Editing Mohicans (section)

=== 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.