Editing Mohicans (section)

==History==
===Mohican Confederacy===
The Mohican were a confederacy of five tribes and as many as forty villages.<ref name=sultzman/>
* ''Mohican proper'', lived in the vicinity of today's [[Albany, New York|Albany]] ({{lang|mjy|Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw}}, "the fireplace of the Mahican Nation") west towards the Mohawk River and to the northwest to Lake Champlain and Lake George
* {{lang|mjy|Mechkentowoon}}, lived along the west shore of the Hudson River above the Catskill Creek
*''[[Wawyachtonoc]]'' (or {{lang|mjy|Wawayachtonoc}},  "eddy people" or "people of the curving channel"), lived in [[Dutchess County, New York|Dutchess County]] and [[Columbia County, New York|Columbia County]] eastward to the Housatonic River in [[Litchfield County, Connecticut|Litchfield County]], Connecticut, main village was ''Weantinock'', additional villages: ''Shecomeco'', ''Wechquadnach'', ''Pamperaug'', ''Bantam'', ''Weataug'', ''Scaticook''
* ''Westenhuck'' (from {{lang|mjy|hous atenuc}}, "on the other side of the mountains"), the name of a village near [[Great Barrington, Massachusetts|Great Barrington]], Massachusetts. Often called the "Housatonic people", they lived in the [[Housatonic Valley]] in Connecticut and Massachusetts and in the vicinity of Great Barrington, which they called {{lang|mjy|Mahaiwe}}, meaning "the place downstream"<ref>Donald B. Ricky: ''Indians of Maryland Past and Present'', Verlag: Somerset Pubs, 1999; {{ISBN|978-0403098774}}</ref>
* ''Wiekagjoc'' (from {{lang|mjy|wikwajek}}, "upper reaches of a river"), lived east of the Hudson Rivers near the city of [[Hudson, New York|Hudson]], Columbia County, New York<ref>Allen W. Trelease, William A. Starna: ''Indian Affairs in Colonial New York Indian Affairs in Colonial New York:'' The Seventeenth Century the Seventeenth Century, Seite 8, University of Nebraska Press; 1997, {{ISBN|978-0803294318}}</ref>

=== Conflict with the Mohawk ===
[[File:Land deed, May 31, 1664, Willem Hoffmeyer purchase of 3 islands in the Hudson River near Troy from three native Mahicans - Albany Institute of History and Art - DSC07971.JPG|thumb|Land deed, 31 May 1664, Willem Hoffmeyer purchase of 3 islands in the Hudson River near Troy from three native Mohicans – Albany Institute of History and Art]]

The Algonquians (Mohican) and [[Iroquois]] (Mohawk) were traditional competitors and enemies. Iroquois oral tradition, as recorded in the ''[[Jesuit Relations]]'', speaks of a war between the Mohawks and an alliance of the [[Susquehannock]] and [[Algonquin people|Algonquin]] (sometime between 1580 and 1600). This was perhaps in response to the formation of the League of the Iroquois.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/americanheritage00bran Brandon, William. ''American Heritage Book of Indians'', (Alvin M. Josephy, ed.), American Heritage Pub. Co. 1961, p. 187]</ref>

In September 1609 Henry Hudson encountered Mohican villages just below present day Albany, with whom he traded goods for furs. Hudson returned to Holland with a cargo of valuable furs which immediately attracted Dutch merchants to the area. The first Dutch fur traders arrived on the Hudson River the following year to trade with the Mohicans. Besides exposing them to European epidemics, the fur trade destabilized the region.<ref name=sultzman/>

In 1614, the Dutch decided to establish a permanent trading post on [[Castle Island (New York)|Castle Island]], on the site of a previous French post that had been long abandoned; but first they had to arrange a truce to end fighting which had broken out between the Mohicans and Mohawks. Fighting broke out again between the Mohicans and Mohawks in 1617, and with [[Fort Nassau (North River)|Fort Nassau]] badly damaged by a freshet, the Dutch abandoned the fort. In 1618, having once again negotiated a truce, the Dutch rebuilt Fort Nassau on higher ground.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsAmericas/NorthMohicans.htm |title="Mahican Confederacy", The History Files |access-date=27 January 2018 |archive-date=18 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518144418/https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsAmericas/NorthMohicans.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Late that year, Fort Nassau was destroyed by flooding and abandoned for good. In 1624, Captain [[Cornelius Jacobsen May]] sailed the {{lang|nl|Nieuw Nederlandt}} upriver and landed eighteen families of [[Walloons]] on a plain opposite Castle Island. They commenced to construct [[Fort Orange (New Netherland)|Fort Orange]].

The Mohicans invited the [[Algonquin people|Algonquin]] and [[Innu|Montagnais]] to bring their furs to Fort Orange as an alternative to French traders in Quebec. Seeing the Mohicans extend their control over the fur trade, the Mohawk attacked, with initial success. In 1625 or 1626 the Mohicans destroyed the easternmost Iroquois "castle". The Mohawks then re-located south of the [[Mohawk River]], closer to Fort Orange. In July 1626 many of the settlers moved to [[New Amsterdam]] because of the conflict. The Mohicans requested help from the Dutch and Commander Daniel Van Krieckebeek set out from the fort with six soldiers. Van Krieckebeek, three soldiers, and twenty-four Mohicans were killed when their party was ambushed by the Mohawk about a mile from the fort. The Mohawks withdrew with some body parts of those slain for later consumption as a demonstration of supremacy.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qJ-KAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 Parmenter, Jon W., "Separate Vessels", ''The Worlds of the Seventeenth-Century Hudson Valley''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518144429/https://books.google.com/books?id=qJ-KAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA115#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=18 May 2024 }}, (Jaap Jacobs, L. H. Roper, eds.) SUNY Press, 2014,  {{ISBN|9781438450971}} p. 113</ref>

War continued to rage between the Mohicans and Mohawks throughout the area from Skahnéhtati ([[Schenectady, New York|Schenectady]]) to Kinderhoek ([[Kinderhook (village), New York|Kinderhook]]).<ref name=Chronicle>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XNU0AAAAIAAJ&q=orange Reynolds, Cuyler. ''Albany Chronicles: A History of the City Arranged Chronologically'', J.B. Lyon Company, 1906] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518144416/https://books.google.com/books?id=XNU0AAAAIAAJ&q=orange#v=snippet&q=orange&f=false |date=18 May 2024 }}{{PD-notice}}</ref> By 1629, the Mohawks had taken over territories on the west bank of the Hudson River that were formerly held by the Mohicans.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xWsq2NPeYRcC Burke Jr, T. E., & Starna, W. A. (1991). ''Mohawk Frontier: The Dutch Community of Schenectady, New York, 1661–1710''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518144421/https://books.google.com/books?id=xWsq2NPeYRcC |date=18 May 2024 }}, SUNY Press. p. 26</ref> The conflict caused most of the Mohicans to migrate eastward across the [[Hudson River]] into western Massachusetts and Connecticut.  The Mohawks gained a near-monopoly in the fur trade with the Dutch by prohibiting the nearby Algonquian-speaking tribes to the north or east from trading.

===Stockbridge===
Many Mohicans settled in the town of [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]], where they gradually became known as the "Stockbridge Indians". {{lang|mjy|Etow Oh Koam}}, one of their chiefs, accompanied three Mohawk chiefs on a state visit to [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] and her government in England in 1710. They were popularly referred to as the [[Four Mohawk Kings]].

[[File:Mohawk king engraving.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Mohican chief {{lang|mjy|Etow Oh Koam}}, referred to as one of the [[Four Mohawk Kings]] in a state visit to [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] in 1710. By [[John Simon (engraver)|John Simon]], c. 1750.]]
The Stockbridge Indians allowed [[Protestant]] [[missionary|missionaries]], including [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]], to live among them.  In the 18th century, many converted to [[Christianity]], while keeping certain traditions of their own.  They fought on the side of the British colonists in the [[French and Indian War]] (also known as the [[Seven Years' War]]).  During the [[American Revolution]], they sided with the colonists.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Calloway| first1=Colin| title=The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities| date=1995| publisher=Cambridge University Press| isbn=978-0-521-47149-7| pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanrevoluti00call/page/88 88–107]| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/americanrevoluti00call/page/88}}</ref>

In the eighteenth century, some of the Mohicans developed strong ties with missionaries of the [[Moravian Church]] from [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]], who founded a mission at their village of {{lang|mjy|[[Shekomeko]]}} in [[Dutchess County, New York]]. Henry Rauch reached out to two Mohican leaders, {{lang|mjy|Maumauntissekun}}, also known as {{lang|mjy|Shabash}}; and {{lang|mjy|Wassamapah}}, who took him back to Shekomeko. They named him the new religious teacher. Over time, Rauch won listeners, as the Mohicans had suffered much from disease and warfare, which had disrupted their society. Early in 1742, Shabash and two other Mohicans accompanied Rauch to Bethlehem, where he was to be ordained as a deacon. The three Mohicans were baptized on 11 February 1742 in John de Turk's barn nearby at [[Oley, Pennsylvania]]. Shabash was the first Mohican of Shekomeko to adopt the Christian religion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunn|title=The Mohican World 1680–1750|year=2000|pages=228–230}}</ref> The Moravians built a chapel for the Mohican people in 1743. They defended the Mohican against European colonists' exploitation, trying to protect them against land encroachment and abuses of liquor.

On a 1738 visit to New York, the Mohicans spoke to Governor [[Lewis Morris (governor)|Lewis Morris]] concerning the sale of their land near Shekomeko. The Governor promised they would be paid as soon as the lands were surveyed.  He suggested that for their own security, they should mark off their square mile of land they wished to keep, which the Mohicans never did. In September 1743, still under the Acting-Governor [[George Clarke (governor)|George Clarke]] the land was finally surveyed by New York Assembly agents and divided into lots, a row of which ran through the Indians' reserved land. With some help from the missionaries, on 17 October 1743 and already under the new Royal Governor [[George Clinton (Royal Navy officer)|George Clinton]], Shabash put together a petition of names of people who could attest that the land in which one of the lots was running through was theirs. Despite Shabash's appeals, his persistence, and the missionaries' help, the Mohicans lost the case.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunn|title=The Mohican World 1680–1750|year=2000|pages=232–235}}</ref> The lots were eventually bought up by European-American colonists and the Mohicans were forced out of Shekomeko. Some who opposed the missionaries' work accused them of being secret [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] (who had been outlawed from the colony in 1700) and of working with the Mohicans on the side of the French. The missionaries were summoned more than once before colonial government, but also had supporters. In the late 1740s the colonial government at [[Poughkeepsie, New York|Poughkeepsie]] expelled the missionaries from New York, in part because of their advocacy of Mohican rights. European colonists soon took over the Mohican land.<ref>[http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/town/pineplains/history.html Philip H. Smith, "Pine Plains"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515111533/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/town/pineplains/history.html |date=15 May 2011 }}, ''General History of Duchess County from 1609 to 1876, inclusive'', Pawling, NY: 1877, accessed 3 March 2010</ref>

====Revolutionary War====
[[File:Stockbridge 1778.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Von Ewald sketch of a [[Stockbridge Militia]] warrior who fought on the Patriot side in the [[Continental Army]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]]]]

In August 1775, the [[Iroquois Confederacy|Six Nations]] staged a council fire near Albany, after news of Bunker Hill had made war seem imminent. After much debate, they decided that such a war was a private affair between the British and the colonists (known as Rebels, Revolutionaries, Congress-Men, American Whigs, or [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]]), and that they should stay out of it. Mohawk Chief [[Joseph Brant]] feared that the Indians would lose their lands if the Colonists achieved independence. Sir [[Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet|William Johnson]], his son [[Sir John Johnson, 2nd Baronet|John Johnson]] and son-in-law [[Guy Johnson]] and Brant used all their influence to engage the Iroquois to fight for the British cause. The [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], [[Onondaga people|Onondaga]], [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]], and [[Seneca people|Seneca]] ultimately became allies and provided warriors for the battles in the New York area. The [[Oneida people|Oneida]] and [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]] sided with the Colonists. The Mohicans, who as Algonquians were not part of the Iroquois Confederacy, sided with the Patriots, serving at the Siege of Boston, and the battles of Saratoga and Monmouth.

In 1778 they lost forty warriors of their [[Stockbridge Militia]], around half "Stockbridge Indians" who were remnants of both Mohican and [[Wappinger]] tribes, in a British attack on the land of the van Cortlandt family. (In 1888, the property became [[Van Cortlandt Park]] in the Bronx, New York.) The [[Stockbridge Militia#The Stockbridge Massacre|Battle of Kingsbridge]] decimated the troop's ranks.<ref name=walling>[https://www.americanrevolution.org/ind3.php "Death In the Bronx, The Stockbridge Indian Massacre August, 1778"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020094902/https://www.americanrevolution.org/ind3.php |date=20 October 2021 }}, Richard S. Walling,  americanrevolution.org</ref>  It received a commendation from George Washington,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Aupaumut|first1=Hendrick|title=From George Washington to Captain Hendrick Aupaumut, 4 July 1779|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-21-02-0283|publisher=Archives.gov|access-date=21 April 2018|archive-date=21 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421233341/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-21-02-0283|url-status=live}}</ref> was paid $1,000 and dismissed.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Mohicans of Stockbridge|author=Frazier, Patrick|pages=225}}</ref>

===Move to Oneida, New York===
After the Revolution the citizens of the new United States forced many Native Americans off their land and westward. In the 1780s, groups of Stockbridge Indians, today regarded as '''[[Stockbridge Munsee]]''', moved from Massachusetts to a new location among the [[Oneida people]] in central New York, who had been granted a {{convert|300000|acre|adj=on}} reservation for their service to the Patriots, out of their former territory of {{convert|6000000|acre}}. They called their settlement [[Stockbridge, New York|New Stockbridge]]. Some individuals and families, mostly people who were old or those with special ties to the area, remained behind at Stockbridge.

The central figures of Mohican society, including the chief sachem, Joseph Quanaukaunt, and his counselors and relatives, were part of the move to New Stockbridge. At the new town, the Stockbridge emigrants controlled their own affairs and combined traditional ways with the new as they chose. After learning from the Christian missionaries, the Stockbridge Indians were experienced in English ways. At New Stockbridge they replicated their former town. While continuing as Christians, they retained their language and Mohican cultural traditions. In general, their evolving Mohican identity was still rooted in traditions of the past.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunn|first=Shirley|title=The Mohican World 1680–1750|year=2000|publisher=Purple Mountain Press, Ltd.|location=Fleischmanns, New York|pages=213}}</ref>

===Removal to Wisconsin===
In the 1820s and 1830s, most of the Stockbridge Indians moved to [[Shawano County, Wisconsin]], where they were promised land by the US government under the policy of [[Indian removal]]. In Wisconsin, they settled on [[Indian reservation|reservation]]s with the [[Lenape]] (called Munsee after one of their major dialects), who were also speakers of one of the Algonquian languages.  Together, the two formed a band and are federally recognized as the [[Stockbridge-Munsee Community]].

Their 22,000-acre reservation is known as that of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and is located near the town of [[Bowler, Wisconsin|Bowler]]. Since the late twentieth century, they have developed the North Star Mohican Resort and Casino on their reservation, which has successfully generated funds for tribal welfare and economic development.<ref name="Toensing"/>