documented site in New England,'' Dr. Bragdon said. ''There are others of that period in other parts of North America, but this is one of the first that shows continuous occupation in New England.''
Next June 1, the 361st anniversary of the massacre at Mystic, the tribe plans to open its museum complex, with Ms. Bell as executive director. It will devote 85,000 square feet to telling the tribe's story and 5,000 square feet to galleries for special exhibitions about the culture of other American Indians. It will also house a research center and library.
The complex, conceived 30 years ago, was one reason the tribe built Foxwoods, whose annual gross revenues approach $1 billion. Some of the profits, which have not been disclosed, have been invested in fisheries and a shipyard and used to make an annual payment to all 400 tribe members and pay fees to Connecticut. But some have always been earmarked for the research and the museum.
''We realized we'd need to generate a lot of money because we wanted to understand and find parts of our history and culture that had been lost for so many years,'' said Ms. Bell, whose own hopes were reinforced by memories of the bottles and arrowheads and other trinkets she found on the reservation as a child on her personal ''treasure hunts.''
Presumed Lost, Accidentally Found