Mohegan

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The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in eastern (upper Thames valley) Connecticut.[1] The Mohegan are originally a conjoined tribe with the Pequot until the contact period of the 17th century. They were briefly ruled over by the Pequot in the 1630s until 1637.[1] The tribe gained federal recognition in 1994.

Contents

[edit] History

The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe which lives in much of the upper Thames valley in the U.S. state of Connecticut.[2] The Mohegan tribal economy was based on farming of corn (maize), hunting, and fishing[2] and is now based on Casino revenue from Mohegan Sun Casino and various other tribal revenue sources.

Their first encounter with Europeans was with the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block in 1614. Between 1614 and 1624 fur trade along the banks of the Connecticut with the Dutch reached 10,000 furs annually. Early in the 17th century, during the initial European settlement of New England, both the Mohegan and the Pequot tribes were ruled by the Pequot sachems Tatobem and Sassacus.[2] Later, a rebellion led by the sub-sachem, Uncas, garnered Mohegan independence.[2]

Following the destruction of the Pequot tribe in the Pequot War of 1637, the majority of the Pequot survivors and the former Pequot territories entered Mohegan control.[2] In 1638, the sachem Uncas strengthened their position by becoming a tributary to the Connecticut River Colony.[3] In 1643, they went to war with and defeated the Narragansetts.

The Mohegan allied themselves with the English against other Indian tribes in King Philip's War. At the end of this war, the Mohegan tribe was the only important tribe remaining in southern New England.[2] When Uncas died in 1683, Mohegan territory had shrunk, the main holding remaining was an eight by four mile tract along the Connecticut river between Norwich and New London. Uncas' son Owaneco become the Mohegan leader after Uncas' death. When Owaneco died in 1715 his son Caesar was sachem until 1723.

Large number of Mohegans joined with Connecticut forces in King William's War and Queen Anne's War.

European settlements eventually displaced the Mohegan, and their numbers shrank. In 1705, a court of royal commissioners was created to rule on the legality of the appropriation of Mohegan land. The court ruled in Mohegan favor and declared the Mohegans should be put in possession of all lands they held at the time of Uncas' death. This ruling was not put into affect. This legal dispute continued until 1773 when it was finally ruled that Uncas had bequeathed the deeds to all of the Mohegan land to the English.

Many of the Mohegan tribe scattered, joining into other nearby Indian settlements. The Mohegan people reorganized as a tribe, gaining federal recognition in 1994.[4]

[edit] Present Day

A number of descendants of mixed ancestry remain in the region of Norwich, Connecticut.[2] The Mohegan tribe operates and owns the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino and the Mohegan Sun Arena on the tribe's reservation in the village of Uncasville, in the town of Montville, Connecticut.

[edit] Synonymy

Although similar in name, the Mohegans are a different tribe from the Mahicans. Both tribes have been referred to as Mohicans, a source of confusion based upon a mistake in translation[5] Adriaen Block who was one of the first Europeans to refer to both tribes, distinguished between the "Morhicans" and the "Mahicans, Mahikanders, Mohicans,(or) Maikens".[5]

The Mahicans came from the Hudson River Valley (around Albany, NY). Many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts after 1780, before the remaining descendants moved to Wisconsin during the 1820s and 1830s.[6] [2]

The Mohegan tribe, in contrast to the Mahikans, has mostly remained in New England. Some of the Mohegan tribe scattered[2] (and many moved near the Mahican tribe in New York, also going to Wisconsin). [4] Many descendants of the Mohegan tribe presently live in Connecticut.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b "Mohegan" (history), Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007, webpage: EB-Mohegan.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Mahican" (history), Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007, webpage: EB-Mahican.
  3. ^ Oberg, p. 85
  4. ^ a b "Mohegan History" (detailed), Lee Sultzman, 1997-07-14, webpage: DS-Moh.
  5. ^ a b William C. Sturtevant General Editor), Bruce G. Trigger (Volume Editor). Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15, Northeast. Smithsonian Institution, Washington (1978). 
  6. ^ "Mohican" (history), Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007, webpage: EB-Mohicans.

[edit] References

  • 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.
  • Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
  • Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-74624-5.
  • Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne. (1979). Introduction: North American Indian historical linguistics in current perspective. In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment (pp. 3-69). Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Oberg, Michael Leroy, Uncas, First of the Mohegans, 2003, ISBN 0801438772

[edit] External links

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