Mohegan
Encyclopedia
The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian
-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River
valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf"http://www.mohegan.nsn.us/heritage/ourTraditions.aspx. At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot
were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region. Before the early 17th century, under the leadership of Uncas
, the Mohegan became a separate tribe, independent of the Pequot. They briefly came under Pequot rule in the 1630s until the colonists destroyed the dominant tribe in 1637 in the Pequot War
.
Many members live on the Mohegan Reservation at 41°28′42"N 72°04′55"W in Montville
, New London County
. The tribe gained federal recognition in 1994. Its original petition for federal recognition was submitted in 1978 by Chief Rolling Cloud Hamilton. It operates the Mohegan Sun
Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut
, as well as a casino at Pocono Downs, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
. They also own the WNBA
team, the Connecticut Sun
. There are at least two bands that are independent of the federally recognized band.
, traditionally based in present-day eastern New York, who are also an Algonquian-speaking people. In the United States, both tribes have been referred to in various historic documents as Mohicans, a source of confusion based upon a mistake in translation. The Dutch
Adriaen Block
, one of the first Europeans to refer to both tribes, distinguished between the "Morhicans" and the "Mahicans, Mahikanders, Mohicans, [or] Maikens". Some people confuse the Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk
of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) with the Mohegan, but they belong to two different language families and were historical enemies.
The Mahican were historically located in the Hudson River Valley (around Albany, New York
). Their traditional meeting ground was in Schaghticoke. Under pressure during the American Revolution
, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts
after 1780, where they became known as the "Stockbridge Indians" or Stockbridge Munsee. Descendants removed to Wisconsin
during the 1820s and 1830s. Most descendants of the Mohegan tribe, in contrast, have remained in New England; the Mohegan have a reservation in Connecticut
.
report made by the anthropologist, Frank Speck
, who lived with her. It was only some 70 years later that her descendants returned to the land to found Mohegan Sun. Gladys Tantaquidgeon
filled a multi-generational gap in language knowledge, and the tribe is working to revive its language.
In 1978, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) established a procedure for tribes to petition for federal recognition as sovereign nations. In that year, under the authority of the Council of Descendants, Hamilton submitted the Mohegan Tribe's first petition for Federal recognition.
The Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut (MTIC), the federally recognized "Mohegan Sun" group, does not acknowledge John Hamilton as Grand Sachem. According to their published material, Harold Tantaquidgeon was their Chief prior to the era of Federal recognition. Harold Tantaquidgeon's Mohegan heritage enriched his work with the Boy Scout Troop that he led. His mother, Gladys, the Tribe's medicine woman, operated the Tribe's museum.
In 1970 the Montville faction of the Mohegans, led by Courtland Fowler, expressed their dissatisfaction with Hamilton's land-claims litigation and sought a new leader. The Hamilton supporters were said to have left the meeting. The remainder elected Fowler as their new leader. Notes of that Council meeting, however, refer to Hamilton as "Sachem."
The tribe worked with the attorney (Jerome Griner) to press land claims through the 1970s, under John Hamilton's direction. These actions were opposed by the Fowler faction. Jayne Fawcett was active in a property owners' organization, with native and non-native members, which opposed the Hamilton land claims and the petition for federal recognition. Fawcett later served as the "Ambassador" of the MTIC, and she has written four books on Mohegan culture, including a biography of Gladys Tantaquidgeon.
John Hamilton died in 1988. In his will he named Eleanor Fortin Grand Sachem of the Mohegan Tribe. She became the leader of the "Hamilton group" in its contention with the "Fowler faction" over tribal policy. Despite their disagreements, both groups continued to participate in tribal activities and to consider themselves members of the Mohegan Tribe.
By 1989, the Fowler faction had taken up Hamilton's 1978 petition for federal recognition, which had been dormant for some years. However, the BIA indicated its intention to turn down the petition. They said the Mohegan people had not demonstrated sufficient continuity in social community, and sufficient political authority and influence. One year later, a detailed response was submitted to the BIA's proposed rejection — which included genealogies and other records carefully collected and preserved by Hamilton and his followers. Eleanor Fortin had allowed the MTIC researchers access to the Hamilton files, including records pertaining to the Mohegan Congregational Church in Montville. The researchers assured Fortin that if Federal recognition were achieved, it would cover the entire surviving Mohegan population. The BIA changed its mind on the Mohegans' existence as an Indian tribe, citing these documents as decisive in showing "that the tribe did indeed have social and political continuity during the middle of the 20th century."
Although the pivotal evidence came from records maintained by John Hamilton and his followers, they were excluded from the group that was recognized as the Mohegan Tribe. In 1990, the MTIC declared the tribe's membership to be restricted to descendants from a single family, ca. 1860, saying that all other Mohegan families were extinct. This is the group to whom Federal recognition was given in 1994. By law, a Federally recognized tribe is completely free to determine its own membership. This group, the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut, now comports itself exclusively as the Mohegan Tribe — despite clear evidence that the true Mohegan Tribe encompasses a larger group, evidence that was crucial in their having achieved Federal recognition.
The final agreement between MTIC and the State extinguished all pending land claims. Native American Mohegans continue to function as a tribal unit independently of the MTIC, holding periodic gatherings and activities.
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River
Thames River (Connecticut)
The Thames River is a short river and tidal estuary in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It flows south for through eastern Connecticut from the junction of the Yantic and Shetucket rivers at Norwich, to New London and Groton, which flank its mouth at the Long Island Sound.Differing from its...
valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf"http://www.mohegan.nsn.us/heritage/ourTraditions.aspx. At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot
Pequot
Pequot people are a tribe of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. They were of the Algonquian language family. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre reduced the Pequot's sociopolitical influence in southern New England...
were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region. Before the early 17th century, under the leadership of Uncas
Uncas
Uncas was a sachem of the Mohegan who through his alliance with the English colonists in New England against other Indian tribes made the Mohegan the leading regional Indian tribe in lower Connecticut.-Early life and family:...
, the Mohegan became a separate tribe, independent of the Pequot. They briefly came under Pequot rule in the 1630s until the colonists destroyed the dominant tribe in 1637 in the Pequot War
Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict between 1634–1638 between the Pequot tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies who were aided by their Native American allies . Hundreds were killed; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery to the West Indies. ...
.
Many members live on the Mohegan Reservation at 41°28′42"N 72°04′55"W in Montville
Montville, Connecticut
Montville is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 18,546 at the 2000 census and 19,571 at the 2010 census....
, New London County
New London County, Connecticut
New London County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. As of 2010 the population was 274,055. The total area of the county is , including inland and coastal waters....
. The tribe gained federal recognition in 1994. Its original petition for federal recognition was submitted in 1978 by Chief Rolling Cloud Hamilton. It operates the Mohegan Sun
Mohegan Sun
Mohegan Sun, located in Uncasville, Connecticut, is the second largest casino in the United States with of gaming space. It is located on along the banks of the Thames River. It is at the heart of the scenic foothills of southeastern Connecticut, where 60 percent of the state's tourism is...
Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut
Uncasville, Connecticut
Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut. The area traditionally known as Uncasville is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River...
, as well as a casino at Pocono Downs, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
. They also own the WNBA
Women's National Basketball Association
The Women's National Basketball Association is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of twelve teams. The league was founded on April 24, 1996 as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association...
team, the Connecticut Sun
Connecticut Sun
The Connecticut Sun is a professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded in Orlando, Florida before the 1999 season began; the team moved to Connecticut before the 2003 season...
. There are at least two bands that are independent of the federally recognized band.
Synonymy
Although similar in name, the Mohegan are a different tribe from the MahicanMahican
The Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
, traditionally based in present-day eastern New York, who are also an Algonquian-speaking people. In the United States, both tribes have been referred to in various historic documents as Mohicans, a source of confusion based upon a mistake in translation. The Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
Adriaen Block
Adriaen Block
Adriaen Block was a Dutch private trader and navigator who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four voyages from 1611 to 1614, following the 1609 expedition by Henry Hudson...
, one of the first Europeans to refer to both tribes, distinguished between the "Morhicans" and the "Mahicans, Mahikanders, Mohicans, [or] Maikens". Some people confuse the Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk
Mohawk language
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...
of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) with the Mohegan, but they belong to two different language families and were historical enemies.
The Mahican were historically located in the Hudson River Valley (around Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
). Their traditional meeting ground was in Schaghticoke. Under pressure during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
after 1780, where they became known as the "Stockbridge Indians" or Stockbridge Munsee. Descendants removed to Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
during the 1820s and 1830s. Most descendants of the Mohegan tribe, in contrast, have remained in New England; the Mohegan have a reservation in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
Death and rebirth of language
The last living native fluent speaker of the Mohegan language, Fidelia Flying Bird A. Hoscott Fielding, died in 1908. The bulk of Mohegan is known primarily from a Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
report made by the anthropologist, Frank Speck
Frank Speck
Frank Gouldsmith Speck was an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples among the Eastern Woodland Native Americans of the United States and First Nations peoples of eastern boreal Canada.-Early life and...
, who lived with her. It was only some 70 years later that her descendants returned to the land to found Mohegan Sun. Gladys Tantaquidgeon
Gladys Tantaquidgeon
Gladys Tantaquidgeon was a Mohegan anthropologist, author, council member, and elder. In 1994 she was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.- Biography :...
filled a multi-generational gap in language knowledge, and the tribe is working to revive its language.
History of the Mohegan Application for Federal Recognition
John Hamilton, a.k.a. Chief Rolling Cloud was appointed Grand Sachem for life in 1933 by his mother, Alice Storey, a direct descendant of Uncas, the great 17th-century leader of the Mohegan Nation, and of Tamaquashad, Grand Sachem of the Pequot Nation. In Mohegan tradition, the position of tribal leadership called Grand Sachem had always been hereditary. Hamilton was a key figure in the process that led to land-claims settlements for a number of unrecognized Indian nations — particularly for the so-called "state tribes." These were tribes that had been recognized long before by individual state (or colonial) governments, but did not have the sovereign legal status that came with federal recognition. In the 1960s Hamilton filed a number of land claims authorized by the "Council of Descendants of Mohegan Indians," which had some 300 members at the time.In 1978, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) established a procedure for tribes to petition for federal recognition as sovereign nations. In that year, under the authority of the Council of Descendants, Hamilton submitted the Mohegan Tribe's first petition for Federal recognition.
The Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut (MTIC), the federally recognized "Mohegan Sun" group, does not acknowledge John Hamilton as Grand Sachem. According to their published material, Harold Tantaquidgeon was their Chief prior to the era of Federal recognition. Harold Tantaquidgeon's Mohegan heritage enriched his work with the Boy Scout Troop that he led. His mother, Gladys, the Tribe's medicine woman, operated the Tribe's museum.
In 1970 the Montville faction of the Mohegans, led by Courtland Fowler, expressed their dissatisfaction with Hamilton's land-claims litigation and sought a new leader. The Hamilton supporters were said to have left the meeting. The remainder elected Fowler as their new leader. Notes of that Council meeting, however, refer to Hamilton as "Sachem."
The tribe worked with the attorney (Jerome Griner) to press land claims through the 1970s, under John Hamilton's direction. These actions were opposed by the Fowler faction. Jayne Fawcett was active in a property owners' organization, with native and non-native members, which opposed the Hamilton land claims and the petition for federal recognition. Fawcett later served as the "Ambassador" of the MTIC, and she has written four books on Mohegan culture, including a biography of Gladys Tantaquidgeon.
John Hamilton died in 1988. In his will he named Eleanor Fortin Grand Sachem of the Mohegan Tribe. She became the leader of the "Hamilton group" in its contention with the "Fowler faction" over tribal policy. Despite their disagreements, both groups continued to participate in tribal activities and to consider themselves members of the Mohegan Tribe.
By 1989, the Fowler faction had taken up Hamilton's 1978 petition for federal recognition, which had been dormant for some years. However, the BIA indicated its intention to turn down the petition. They said the Mohegan people had not demonstrated sufficient continuity in social community, and sufficient political authority and influence. One year later, a detailed response was submitted to the BIA's proposed rejection — which included genealogies and other records carefully collected and preserved by Hamilton and his followers. Eleanor Fortin had allowed the MTIC researchers access to the Hamilton files, including records pertaining to the Mohegan Congregational Church in Montville. The researchers assured Fortin that if Federal recognition were achieved, it would cover the entire surviving Mohegan population. The BIA changed its mind on the Mohegans' existence as an Indian tribe, citing these documents as decisive in showing "that the tribe did indeed have social and political continuity during the middle of the 20th century."
Although the pivotal evidence came from records maintained by John Hamilton and his followers, they were excluded from the group that was recognized as the Mohegan Tribe. In 1990, the MTIC declared the tribe's membership to be restricted to descendants from a single family, ca. 1860, saying that all other Mohegan families were extinct. This is the group to whom Federal recognition was given in 1994. By law, a Federally recognized tribe is completely free to determine its own membership. This group, the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut, now comports itself exclusively as the Mohegan Tribe — despite clear evidence that the true Mohegan Tribe encompasses a larger group, evidence that was crucial in their having achieved Federal recognition.
The final agreement between MTIC and the State extinguished all pending land claims. Native American Mohegans continue to function as a tribal unit independently of the MTIC, holding periodic gatherings and activities.
Notable Mohegan people
- Fidelia FieldingFidelia FieldingFidelia Hoscott Fielding , also known as Dji'ts Bud dnaca , was the last native speaker of the Mohegan Pequot language...
(1827–1908), last fluent speaker of the Mohegan Pequot language - Samson OccomSamson OccomThe Reverend Samson Occom was a Native American Presbyterian clergyman and a member of the Mohegan nation near New London, Connecticut...
(1723–1792), minister who helped move the tribe to Brothertown - Gladys TantaquidgeonGladys TantaquidgeonGladys Tantaquidgeon was a Mohegan anthropologist, author, council member, and elder. In 1994 she was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.- Biography :...
(1899–2005), anthropologist - John E. Hamilton (1897-1988), Grand Sachem Chief Rolling Cloud, Indian rights activist.
- Mahomet WeyonomonMahomet WeyonomonMahomet Weyonomon was a Native American tribal chieftain of the Mohegan tribe from Connecticut, who travelled to England in 1735 to petition King George II for better treatment of his people....
, a sachemSachemA sachem[p] or sagamore is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages...
who traveled to England in 1735 to seek better and fair treatment of his people
See also
- MahicanMahicanThe Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
– tribe with similar name - The Last of the MohicansThe Last of the MohicansThe Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in February 1826. It is the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy and the best known...
, historical fiction