The Niantic were a tribe of New England indians, who were living in Connecticut and Rhode Island during the early colonial period. The tribe appears to have been split into two regions by the intrusion of the Pequot.

The Niantic were an Algonquin speaking people. They lived on corn, beans, and squash, supplemented by hunting, fishing, and collecting.

Conflict broke out between the Niantic and their colonial neighbors, leading to punitive military expeditions that dealt out massive destruction in contrast to the rather limited incidents that had provoked the conflict. As the violence became more widespread it evolved into the Pequot War in 1637. This conflict resulted in almost total destruction of the Western Niantic.

Following King Philip's War, surviving Narraganset fled in such numbers to the Eastern Niantic and merged with them so that the amalgamation was sometimes referred to as the Narraganset tribe.