The Reverend Samson Occom (1723 – 1792) (also misspelled as
Occum) was a Native American Presbyterian clergyman and a member of the
MoheganThe Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames valley of Connecticut. The Mohegan were originally a conjoined tribe with the Pequot until the period of European contact in the 17th century, briefly coming under Pequot rule in the 1630s until the dominant...
nation near
New London, ConnecticutNew London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut.The city is home to Connecticut College, Mitchell...
. He has the distinction of being the first Native American person to ever publish documents and pamphlets in English.
Early life
Born to Joshua Tomacham and his wife Sarah, Occom is believed to be a direct descendant of the famous Mohegan chief,
UncasUncas was a sachem of the Mohegan who through his alliance with the English colonists against other Indian tribes made the Mohegans the leading regional Indian tribe....
. In 1740, at the age of sixteen, Occom was exposed to the teachings of Christian evangelical preachers in the
Great AwakeningThe First Great Awakening was a period of heightened religious activity, primarily in the United Kingdom and its North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s.-History:...
. He began to study theology at the "Lattin School" of
Eleazar WheelockEleazar Wheelock was an American Congregational minister, orator, educator, and founder of Dartmouth College....
in 1743 and stayed for four years until leaving to begin his own career.
Occom served as a missionary to Native American people in
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
and Montauk,
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in southeastern New York, United States, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City, and two of which are mainly suburban...
where he married a local woman. It was also on Long Island where he was officially ordained a minister on August 30, 1759 by the presbytery of Suffolk. Although promised otherwise by the church leaders, Occom was never paid the same salary as white preachers, and he lived in deep poverty for much of his life.
Education
Wheelock established an Indian charity school with a benefaction from Joshua Moor in 1754, and he persuaded Occom to go to England in 1766 to raise money for the school, along with the Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker. Occom preached his way across the country from February 16, 1766, to July 22, 1767. He delivered in total between three and four hundred sermons, drawing large crowds wherever he went. By the end of his tour he had raised over twelve thousand pounds for Wheelock's project.
King George IIIGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
himself donated 200 pounds, and William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth subscribed 50 guineas. The friendship between Occom and Wheelock dissolved when Occom learned that Wheelock had neglected to care for Occom's wife and children while he was away. Occom also took issue with the fact that Wheelock put the funds toward establishing
Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College is a private, coeducational university located in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Incorporated as "Trustees of Dartmouth College," it is a member of the Ivy League and one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution...
for the education of Englishmen rather than of Native Americans.
Ministry and later life
Upon his return from England, Occom lived at
MoheganThe Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames valley of Connecticut. The Mohegan were originally a conjoined tribe with the Pequot until the period of European contact in the 17th century, briefly coming under Pequot rule in the 1630s until the dominant...
, then moved in 1786 with some
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
and
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in southeastern New York, United States, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City, and two of which are mainly suburban...
Indians to
Oneida- Native American/First Nations :* Oneida tribe, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy* Oneida language* Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York...
territory in what is known today as
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He then helped to found Brothertown, and lived among the
Brothertown IndiansThe Brothertown Indians are Native American descendants of the Pequot and Mohegan tribes in southern New England...
. Later Stockbridge (Mohicans) people moved to the area. In 1768, Occom wrote the 10-page
A Short Narrative of My Life, which was kept in
Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College is a private, coeducational university located in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Incorporated as "Trustees of Dartmouth College," it is a member of the Ivy League and one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution...
's archive collection until publication in 1982. He also published
Sermon at the Execution of Moses Paul and
A Choice Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs in 1774.
Occom died on July 14, 1792, in New Stockbridge, New York. He is buried just off of Bogusville Hill Road outside of
Deansboro, New YorkDeansboro is a hamlet in Oneida County, New York, United States....
(formerly known as Brothertown).
Legacy
In the first half of the 1800s many
Brothertown IndiansThe Brothertown Indians are Native American descendants of the Pequot and Mohegan tribes in southern New England...
people moved to what is now known as the Town of Brothertown in Calumet County,
WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered 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...
. The
Brothertown IndiansThe Brothertown Indians are Native American descendants of the Pequot and Mohegan tribes in southern New England...
are currently petitioning the federal government to be
federally recognizedNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
- in effect, re-recognized. Federal recognition was initially stripped from the Brothertown people when they accepted United States citizenship in an effort to avoid being displaced yet again. Since then, United States policy has changed and Native American people are, quite obviously, both American citizens - as well as citizens of their respective Nations. However the policy as implemented among the Brothertown Indians, the first Native Americans granted US citizenship, at the time stripped them of what we today call
tribal sovereigntyTribal sovereignty refers to the inherent authority of indigenous tribes to govern themselves. At the foundation of the constitutional status of tribes is the idea that tribes have an inherent right to govern themselves—the power is not delegated by congressional acts. Congress can, however, limit...
.
Located on the campus of Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut, is an upperclassmen residence hall named after Occom. Several locations around Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH are named after him: In addition to Occom Pond and Occom Ridge in Hanover, there are a number of other places and things named after Occom. At Dartmouth, historian Colin Calloway is the Samson Occom Professor of Native American Studies. The Occom Commons community space is part of Goldstein Hall, in the recently opened McLauglin Residential Cluster.
Works of Samson Occom
- A Choice Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, New London, Connecticut : Press of Thomas and Samual Green, 1774.
- A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, An Indian Who Was Executed at New Haven on the 2nd of September 1772 for the Murder of Mr. Moses Cook, late of Waterbury, on the 7th of December 1771, New Haven : Press of Thomas and Samual Green, 1774.
- A Short Narrative of My Life. The Elders Wrote: An Anthology of Early Prose by North American Indians 1768-1931. Ed. Bernd Peyer. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1982 [1762], 12-18. (The 10-page A Short Narrative of My Life was kept in Dartmouth College's archive collection until publication in 1982. This work has also recently been published in The Norton Anthology of American Literature.)
- Journals, 1754 and 1786(?), Unpublished manuscript in collection of New London County Historical Society.
- Herbs and Roots, Unpublished manuscript in collection of New London County Historical Society.
External links