Schaghticoke (tribe)

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The Schaghticoke are a Native American tribe of the Eastern Woodlands consisting of descendants of Mahican (also called "Mohican", but not to be confused with the Mohegans), Potatuck (or Pootatuck), Weantinock, Tunxis, Podunk, and other people indigenous to what is now Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts, who amalgamated after encroachment of white settlers on their ancestral lands. Their 400 acre (1.6 km²) reservation (map)[1] is located on the New York/Connecticut border within the boundaries of Kent in Litchfield County, Connecticut running parallel with the Housatonic River. One of the oldest reservations in North America, reserve land was granted to the Schaghticoke in the year 1736 by the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut, 40 years prior to the formation of the United States. The language/culture base is Algonquian with Iroquois influence. Tribe members trace their heritage to the first sachem, Gideon Mauwee, through his grandson Truman Bradley.

Schaghticoke is pronounced /ˡskæt.ə.koʊk/ SCAT-uh-coke or /ˡskæt.ə.kʊk/ SCAT-uh-cook (early colonial spelling: Scaticook) derived from an Algonquian word Pishgoch-ti-goch meaning "Where the river forks." Schaghticoke (village), New York, between the city of Troy in eastern NY and Bennington, VT, took its name from this tribe.