The Niantic (or, in their own language, the Nehântick or Nehantucket) are divided by the due to intrusions of the Pequot into an eastern and a western division.

The Western Niantic are subject to the Pequot and live just east of the mouth of the Connecticut River while the Eastern Niantic have become very close allies to the Narragansett.

The division of the Niantic has become so great that the language of the eastern Niantic is classified as a dialect of Narragansett while the language of the western Niantic is classified as Pequot-Mohegan.

The Niantic are an Algonquian speaking people, speaking an Algonquian Y-dialect, similar to their neighbors the Pequot, Montaukett, Mohegan, and Narragansett.

The tribe's name "Nehantic" (Nehântick) means "of long-necked waters" believed by local residents to refer to the "long neck" or peninsula of land now known as Black Point; located in the village of Niantic, Connecticut.

The Nehântics spend their summers fishing and digging the abundant shellfish here.

They live on corn, beans, and squash, supplemented by hunting, fishing, and collecting.