Saconnet Indians. A band or small tribe living near Sakonnet Point, Newport County, Rhode Island, connected with the Wampanoag or the Narraganset. Under the woman chief Ashawonks they took the side of the English in King Philip’s War of 1675, and from her their land was purchased by the whites. In 1700 they numbered about 400; but in 1763 they were visited by an epidemic which considerably diminished their numbers, so that by 1803 they had dwindled to a dozen persons, living near Compton.  Their chief village bore the name of the tribe.