www.mohican.org
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Mohican Nation
Stockbridge-Munsee Band
by
Dorothy W. Davids*
Chairperson Historical Committee
*(See Acknowledgments)
*According to John W. Quinney, Hendrick Aupaumut
committed the oral history of the Mohicans to writing. In the
mid-1700's, a non-Indian took the manuscript to be published
and it was reportedly lost. When found, the manuscript's first
page was missing. Two versions of the manuscript exist: one
in the Massachusetts Historical Collection and one in Electa
Jones' book STOCKBRIDGE PAST AND PRESENT. What is meant by the
"north and west" and "waters where the land nearly touched"
is not known. The Bering Strait theory is questionable, based
on current research.
ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY
In the early 1700's, Hendrick Aupaumut, Mohican
historian, wrote that a great people traveled from the north
and west. They crossed waters where the land almost touched.*
For many, many years they moved across the land, leaving
settlements in rich river valleys as others moved on.
Reaching the eastern edge of the country, some of these
people, called the Lenni Lenape, chose to settle on the river
later renamed the Delaware. Others moved north and settled in
the valley of a river where the waters, like those in their
original homeland, were never still. They named this river the
Mahicannituck and called themselves the Muh-he-con-neok, the
People of the Waters That Are Never Still. The name evolved
through several spellings, including Mahikan. Today, however,
they are known as the Mohicans.
Because the Mohican people chose to build their homes
near the rivers where they would be close to food, water and
transportation, they were sometimes called River Indians.
Their homes, called wik-kums (wigwams), were circular and made
of bent saplings covered with hides or bark. They also lived
in longhouses which were often very large, sometimes as long
as a hundred feet. The roofs were curved and covered with
bark, except for smoke holes which allowed the smoke from fire
pits to escape. Several families from the same clan might live
in a longhouse, each family having its own section.
The Mohicans' lives were rooted in the woodlands in which
they lived. These were covered with red spruce, elm, pine,
oak, birch and maple trees. Black bear, deer, moose, beaver,
otter, bobcat, mink and other animals thrived in the woods,
as well as wild turkeys and pheasants. The sparkling rivers
teemed with herring, shad, trout and other fish. Oyster beds
were found beneath the river's overhanging banks for some
distance up the Mahicannituck. Berries, cherries and nuts were
abundant. It was a rich life.
Mohican women generally were in charge of the home,
children and gardens, while men traveled greater distances to
hunt, fish or serve as warriors. After the hunts and harvests,
meat, vegetables and berries were dried. These along with
smoked fish were stored in pits dug deep in the ground and
lined with grass or bark.
During the cold winter months, utensils and containers
were carved, hunting, trapping and fishing gear were repaired,
baskets and pottery were created, and clothing was fashioned
and decorated with colorfully dyed porcupine quills, shells
and other gifts from nature.
Winter was also the time of teaching. Storytellers told
the children how life came to be, how the earth was created,
why the leaves turn red, and so on. Historians also related
the story of the people: how they learned to sing, the story
of their drums and rattles, what the stars could teach them.
Children learned the ways of the Mohicans, their extended
family: how to relate to each person, as well as to all the
gifts of the Creator, and how to live with respect and peace
in their community. They also learned that they had
responsibilities, so they began to learn skills.
In early spring, the people set up camp in the Sugar
Bush. Tapping the trees, gathering the sap and boiling it to
make maple syrup and sugar was a ceremony welcoming spring.
There were many ceremonies during the year whenever something
needed special "paying attention to," such as the planting of
the first seeds - the corn, beans and squash - and the time
of harvest.
The Munsee, part of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware people,
settled near the headwaters of the Delaware River just west
of the Mohicans. Their lifestyles and languages were similar
to those of the Mohicans.
MOHICAN TERRITORY
The Mohican lands extended from what is now Lake
Champlain south nearly to Manhattan Island and on both sides
of the Mahicannituck (Hudson River), west to Scoharie Creek
and east into Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut.
The Mohicans never forgot that they were relatives of
many other tribes who had traveled with them over the
centuries. Mohican leaders often sent warriors to assist their
allies when they were in danger of being attacked. But these
were temporary alliances and did not result in a powerful
confederacy such as that of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois.
THE COMING OF THE EUROPEANS
In September 1609, Henry Hudson, a trader for the Dutch,
sailed up the Mahicannituck into the lands of the Mohicans.
He found himself in an area rich in beaver and otter, the
kinds of furs the Dutch most coveted. By 1614 a Dutch trading
post was established on an island later named Castle Island.
As the fur trade expanded and furs became more difficult
to find, tensions developed between the Mohicans and the
Mohawks, Haudenosaunee people to the west. Each group wanted
to maintain its share of the fur trade business, as well as
retain friendly relations with their European allies. Not only
did conflicts occur between the Mohicans and the Mohawks, but
the Native people also were caught in wars among the Dutch,
English and French. The Mohicans were eventually driven from
their territory west of the Mahicannituck. In the early
1700's, indebtedness, questionable land purchases and cultural
conflicts caused them to move farther east near the Housatonic
River in what were to become Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The Mohican economic pattern was greatly changed by
contact with the Europeans. They stopped making many
traditional items because new tools, iron kettles, cloth, guns
and colorful glass beads were available at the trading posts.
The English, who eventually replaced the Dutch in this area,
chose to "civilize" all the Native people in what they called
"New England." The vast lands, which the Mohicans had used for
gardens, hunting and fishing, began to have boundary lines and
fences when shared with non-Indians. Since their lands were
declared to belong to European monarchs by "right of
discovery," they found that they could not defend their
ownership in the courts of the colonists. As more and more
Europeans arrived, the Mohicans, like other Native people who
had traditionally depended upon themselves and the resources
of Mother Earth, found themselves dependent on white people
and what they could provide.
The coming of the Europeans into the lands of the
Mohicans affected them in another catastrophic way. Europeans
brought diseases with them: smallpox, measles, diphtheria,
scarlet fever. Native people, unfamiliar with these diseases,
had not built up an immunity to them, and hundreds of
thousands - sometimes whole villages at a time - perished.
These diseases greatly decreased the numbers of Mohicans.
European Christians with missionary zeal also entered
Native villages for the purpose of converting the people from
their traditional spiritual practices to Christianity. Some
Native people, noting that the Europeans seemed to be
prospering in this new land, felt that perhaps the Europeans'
God was more powerful, and agreed to be missionized. In 1734,
a missionary named John Sergeant came to live with the
Mohicans in their village of Wnahktukuk. He earnestly preached
the Christian religion, baptized those who accepted his
teaching, and gave them Christian names such as John, Rebekah,
Timothy, Mary and Abraham.
In 1738, the Mohicans gave John Sergeant permission to
start a mission in the village. Eventually, the European
inhabitants gave this place the name "Stockbridge," after a
village in England. It was located on the Housatonic River
near a great meadow bounded by the beautiful Berkshire
Mountains in western Massachusetts. In this mission village,
a church and school were built. The Mohicans, as well as other
Native people who relocated there, became known as the
"Stockbridge Indians."
Between 1700 and 1800, European countries battled for
control of the land called America. The French and Indian Wars
were really conflicts between England and France over
territories they had taken from the Native people who were
recruited to help them fight. The Revolutionary War and the
War of 1812 were fought between the American colonists and
England. The "Americanized" colonies no longer wanted to be
governed by the Mother country. The Stockbridge Mohicans, as
well as the Oneida, Tuscarora and other Native warriors,
supported the colonists in their revolution. In one battle,
the Battle of Van Cortlandt's Woods, a number of Stockbridge
Mohicans lost their lives. When the surviving warriors
returned home, they discovered that plans had already been
made to remove them from Stockbridge.
The lives of the Mohican people were drastically changed
by the fur trade, European missionaries, disease and war. All
of these worked together to cause a breakdown in their
traditional Mohican life and beliefs. Their spiritual
ceremonies were replaced by European customs. Fewer and fewer
of the people spoke the Mohican language; thus their thought
patterns about the natural world were altered. The ancient
arts of basket- and pottery-making continued, but other
seasonal occupations were abandoned. In order to survive, the
Stockbridge Mohican adopted the trades and behaviors of their
non-Indian neighbors: farming, lumbering, worshipping in
church, sending their children to schools. But as the
eighteenth century neared its last twenty years, their lives
were to change even more drastically.
REMOVALS WESTWARD
It became apparent after the Revolutionary War, with
their numbers greatly reduced and intruders (called
"settlers") using unscrupulous means to gain title to the
land, that the Stockbridge Mohican people were not welcome in
their own Christian village any longer. The Oneida, who had
also fought for the colonists in the war, offered them a
portion of their rich farmland and forest. The Stockbridge
Mohican accepted the invitation and moved to New Stockbridge,
near Oneida Lake, in the mid-1780's. Again they cleared
forests and built farms. A school, church, and sawmill were
built. The tribe flourished under the leadership of Joseph
Quinney and his counselors.
But land companies, desirous of making profits from the
land, proposed that New York State remove all Indians from
within its borders. The pressure for removal was great. John
Sergeant recorded in his journal of August 1818, "About
one-third of my church and one-fourth of the tribe (70 souls)
started from this place for White River." Their leader, John
Metoxen, led the group to the White River area in what is now
Indiana to settle among their relatives, the Miami and the
Delaware. When they reached their destination, after about a
year, they found that the Delaware had already been coerced
into selling the land.
Meanwhile, missionaries, agents from the state of New
York and commissioners from the War Department were
negotiating with the Menominee and Ho- Chunk (Winnebago) for
a large tract of land on which to relocate the New York
Indians in what is now Wisconsin. A treaty was negotiated in
1822. The Stockbridge Mohicans were on the move again. The
group that had traveled to Indiana with John Metoxen were the
first to arrive, and they began to build a village on the Fox
River at Grand Cackalin (Kaukauna), also called Statesburg.
For the next several years, those who had remained in New York
followed, traveling by foot, wagon or sometimes steamship on
the Great Lakes.
Perhaps the first English-speaking people in the state
were in the John Metoxen group. Electa Quinney, the first
public school teacher in Wisconsin, was a Stockbridge Indian
woman. The first Protestant minister, as well as the first
Christian Temperance Union, came with the Stockbridge Mohican
people. Again they established a church and a school.
But adopting the white man's religion and education did
not assure acceptance. As long as Native people held land,
they were subject to removal. As soon as the Fox River was
perceived to be a major waterway, forces prevailed upon the
Menominee to reconsider their negotiations. After final
negotiations, the Oneida settled in the Duck Creek area. The
Stockbridge and Brotherton were moved to areas on the east
shore of Lake Winnebago in 1834.
Meanwhile the federal government was forcing Indian
nations to agree to land session treaties, often physically
moving them to lands far distant and different from their
original homelands. In 1832, Congress had enacted President
Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act by which all Indians from
the east would be moved to lands west of the Mississippi
River. A group of Stockbridge Mohicans, fearing the
inevitable, moved to Indian territory in 1839. Many died while
making this journey. Some reached Kansas and Oklahoma and
married into other tribes. Most simply gave up and returned
to Wisconsin, which had gained statehood in 1848.
During this period a group of Munsee joined the people
at Stockbridge, Wisconsin, and were accepted into the
community. Known at first as the Stockbridge and Munsee,
eventually this community was simply called the
"Stockbridge-Munsee."
The federal removal policy caused dissension among the
people who remained in Wisconsin, which led to political
divisions in the tribe. Presented with the opportunity by
government agents, some Stockbridge people relinquished their
Indian status and became tax-paying citizens of the United
States, while others chose to retain their tribal membership
and form of government. New lands were explored, new moves
considered. As a result of the Treaty of 1856, the Stockbridge
and Munsee moved to the townships of Red Springs and Bartelme
in Shawano County. But the conflict between the Citizen Party
and Indian Party was to have repercussions for many years to
come.
RESERVATION
By the late 1800's, almost every Native nation in the
United States had been assigned to reservations. The
reservation land of the Stockbridge-Munsee was mostly covered
with pine forest. Farming was attempted but the land was sandy
and swampy and so forestry became the base of the economy.
However, services promised in treaties were inadequate and of
poor quality. Poverty prevailed for most people. Treasured
wampum belts and other cultural artifacts, craft materials and
even traditional clothing were sold to collectors for a
pittance.
In 1887 the General Allotment Act was passed by Congress.
This law divided up reservation lands and allotted portions
to individual people. This was not new to the Stockbridge
Mohicans, whose lands had been allotted in Massachusetts, New
York, Kaukauna, and "down below" in Stockbridge. The policy
proved to be a very successful way of removing land from
tribes by making it possible to deal with individuals who had
little experience with private ownership. Some people who
needed money sold their allotments to business dealers who
wanted the forest for lumbering. Some dealers connived to get
the land, and some elements were built into the Act of 1887
allowing lumber barons to secure unallotted lands. This
happened on the Stockbridge Reservation. The lumbering
companies cut down the trees and moved out, leaving land with
little economic value.
Some families sold lakeshore property in order to make
their mortgage payments on land they had purchased or to which
they held title. Other Indian individuals lost their
allotments because they were unable to meet tax or loan
payments. Thus the tribe began to see its reservation land
disappear. Hard times continued and grew even worse during the
Great Depression in the 1930's.
Some Americans were disturbed by the conditions to which
Native people had been reduced and by the prohibitions that
had been placed on them. Such a person was John Collier, an
advocate for American Indian people. After he was appointed
Commissioner of Indian Affairs by Franklin Roosevelt, he
prevailed upon Congress to pass the Indian Reorganization Act
(IRA). This law made it possible for Indian communities to get
funds from the federal government to reorganize their tribal
governments and retrieve some of the lands which they had
lost. The IRA, along with the tenacity of dedicated tribal
leaders during the hard years of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries - leaders such as Carl Miller and others
- made possible the continuation of the Stockbridge-Munsee
people as a nation.
It is ironic that the Stockbridge-Munsee regained about
15,000 acres in the township of Bartelme. This western portion
of the reservation lands had been clear cut, making it sub
marginal or useless and therefore eligible for repurchase for
American Indian use. Of the total 15,000 acres, however, only
about 2,500 were placed in trust for the tribe, now officially
called the "Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians."
Shortly after the mid-1930's, families began moving into the
rough buildings that were once the headquarters of the Brooks
and Ross Lumber Company. By the end of 1937, the tribe had a
new constitution based on a Bureau of Indian Affairs model,
and the Stockbridge-Munsee had a land base on which to rebuild
homes for the people.
A new tribal council was elected with Harry A. Chicks as
its president. The second president, Arvid E. Miller, was a
leader of his people for twenty-six years. He was one of the
founders of both the National Congress of American Indians and
the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council. In 1972, the remaining
13,000 acres of land were placed in trust, and tribal members
received compensation (about eighty cents an acre) for lands
that had been taken in eastern Wisconsin.
STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE TODAY
Today, on Shawano County Road A in northeastern
Wisconsin, a new sign announces the reservation of the MOHICAN
NATION. Circling the Many Trails symbol are the words
"Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians." The term
"Mohican Nation" acknowledges the tribe's sovereignty and its
government-to-government relationship with federal, state,
county and township governments. The words "Stockbridge-Munsee
Band of Mohican Indians" acknowledge the people's history.
The Stockbridge-Munsee Community is still located on this
reservation in Wisconsin, although enrolled tribal members
live in other parts of Wisconsin, the United States and the
world. The reservation boundaries encompass the two townships
of Red Springs and Bartelme.
Some of the tribe's families live on trust land which is
assigned to tribal members for their use. Others live on
privately-owned lands within the reservation boundaries, as
do some non-Indians. Approximately half of the tribal
population of about 1,500 live on or near the reservation.
Over the past sixty-some years, the Stockbridge-Munsee
have not only survived but the community has grown in many
ways. First of all, the forests have returned, and with the
forests so have deer, bear, waterfowl, wild turkeys and other
animals. People have reported seeing a white deer and also a
cougar.
Some early homes still provide shelter, including a few
stone houses that are now on the National Historic Registry.
However, mobile homes, apartments and more and more permanent
homes continue to add to the housing opportunities on the
reservation. New apartments for the elderly, called the
Moshuebee Apartments, are attached to the Elderly Center where
meals and other activities are provided.
Numerous structures are needed to house the tribal
government, the tribal court, legal department, MOHICAN NEWS
in the communications department, tribal administration and
roads department. The Mohican Family Center features a
full-size gym, exercise room, aerobics room, youth center, and
the Mohican campus of the College of Menominee Nation. In
addition, a new comprehensive health and wellness center,
including medical, dental and behavioral health facilities,
has recently opened.
The Pine Hills golf course has expanded to eighteen
holes, and the new clubhouse provides fine dining several
nights each week. The original clubhouse has also been
expanded and serves as a meeting hall and banquet facility.
The sand filter/wastewater treatment facility will provide
drinkable water to parts of the reservation, and several roads
are newly paved.
The pow-wow grounds have been groomed for the annual
gathering which is held the second weekend of August. The
sweatlodge is used frequently, and a new teaching lodge is
being planned.
The Mohican North Star Casino and Bingo enterprise can
be credited with much of the Mohican Nation's economic
progress. The casino is the largest employer in Shawano
County. Over half of the almost 600 employees are
non-Mohicans. The casino also contributes to the economy of
the county. Numerous buses arrive at the casino daily;
deliveries of casino and bingo supplies, foods and beverages,
fuel, paper products, cleaning supplies and other necessities
attest to the economic contributions of the casino in the
area. The recently opened Little Star Gas Station and
Convenience Store provides employment and service.
The children from the reservation attend school in the
Bowler and Gresham Public Schools. Many of the high school
graduates go on to college, technical school or a university.
Tribal members hold degrees in law, medicine, education,
engineering, architecture, science, fine arts and other
disciplines. The Stockbridge-Munsee Education Board oversees
programs meant to encourage students to progress in and
advance their education.
Back in the early 1970's, Bernice Miller requested space
from the Tribal Council for the purpose of preserving the
papers and artifacts of her late husband, Arvid E. Miller. An
active historical committee, consisting of elders and anyone
else interested in tribal history, committed themselves to
gathering everything that is known about the
Stockbridge-Munsee/Mohican people. A "ditto-machine" newspaper
was started and shared community news for about ten years.
Gathering history required travel to homelands in the
east. Since 1969 at least twenty research trips have been
made. Traveling in caravans of autos or by bus, youth and
elders have visited the Mission House and burial grounds in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Many climbed Monument Mountain.
Research has been done in the Stockbridge Historical Room, the
New York State Historical Library in Albany, the Huntington
Library in New York City and in numerous other libraries and
museums. As a result, the Arvid E. Miller Memorial Library
Museum is an excellent resource for students and scholars
involved in research. The Library Museum welcomes visitors
from near and far daily. It can also be visited on the tribe's
website www.mohican.com.
PUBLISHED BY THE
STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE
Arvid E. Miller Memorial Library Museum
N8510 Moh He Con Nuck Road
Bowler, WI 54416
Spring 2001
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28.3.2004