Uncasville, Connecticut
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Uncasville is an area in the
town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...
of Montville,
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 to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
, United States. It is a
village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the
Oxoboxo River The Oxoboxo River, shown on federal maps as Oxoboxo Brook, is a tributary of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It flows roughly in a southeasterly direction from its source at Oxoboxo Lake to its confluence with the Thames. ...
where it flows into the
Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
. The name is now applied more generally to all of the east end of Montville, which is the area served by the Uncasville ZIP Code. In 1994, the federal government officially recognized the
Mohegan Indian Tribe The Mohegan Tribe () is a federally recognized tribe and sovereign tribal nation of the Mohegan people. Their reservation is the Mohegan Indian Reservation, located on the Thames River in Uncasville, Connecticut. Mohegan's independence as a ...
of Connecticut, which had historically occupied this area as part of its traditional territory. That year Congress passed the ''Mohegan Nation (Connecticut) Land Claim Settlement Act.'' It authorized the United States to take land into trust in northeastern Montville for the Mohegan tribe's use as a reservation. Since gaining a reservation, in 1996 the tribe developed the
Mohegan Sun Mohegan Sun is an American casino, owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe on of their reservation, along the banks of the Thames River in Uncasville, Connecticut. It has of gambling space. It is in the foothills of southeastern Connecticut, ...
casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
resort. It has also built the
Mohegan Sun Arena The Mohegan Sun Arena is a 10,000 seat multi-purpose arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, located inside the Mohegan Sun casino resort. The arena facility features of configurable exhibition space and a clear span. It was built by the Perini Buil ...
on their land. The Mohegan are one of the Native American peoples who speak
Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic languages, Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language f ...
.


History

Uncasville was named by English colonists for
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 born n ...
, the 17th-century Mohegan
sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...
who became their ally. The Mohegan, originally part of the Algonquian-speaking
Pequot people The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or th ...
, became independent through the 17th and 18th centuries. They allied with English colonists during the
Pequot War The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place between 1636 and 1638 in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragans ...
of 1637. Uncas established a fortified village for defense, now known as
Fort Shantok Fort Shantok, in Montville, Connecticut, was the site of the principal Mohegan settlement between 1636 and 1682 and the sacred ground of Uncas, one of the most prominent and influential Mohegan leaders and statesmen of his era. Originally part o ...
, on an elevated site next to the
Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
. He later welcomed
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
colonists to the Mohegan lands. The European-American brothers John and Arthur Schofield established the first
woolen mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods s ...
in the United States in Uncasville. Their
carding Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver (textiles), sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving su ...
and
spinning Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
mill, dependent on water power, was located at the mouth of the
Oxoboxo River The Oxoboxo River, shown on federal maps as Oxoboxo Brook, is a tributary of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It flows roughly in a southeasterly direction from its source at Oxoboxo Lake to its confluence with the Thames. ...
.
Town of Montville Plan of Conservation and Development 2010
'', May 15, 2010
The Uncasville Manufacturing Corporation operated on the river into the early 20th century, as shown in the postcard image to the right. In the 1950s, the
Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Olin che ...
established a large manufacturing facility in the Sandy Desert section in northeastern Montville. In 1961, it formed a joint venture, the
United Nuclear Corporation The United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) was a diversified nuclear mining, development, and applications company based out of the United States. Formed in 1961 as a joint venture between the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, the Mallinckrodt Cor ...
, with Mallinckrodt Corporation of America, and Nuclear Development Corporation of America. They started with a total of 1400 employees, producing nuclear reactor fuel components for the United States Navy nuclear program.United Nuclear Corporation Naval Products Division
ColdWar-CT.com website, accessed June 11, 2011.
The site was near Trading Bay. Some parts of the program ended by 1976. After United Nuclear ceased its operations about 1990, the site was cleaned up of environmental hazards, decommissioned, and released for unrestricted use. The village designated this as a redevelopment area as designated by the village. During the colonial period, agents had sold traditional lands originally occupied by the Mohegan people and reserved for them by the colony; they became landless. European Americans assumed they would assimilate to the more numerous majority. In the 20th century the Mohegan reorganized and sought federal recognition through the formal administrative process, submitting thorough documentation to prove their community and cultural continuity despite the lack of land. At the same time, beginning in the 1970s, they pursued a land claim against Connecticut for having been deprived illegally of their traditional lands. In 1994, the
U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
granted federal recognition to the Mohegan tribe. Several months later, the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
passed the ''Mohegan Nation (Connecticut) Land Claim Settlement Act.'' It authorized the United States to take into trust the United Nuclear site for use as Mohegan reservation lands; with this, the law extinguished any other Mohegan land claims in Connecticut. In exchange, Congress approved the tribe undertaking gambling operations at the reservation site.Mohegan Nation (Connecticut) Land Claim Settlement Act, Pub. L. No. 103-377, § 2, 108 Stat. 3501 (1994) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 1775 (2006)) With its own reservation, the Mohegan developed gaming operations to generate revenue for tribal welfare. They opened the
Mohegan Sun Mohegan Sun is an American casino, owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe on of their reservation, along the banks of the Thames River in Uncasville, Connecticut. It has of gambling space. It is in the foothills of southeastern Connecticut, ...
casino on October 12, 1996, near the former Fort Shantok site above the Thames River. It has since been expanded into a large resort with hotels and other facilities.


Geography

Uncasville village is located in southeastern Montville near the confluence of the Oxoboxo and
Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
rivers. All of eastern Montville, located on the western shore of the Thames, is served by the Uncasville ZIP code, 06382, and is also known as Uncasville. The
U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
treats Uncasville village as part of the Oxoboxo River census-designated place. The Mohegan Sun resort is about north of Uncasville village.


Mohegan Sun

The
Mohegan Sun Mohegan Sun is an American casino, owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe on of their reservation, along the banks of the Thames River in Uncasville, Connecticut. It has of gambling space. It is in the foothills of southeastern Connecticut, ...
casino in Uncasville, established in 1996, has become one of the largest casinos in the world. It has more than . The associated resort complex includes a luxury hotel, entertainment theater, and around 50 restaurants and 35 stores.
Mohegan Sun website, accessed December 31, 2018
The
Mohegan Sun Arena The Mohegan Sun Arena is a 10,000 seat multi-purpose arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, located inside the Mohegan Sun casino resort. The arena facility features of configurable exhibition space and a clear span. It was built by the Perini Buil ...
, located in the complex, hosts concerts and live sporting events. It is the home court of the
Connecticut Sun The Connecticut Sun are an American professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut that competes in the Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was established ...
, a team of the
Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...
.


Notable people

* Stephanie Fielding, Mohegan language activist


References

{{Authority control Montville, Connecticut Villages in New London County, Connecticut Connecticut placenames of Native American origin Populated places on the Thames River (Connecticut) Mohegan