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The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an
Eastern Algonquian The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...
Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, whose indigenous territory was to the south as far as the Atlantic coast. The Mohican lived in the upper tidal Hudson River Valley, including the confluence of the Mohawk River (where present-day
Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...
, developed) and into western New England centered on the upper Housatonic River watershed. After 1680, due to conflicts with the powerful Mohawk to the west during the Beaver Wars, many were driven southeastward across the present-day Massachusetts western border and the Taconic Mountains to
Berkshire County Berkshire County (pronounced ) is a county on the western edge of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,026. Its largest city and traditional county seat is Pittsfield. The county was founded ...
around Stockbridge, Massachusetts. They combined with Lenape Native Americans (a branch known as the Munsee) in Stockbridge, MA, and later the people moved west away from pressure of European invasion. They settled in what became
Shawano County, Wisconsin Shawano County (pronounced SHAW-no) (originally Shawanaw County) is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,881. Its county seat is Shawano. Shawano County is included in the Shawano, W ...
. Most eastern Native American populations were forced to reservations in Indian Territory during the 1830s, and other reservations in the American West later. Decades later the European invaders eventually formed the federally recognized Stockbridge-Munsee Community with registered members of the Munsee people and have a reservation, which was actually originally the land of the Menominee Nation. Following the disruption of the American Revolutionary War, most of the Mohican descendants first migrated westward to join the Iroquois
Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida ...
on their reservation in central New York. The Oneida gave them about 22,000 acres for their use. After more than two decades, in the 1820s and 1830s, the Oneida and the Stockbridge moved again, pressured to sell their lands and relocate to northeastern
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
under the federal Indian Removal Act.EB-Mohicans "Mohican" (history)
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007
A group of Mohican also migrated to
Ontario, Canada Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
to live with the predominately Iroquois Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. The tribe identified by the place where they lived: (or "people of the continually flowing waters"). According to Daniel G. Brinton and James Hammond Trumbull "two well-known authorities on Mohican history", the word refers to a body of water that flows in both directions, being tidal to most of its Mohican range, so they named the Hudson River , or the river with waters that are never still. Therefore, they, along with other tribes living along the Hudson River (such as the '' Munsee'' to their west, known by the dialect of Lenape that they spoke, and '' Wappinger'') to the south, were called "the River Indians" by the Dutch and English. The Dutch heard and transliterated the term for the people of the area in their own language, variously as: ''Mahigan'', ''Mahikander'', ''Mahinganak'', ''Maikan'' and ''Mawhickon'', among other variants, which the English later expressed as ''Mohican'' or ''Mahican'', in a transliteration to their own spelling system. The French, adopting names used by their Indian allies in Canada, knew the Mohican as the (or wolves). They referred to the Iroquois Confederacy as the "Snake People" (as they were called by some competitors, or "Five Nations", representing their original tribes). Like the Munsee and Wappinger peoples, the Mohican were Algonquian-speaking, part of a large language family related also to the
Lenape people The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
, who occupied coastal areas from western Long Island to the Delaware River valley to the south. In the late twentieth century, the Mohican joined other former New York tribes, including the
Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida ...
and some other Iroquois nations, in filing land claims against New York for what were considered unconstitutional purchases of their lands after the Revolutionary War. Only the federal government had constitutional authority to deal with the Indian nations. In 2010, outgoing governor
David Paterson David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...
announced a land exchange with the Stockbridge-Munsee that would enable them to build a large casino on in Sullivan County in the Catskills, as a settlement in exchange for dropping their larger claim in Madison County. The deal had many opponents.


Territory

In their own language, the Mohican identified collectively as the , "people of the waters that are never still". At the time of their first contact with
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
ans traders along the river in the 1590s, the Mohican were living in and around the Hudson River (or ). After 1609, at the time of the Dutch settlement of New Netherland, they also ranged along the eastern Mohawk River and the Hoosic River, and south along the Hudson to the Roeliff Jansen Kill, where they bordered on the Wappinger people. This nation inhabited the river area and its interior southward to today's New York City. Most of the Mohican communities lay along the upper tidal reaches of the Hudson River and along the watersheds of Kinderhook-Claverack-Taghkanic Creek, the Roeliff Jansen Kill, Catskil Creek, and adjacent areas of the Housatonic watershed. Mohican territory reached along Hudson River watersheds northeastward to Wood Creek just south of Lake Champlain.


Culture

The Mohican villages were governed by hereditary sachems advised by a council of clan elders. They had a matrilineal kinship system, with property and inheritance (including such hereditary offices) passed through the maternal line. Moravian missionary John Heckewelder and early anthropologist
Lewis H. Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social ev ...
both learned from Mohican informants that their matrilineal society was divided into three phratries (Turkey, Turtle, and Wolf). These were divided into clans or subclans, including a potentially prominent Bear Clan. This finding is supported by the evidence of Mohican signatures on treaties and land deeds (see the works of
Shirley Dunn Shirley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Shirley'' (novel), an 1849 novel by Charlotte Brontë * ''Shirley'' (1922 film), a British silent film * ''Shirley'' (2020 film), an American film * ''Shirley'' (album), a 1961 album by Shirley Bas ...
). A general council of sachems met regularly at Scodac (east of present-day Albany) to decide important matters affecting the entire confederacy. In his history of the Indians of the Hudson River, Edward Manning Ruttenber described the clans of the Mohican as the Bear, the Turkey, the Turtle, and the Wolf. Each had a role in the lives of the people, and the Wolf served as warriors in the north to defend against the Mohawk, the easternmost of the Five Nations of the Iroquois. Like the Munsee-speaking communities to their south, Mohican villages followed a dispersed settlement pattern, with each community likely dominated by a single lineage or clan. The villages usually consisted of a small cluster of small and mid-sized longhouses, and were located along floodplains. During times of war, they built fortifications in defensive locations (such as along ridges) as places of retreat. Their cornfields were located near their communities; the women also cultivated varieties of squash, beans, sunflowers, and other crops from the Eastern Agricultural Complex. Horticulture and the gathering and processing of nuts (hickory, butternuts, black walnuts and acorns), fruits (blueberries, raspberries, juneberries among many others), and roots (groundnuts, wood lilies, arrowroot among others) provided much of their diet. This was supplemented by the men hunting game (turkeys, deer, elk, bears, and moose in the Taconics) and fishing (sturgeon, alewives, shad, eels, lamprey and striped bass).


Language

The formally extinct
Mohican language Mohican (also known as Mahican, not to be confused with Mohegan, mjy, Mã’eekaneeweexthowãakan) is a language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a member of the Algic language family. It was spoken ...
belonged to the
Eastern Algonquian The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...
branch of the Algonquian language family.


History


Mohican Confederacy

The Mohican were a confederacy of five tribes and as many as forty villages. * ''Mohican proper'', lived in the vicinity of today's Albany (, "the fireplace of the Mahican Nation") west towards the Mohawk River and to the northwest to Lake Champlain and Lake George * , lived along the west shore of the Hudson River above the Catskill Creek *'' Wawyachtonoc'' (or , "eddy people" or "people of the curving channel"), lived in Dutchess County and Columbia County eastward to the Housatonic River in
Litchfield County Litchfield County is in northwestern Connecticut. As of the 2020 census, the population was 185,186. The county was named after Lichfield, in England. Litchfield County has the lowest population density of any county in Connecticut and is th ...
, Connecticut, main village was ''Weantinock'', additional villages: ''Shecomeco'', ''Wechquadnach'', ''Pamperaug'', ''Bantam'', ''Weataug'', ''Scaticook'' * ''Westenhuck'' (from , "on the other side of the mountains"), the name of a village near Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Often called the "Housatonic people", they lived in the
Housatonic Valley The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United ...
in Connecticut and Massachusetts and in the vicinity of Great Barrington, which they called , meaning "the place downstream" * ''Wiekagjoc'' (from , "upper reaches of a river"), lived east of the Hudson Rivers near the city of Hudson, Columbia County, New York


Conflict with the Mohawk

The Algonquians (Mohican) and Iroquois (Mohawk) were traditional competitors and enemies. Iroquois oral tradition, as recorded in the '' Jesuit Relations'', speaks of a war between the Mohawks and an alliance of the Susquehannock and Algonquin (sometime between 1580 and 1600). This was perhaps in response to the formation of the League of the Iroquois. In September 1609 Henry Hudson encountered Mohican villages just below present day Albany, with whom he traded goods for furs. Hudson returned to Holland with a cargo of valuable furs which immediately attracted Dutch merchants to the area. The first Dutch fur traders arrived on the Hudson River the following year to trade with the Mohicans. Besides exposing them to European epidemics, the fur trade destabilized the region. In 1614, the Dutch decided to establish a permanent trading post on Castle Island, on the site of a previous French post that had been long abandoned; but first they had to arrange a truce to end fighting which had broken out between the Mohicans and Mohawks. Fighting broke out again between the Mohicans and Mohawks in 1617, and with Fort Nassau badly damaged by a freshet, the Dutch abandoned the fort. In 1618, having once again negotiated a truce, the Dutch rebuilt Fort Nassau on higher ground. Late that year, Fort Nassau was destroyed by flooding and abandoned for good. In 1624, Captain
Cornelius Jacobsen May Cornelis Jacobsen Mey (in Dutch often rendered as Cornelius Jacobsz. May) was a Dutch explorer, captain and fur trader. Cape May, Cape May County, and the city of Cape May, New Jersey, are named after him. Russell Shorto, ''The Island at the Ce ...
sailed the upriver and landed eighteen families of Walloons on a plain opposite Castle Island. They commenced to construct Fort Orange. The Mohicans invited the Algonquin and Montagnais to bring their furs to Fort Orange as an alternate to French traders in Quebec. Seeing the Mohicans extended their control over the fur trade, the Mohawk attacked, with initial success. In 1625 or 1626 the Mohicans destroyed the easternmost Iroquois "castle". The Mohawks then re-located south of the Mohawk River, closer to Fort Orange. In July 1626 many of the settlers moved to New Amsterdam because of the conflict. The Mohicans requested help from the Dutch and Commander Daniel Van Krieckebeek set out from the fort with six soldiers. Van Krieckebeek, three soldiers, and twenty-four Mohicans were killed when their party was ambushed by the Mohawk about a mile from the fort. The Mohawks withdrew with some body parts of those slain for later consumption as a demonstration of supremacy. War continued to rage between the Mohicans and Mohawks throughout the area from Skahnéhtati (
Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
) to Kinderhoek Kinderhook.Reynolds, Cuyler. ''Albany Chronicles: A History of the City Arranged Chronologically'', J.B. Lyon Company, 1906
/ref> By 1629, the Mohawks had taken over territories on the west bank of the Hudson River that were formerly held by the Mohicans. The conflict caused most of the Mohican to migrate eastward across the Hudson River into western Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Mohawks gained a near-monopoly in the fur trade with the Dutch by prohibiting the nearby Algonquian-speaking tribes to the north or east to trade.


Stockbridge

Many Mohicans settled in the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where they gradually became known as the "Stockbridge Indians". , one of their chiefs, accompanied three Mohawk chiefs on a state visit to Queen Anne and her government in England in 1710. They were popularly referred to as the
Four Mohawk Kings The Four Indian Kings or Four Kings of the New World were three Mohawk chiefs from one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and a Mahican of the Algonquian peoples, whose portraits were painted by Jan Verelst in London to commemorate ...
. The Stockbridge Indians allowed
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
missionaries, including Jonathan Edwards, to live among them. In the 18th century, many converted to
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
, while keeping certain traditions of their own. They fought on the side of the British colonists in the French and Indian War (also known as the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
). During the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
, they sided with the colonists. In the eighteenth century, some of the Mohicans developed strong ties with missionaries of the Moravian Church from
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 1 ...
, who founded a mission at their village of in Dutchess County, New York. Henry Rauch reached out to two Mohican leaders, , also known as ; and , who took him back to Shekomeko. They named him the new religious teacher. Over time, Rauch won listeners, as the Mohicans had suffered much from disease and warfare, which had disrupted their society. Early in 1742, Shabash and two other Mohicans accompanied Rauch to Bethlehem, where he was to be ordained as a deacon. The three Mohicans were baptized on 11 February 1742 in John de Turk's barn nearby at
Oley, Pennsylvania Oley (also called Friedensburg) is a census-designated place (CDP) in northern Oley Township, Berks County, United States, located along Routes 73 and 662. The entire township is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Little Ma ...
. Shabash was the first Mohican of Shekomeko to adopt the Christian religion. The Moravians built a chapel for the Mohican people in 1743. They defended the Mohican against European colonists' exploitation, trying to protect them against land encroachment and abuses of liquor. On a 1738 visit to New York, the Mohicans spoke to Governor Lewis Morris concerning the sale of their land near Shekomeko. The Governor promised they would be paid as soon as the lands were surveyed. He suggested that for their own security, they should mark off their square mile of land they wished to keep, which the Mohicans never did. In September 1743, still under the Acting-Governor
George Clarke George Clarke (7 May 1661 – 22 October 1736), of All Souls, Oxford, was an English architect, print collector and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1702 and 1736. Life The son of Sir William Clark ...
the land was finally surveyed by New York Assembly agents and divided into lots, a row of which ran through the Indians' reserved land. With some help from the missionaries, on 17 October 1743 and already under the new Royal Governor George Clinton, Shabash put together a petition of names of people who could attest that the land in which one of the lots was running through was theirs. Despite Shabash's appeals, his persistence, and the missionaries' help, the Mohicans lost the case. The lots were eventually bought up by European-American colonists and the Mohicans were forced out of Shekomeko. Some who opposed the missionaries' work accused them of being secret
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Jesuits (who had been outlawed from the colony in 1700) and of working with the Mohicans on the side of the French. The missionaries were summoned more than once before colonial government, but also had supporters. In the late 1740s the colonial government at Poughkeepsie expelled the missionaries from New York, in part because of their advocacy of Mohican rights. European colonists soon took over the Mohican land.


Revolutionary War

In August 1775, the Six Nations staged a council fire near Albany, after news of Bunker Hill had made war seem imminent. After much debate, they decided that such a war was a private affair between the British and the colonists (known as Rebels, Revolutionaries, Congress-Men, American Whigs, or Patriots), and that they should stay out of it. Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant feared that the Indians would lose their lands if the Colonists achieved independence. Sir William Johnson, his son John Johnson and son-in-law Guy Johnson and Brant used all their influence to engage the Iroquois to fight for the British cause. The Mohawk, Onondaga,
Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada * Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinoi ...
, and Seneca ultimately became allies and provided warriors for the battles in the New York area. The
Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida ...
and
Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following: First nations and Native American people and culture * Tuscarora people **'' Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960) * Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people * ...
sided with the Colonists. The Mohicans, who as Algonquians were not part of the Iroquois Confederacy, sided with the Patriots, serving at the Siege of Boston, and the battles of Saratoga and Monmouth. In 1778 they lost forty warriors of their Stockbridge Militia, around half "Stockbridge Indians" who were remnants of both Mohican and Wappinger tribes, in a British attack on the land of the van Cortlandt family. (In 1888, the property became
Van Courtland Park Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. The park, the city's third-la ...
in the Bronx, New York.) The Battle of Kingsbridge decimated the troop's ranks."Death In the Bronx, The Stockbridge Indian Massacre August, 1778"
Richard S. Walling, americanrevolution.org
It received a commendation from George Washington, was paid $1,000 and dismissed.


Move to Oneida, New York

After the Revolution the citizens of the new United States forced many Native Americans off their land and westward. In the 1780s, groups of Stockbridge Indians, today regarded as
Stockbridge Munsee Stockbridge may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Stockbridge, Edinburgh, a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland * Stockbridge, Hampshire * Stockbridge, West Sussex * Stockbridge Anticline, one of a series of parallel east–west trending folds in t ...
, moved from Massachusetts to a new location among the Oneida people in central New York, who had been granted a reservation for their service to the Patriots, out of their former territory of . They called their settlement New Stockbridge. Some individuals and families, mostly people who were old or those with special ties to the area, remained behind at Stockbridge. The central figures of Mohican society, including the chief sachem, Joseph Quanaukaunt, and his counselors and relatives, were part of the move to New Stockbridge. At the new town, the Stockbridge emigrants controlled their own affairs and combined traditional ways with the new as they chose. After learning from the Christian missionaries, the Stockbridge Indians were experienced in English ways. At New Stockbridge they replicated their former town. While continuing as Christians, they retained their language and Mohican cultural traditions. In general, their evolving Mohican identity was still rooted in traditions of the past.


Removal to Wisconsin

In the 1820s and 1830s, most of the Stockbridge Indians moved to
Shawano County, Wisconsin Shawano County (pronounced SHAW-no) (originally Shawanaw County) is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,881. Its county seat is Shawano. Shawano County is included in the Shawano, W ...
, where they were promised land by the US government under the policy of Indian removal. In Wisconsin, they settled on
reservation __NOTOC__ Reservation may refer to: Places Types of places: * Indian reservation, in the United States * Military base, often called reservations * Nature reserve Government and law * Reservation (law), a caveat to a treaty * Reservation in India, ...
s with the Lenape (called Munsee after one of their major dialects), who were also speakers of one of the Algonquian languages. Together, the two formed a band and are federally recognized as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. Their 22,000-acre reservation is known as that of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and is located near the town of Bowler. Since the late twentieth century, they have developed the North Star Mohican Resort and Casino on their reservation, which has successfully generated funds for tribal welfare and economic development.


Land claims

In the late twentieth century, the Stockbridge-Munsee were among tribes filing land claims against New York, which had been ruled to have unconstitutionally acquired land from Indians without Senate ratification. The Stockbridge-Munsee filed a land claim against New York state for in Madison County, the location of its former property. In 2011, outgoing governor
David Paterson David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...
announced having reached a deal with the tribe. They would be given nearly in Madison County and give up their larger claim in exchange for the state's giving them 330 acres of land in Sullivan County in the Catskill Mountains, where the government was trying to encourage economic development. The federal government had agreed to take the land in trust, making it eligible for development as a gaming casino, and the state would allow gaming, an increasingly important source of revenue for American Indians. Race track and casinos, private interests and other tribes opposed the deal.Gale Courey Toensing, "Seneca Upset Over N.Y. Casino Agreement"
''Indian Country Today'', 26 January 2011
In 2011, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of the Mohican Indians regained ownership 156 acres along the Hudson River, a tract known as Papscanee Island Nature Preserve near East Greenbush and
Schodack Schodack is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 12,965 at the 2020 census. The town name is derived from the Mahican word, Escotak. The town is in the southwestern part of the county. Schodack is southeast of ...
. The land was donated to descendants of its indigenous inhabitants by the Open Space Initiative. Prior to colonization, the island was used for ceremonies by the Mohicans before it was acquired by Dutch merchant Kiliaen Van Rensselaer in 1637. The property is managed by Rensselaer County and the Rensselaer Land Trust for public access and protection, while owned by the Mohicans.Crowe, Kenneth C. II "Mohicans reclaim a key part of their New York ancestral lands" Albany times-Union. May 8, 2021 https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Mohicans-reclaim-a-key-part-of-their-New-York-16161219.php


Representation in media

James Fenimore Cooper based his novel, ''
The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is a historical romance written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826. It is the second book of the '' Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinde ...
'', on the Mohican tribe. His description includes some cultural aspects of the Mohegan, a different Algonquian tribe that lived in eastern
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...
. Cooper set his novel in the Hudson Valley, Mohican land, but used some Mohegan names for his characters, such as
Uncas Uncas () was a '' sachem'' of the Mohegans who made the Mohegans the leading regional Indian tribe in lower Connecticut, through his alliance with the New England colonists against other Indian tribes. Early life and family Uncas was bor ...
. The novel has been adapted for the cinema more than a dozen times, the first time in 1920. Michael Mann directed a 1992 adaptation, which starred Daniel Day-Lewis as a Mohican-adopted white man.


Notable members

*
Etow Oh Koam The Four Indian Kings or Four Kings of the New World were three Mohawk chiefs from one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and a Mahican of the Algonquian peoples, whose portraits were painted by Jan Verelst in London to commemorate ...
, Mohican sachem and one of the Four Indian Kings, who, with three Mohawk leaders, made a state visit to Queen Anne and her government in England in 1710. *
Hendrick Aupaumut Hendrick Aupaumut (1757-1830) was a Mohican historian and diplomat, born among the Stockbridge Indians in Massachusetts, United States, who were originally from the Hudson River Valley. He was educated by Moravians and converted to Protestantis ...
, (1757–1830) sachem, historian, and American Revolutionary War captain *
Steve Conliff Steven Conliff (November 24, 1949 – June 1, 2006) was a Midwestern-based Native American writer, historian, social satirist, alternative-media publisher and political activist in the 1960s and 1970s. Conliff is chiefly remembered for throwing ...
, (1949-2006) political writer, historian, Yippie activist *
Brent Michael Davids Brent Michael Davids (born June 4, 1959) is an American composer and flautist. Davids is a member of the Stockbridge Munsee Community, a Native American tribe. He has composed for Zeitgeist, the Kronos Quartet, Joffrey Ballet, the National Symp ...
, (b. 1959) composer/flautist * Bill Miller, (b. 1955) musician *
Electa Quinney Electa Quinney ( Mahican name: Wuh-weh-wee-nee-meew Quan-au-kaunt) (1798 – 1885) was a Mohican and member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. She founded one of the first schools in what would become Wisconsin and was the first woman to teach ...
, (1798–1885) first public teacher and school mistress in
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
*
John Wannuaucon Quinney John Wannuaucon Quinney (1797 – July 21, 1855) was a Mahican (also Stockbridge) diplomat, and was nicknamed "The Dish".Don Coyhis Don Lawrence Coyhis (born August 16, 1943) is an alcohol and addiction recovery counselor known for designing treatment programs primarily for Native Americans. He is the founder and president of White Bison, Inc., a non-profit charitable orga ...
(born August 16, 1943), addiction specialist, Native American health activist and author.Don Coyhis, 2009 Purpose Prize Winner
/ref> * Anthony Kiedis (born November 1, 1962), lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.


See also

* Native American tribes in Massachusetts


References


Bibliography

* Aupaumut, Hendrick. (1790)
"History of the Muh-he-con-nuk Indians", in ''American Indian Nonfiction, An Anthology of Writings, 1760s–1930s'' (pp. 63–71). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
* Nekatcit. ''The Celestial Bear Comes Down to Earth: The Bear Sacrifice Ceremony of the Munsee-Mahican in Canada as Related by Nekatcit'' Edited by Frank G. Speck in collaboration with Jesse Moses, Delaware Nation. Pub. 1945, Reading Public Museum. * Jones, Electa. (1854)
"Stockbridge Past and Present".
* Ruttenber, E. M. (1872)
"History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River; Their Origin, Manners and Customs; Tribal and Sub-Tribal Organizations; Wars, Treaties, Etc., Etc." Albany: J. Munsell History Series.
* Starna, William A.: ''From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600–1830.'' University of Nebraska Press, 2013. * Brasser, T. J. (1978). "Mahican", in B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp. 198–212). ''Handbook of North American Indian languages'' (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. * Cappel, Constance, "The Smallpox Genocide of the Odawa Tribe at L'Arbre Croche, 1763", ''The History of a Native American People'', Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2007. * Conkey, Laura E.; Bolissevain, Ethel; & Goddard, Ives. (1978). "Indians of southern New England and Long Island: Late period", in B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp. 177–189). ''Handbook of North American Indian languages'' (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. * Salwen, Bert. (1978). "Indians of southern New England and Long Island: Early period", in B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp. 160–176). ''Handbook of North American Indian languages'' (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. * Simpson, J. A.; & Weiner, E. S. C. (1989). "Mohican", ''Oxford English Dictionary''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Online version). * Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978–present). ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 1–20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. * Trigger, Bruce G. (Ed.). (1978). ''Northeast'', ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 15). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohican Algonquian peoples Native American tribes in Massachusetts Native American tribes in New York (state) Shawano County, Wisconsin Stockbridge, Massachusetts Native American tribes in Wisconsin Algonquian ethnonyms Extinct languages of North America People of New Netherland American Indian reservations in Wisconsin Native Americans in the American Revolution