 More locally they were one of a number of Native communities in the lower Connecticut River Valley who shared common cultural traits.In 1634, shortly after English colonists migrating from the Massachusetts Bay Colony moved into the region, a smallpox epidemic swept through the region, killing many of the natives; the Tunxis people would have been as affected as the other groups.At the time the English colonization began, the main settlement of the Tunxis was on the Farmington River, some distance upstream from its confluence with the Connecticut River.