Editing Mohicans

{{short description|Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe}}
{{Redirect|Mohican}}
{{distinguish|text=the [[Mohegan]]s, a different Algonquian-speaking tribe living in eastern (upper Thames valley) Connecticut}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
|group         = Mohicans<br/><small>{{lang|mjy|Muhhekunneuw}}</small>
<!-- Commented out because image was deleted: |image         = File:Mohican distribution map.svg -->
|image_caption = Historical territory of the Mohicans
|pop           = {{circa}} 3,000
|popplace      = {{USA}} ([[Shawano County, Wisconsin]])
|langs         = [[English language|English]], formerly [[Mohican language|Mohican]]
|rels          = [[Moravian Church]]
|related       = [[Lenape]], [[Munsee]], [[Abenaki]]
}}
The '''Mohicans''' ({{IPAc-en|m|oʊ|ˈ|h|iː|k|ən|z}} or {{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|h|iː|k|ən|z}}) are an [[Eastern Algonquian]] [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] [[Native Americans in the United States|tribe]] that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring [[Lenape]], whose indigenous territory was to the south as far as the Atlantic coast. The Mohicans lived in the upper tidal [[Hudson River Valley]], including the confluence of the Mohawk River (where present-day [[Albany, New York]], developed) and into western New England centered on the upper [[Housatonic River]] watershed. After 1680, due to conflicts with the powerful [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]] to the west during the [[Beaver Wars]], many were driven southeastward across the present-day Massachusetts western border and the [[Taconic Mountains]] to [[Berkshire County]] around [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]].
 
They combined with Lenape Native Americans (a branch known as the Munsee) in Stockbridge, MA, and later the people moved west away from pressure of European invasion. They settled in what became [[Shawano County, Wisconsin]]. Most eastern Native American populations were forced to reservations in Indian Territory during the 1830s, and other reservations in the [[American Frontier|American West]] later. Decades later the United States government organized the [[Stockbridge-Munsee Community]] with registered members of the [[Munsee]] people and a {{convert|22000|acre|km2|adj=on|0}} reservation, which was originally the land of the Menominee Nation.

Following the disruption of the [[American Revolutionary War]], most of the Mohican descendants first migrated westward to join the [[Iroquois]] [[Oneida people|Oneida]] on their reservation in central New York. The Oneida gave them about 22,000 acres for their use. After more than two decades, in the 1820s and 1830s, the Oneida and the Stockbridge moved again, pressured to sell their lands and relocate to northeastern [[Wisconsin]] under the federal [[Indian Removal]] Act.<ref name=EBmohs>[http://p2.www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9370993 EB-Mohicans "Mohican" (history)], ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007 {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20070624083706/http://p2.www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9370993 |date=24 June 2007 }}</ref> A group of Mohican also migrated to [[Ontario, Canada]] to live with the predominately Iroquois [[Six Nations of the Grand River]] reserve.

The tribe identified by the place where they lived: {{lang|mjy|Muh-he-ka-neew}} (or "people of the continually flowing waters").<ref>''Stockbridge, Past and Present''; Electa Jones</ref> According to Daniel G. Brinton and James Hammond Trumbull "two well-known authorities on Mohican history", the word {{lang|mjy|Muh-he-kan}} refers to a body of water that flows in both directions, being tidal to most of its Mohican range, so they named the Hudson River {{lang|mjy|Mahicanuck}}, or the river with waters that are never still.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/stockbridgepastp02jones Electa F. Jones, "Mohican Oral Tribal History as recorded by Hendrick Aupaumut", in ''Stockbridge, Past and Present'']: Or, ''Records of an Old Mission Station'', Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles & Company, 1854</ref> Therefore, they, along with other tribes living along the Hudson River, such as the ''[[Munsee]]'' to their west, known by the dialect of Lenape that they spoke, and ''[[Wappinger]]'' to the south, were called "the River Indians" by the Dutch and English. 

The Dutch heard and transliterated the term for the people of the area in their own language, variously as: ''Mahigan'', ''Mahinganak'', ''Maikan'', among other variants, which the English later expressed as ''Mohican'', in a transliteration to their own spelling system. The French, adopting names used by their Indian allies in Canada, knew the Mohican as the {{lang|fr|Loups}} (or wolves). They referred to the [[Iroquois]] Confederacy as the "Snake People" (as they were called by some competitors, or "Five Nations", representing their original tribes).  Like the Munsee and Wappinger peoples, the Mohican were Algonquian-speaking, part of a large language family related also to the [[Lenape people]], who occupied coastal areas from western Long Island to the [[Delaware River]] valley to the south.

In the late twentieth century, the Mohican joined other former New York tribes, including the [[Oneida Indian Nation|Oneida]] and some other Iroquois nations, in filing land claims against New York for what were considered unconstitutional purchases of their lands after the Revolutionary War. Only the federal government had constitutional authority to deal with the Indian nations. In 2010, outgoing governor [[David Paterson]] announced a land exchange with the Stockbridge-Munsee that would enable them to build a large casino on {{convert|330|acre}} in [[Sullivan County, New York|Sullivan County]] in the [[Catskills]], as a settlement in exchange for dropping their larger claim in [[Madison County, New York|Madison County]]. The deal had many opponents.

==Territory==
In [[Mohican language|their own language]], the Mohican identified collectively as the {{lang|mjy|Muhhekunneuw}}, "people of the waters that are never still".<ref name="sultzman">{{Cite web|title=Mahican|url=http://www.dickshovel.com/Mahican.html|access-date=2021-06-26|website=www.dickshovel.com|archive-date=30 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140630000855/http://www.dickshovel.com/Mahican.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the time of their [[first contact (anthropology)|first contact]] with [[Europe]]ans traders along the river in the 1590s, the Mohican were living in and around the [[Hudson River]] (or {{lang|mjy|Mahicannituck}}). After 1609, at the time of the Dutch settlement of [[New Netherland]], they also ranged along the eastern [[Mohawk River]] and the [[Hoosic River]], and south along the Hudson to the [[Roeliff Jansen Kill]],<ref name=proceedings>
{{cite journal |last=Ruttenber |first=E.M.  |year=1906 |title=Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names in the Valley of Hudson's River, the Valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: Their location and the probable meaning of some of them |journal=Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association - the Annual Meeting, with Constitution, By-Laws and List of Members |volume=7th Annual |page=40 (RA1–PA38) |publisher=New York State Historical Association |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i3kSAAAAYAAJ&q=wapani&pg=RA1-PA38 |access-date=October 31, 2010 }}
</ref> where they bordered on the [[Wappinger]] people. This nation inhabited the river area and its interior southward to today's New York City.<ref name="Sultzman, Lee 1997">{{cite web|author= Sultzman, Lee|year= 1997|title= Wappinger History|access-date= 14 January 2012|url= http://www.dickshovel.com/wap.html|archive-date= 18 August 2009|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090818110640/http://www.dickshovel.com/wap.html|url-status= live}}</ref>

Most of the Mohican communities lay along the upper tidal reaches of the Hudson River and along the watersheds of Kinderhook-Claverack-Taghkanic Creek, the Roeliff Jansen Kill, Catskil Creek, and adjacent areas of the [[Housatonic River|Housatonic watershed]]. Mohican territory reached along Hudson River watersheds northeastward to Wood Creek just south of [[Lake Champlain]].

==Culture==
The Mohican villages were governed by hereditary [[sachem]]s advised by a council of clan elders. They had a [[Matrilineality|matrilineal kinship system]], with property and inheritance (including such hereditary offices) passed through the maternal line. Moravian missionary [[John Heckewelder]] and early anthropologist [[Lewis H. Morgan]] both learned from Mohican informants that their matrilineal society was divided into three [[phratries]] (Turkey, Turtle, and Wolf). These were divided into clans or subclans, including a potentially prominent Bear Clan. This finding is supported by the evidence of Mohican signatures on treaties and land deeds (see the works of [[Shirley Dunn]]).

A general council of sachems met regularly at [[Schodack, New York|Scodac]] (east of present-day Albany) to decide important matters affecting the entire confederacy.<ref name=sultzman/> In his history of the Indians of the Hudson River, [[Edward Manning Ruttenber]] described the [[clan]]s of the Mohican as the Bear, the Turkey, the Turtle, and the Wolf. Each had a role in the lives of the people, and the Wolf served as warriors in the north to defend against the [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], the easternmost of the Five Nations of the Iroquois.{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}

Like the Munsee-speaking communities to their south, Mohican villages followed a dispersed settlement pattern, with each community likely dominated by a single lineage or clan. The villages usually consisted of a small cluster of small and mid-sized [[longhouse]]s, and were located along floodplains. During times of war, they built fortifications in defensive locations (such as along ridges) as places of retreat. Their cornfields were located near their communities; the women also cultivated varieties of squash, beans, sunflowers, and other crops from the [[Eastern Agricultural Complex]]. Horticulture and the gathering and processing of nuts (hickory, butternuts, black walnuts and acorns), fruits (blueberries, raspberries, [[Amelanchier|juneberries]] among many others), and roots (groundnuts, wood lilies, arrowroot among others) provided much of their diet. This was supplemented by the men hunting game (turkeys, deer, elk, bears, and moose in the Taconics) and fishing ([[sturgeon]], [[alewives]], [[shad]], eels, [[lamprey]] and [[striped bass]]).

==Language==
The formally extinct [[Mohican language]] belonged to the [[Eastern Algonquian languages|Eastern Algonquian]] branch of the [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian language]] family.

==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"/>

==Land claims==
In the late twentieth century, the Stockbridge-Munsee were among tribes filing land claims against New York, which had been ruled to have unconstitutionally acquired land from Indians without Senate ratification. The Stockbridge-Munsee filed a land claim against New York state for {{convert|23000|acre}} in Madison County, the location of its former property. In 2011, outgoing governor [[David Paterson]] announced having reached a deal with the tribe. They would be given nearly {{convert|2|acre}} in Madison County and give up their larger claim in exchange for the state's giving them 330 acres of land in [[Sullivan County, New York|Sullivan County]] in the [[Catskill Mountains]], where the government was trying to encourage economic development. The federal government had agreed to take the land in trust, making it eligible for development as a gaming casino, and the state would allow gaming, an increasingly important source of revenue for American Indians. Race track and casinos, private interests and other tribes opposed the deal.<ref name="Toensing">[https://archive.today/20130126040651/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/01/26/seneca-nation-cries-foul-over-n-y-agreement-to-give-casino-to-wisc-tribe-12651 Gale Courey Toensing, "Seneca Upset Over N.Y. Casino Agreement"], ''Indian Country Today'', 26 January 2011</ref><!-- What happened?  This section needs to be brought up to date.  -->

In 2011, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of the Mohican Indians regained ownership 156 acres along the Hudson River, a tract known as Papscanee Island Nature Preserve near [[East Greenbush, New York|East Greenbush]] and [[Schodack]]. The land was donated to descendants of its indigenous inhabitants by the Open Space Initiative. Prior to colonization, the island was used for ceremonies by the Mohicans before it was acquired by Dutch merchant [[Kiliaen van Rensselaer (merchant)|Kiliaen Van Rensselaer]] in 1637. The property is managed by Rensselaer County and the Rensselaer Land Trust for public access and protection, while owned by the Mohicans.<ref>Crowe, Kenneth C. II "Mohicans reclaim a key part of their New York ancestral lands" Albany times-Union. May 8, 2021 https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Mohicans-reclaim-a-key-part-of-their-New-York-16161219.php {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108190904/https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Mohicans-reclaim-a-key-part-of-their-New-York-16161219.php |date=8 November 2021 }}</ref>

==Representation in media==
[[James Fenimore Cooper]] based his novel, ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]'', on the Mohican tribe. His description includes some cultural aspects of the [[Mohegan]], a different Algonquian tribe that lived in eastern [[Connecticut]]. Cooper set his novel in the Hudson Valley, Mohican land, but used some Mohegan names for his characters, such as [[Uncas]].

The novel has been adapted for the cinema more than a dozen times, the first time in 1920. [[Michael Mann (director)|Michael Mann]] directed a [[The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)|1992 adaptation]], which starred [[Daniel Day-Lewis]] as a White man adopted and raised by the Mohican.

==Notable members==
* [[Etow Oh Koam]], Mohican sachem and one of the Four Indian Kings, who, with three Mohawk leaders, made a state visit to Queen Anne and her government in England in 1710.
* [[Hendrick Aupaumut]], (1757–1830) sachem, historian, and [[American Revolutionary War]] captain
* [[Steve Conliff]], (1949-2006) political writer, historian, [[Yippie]] activist
* [[Brent Michael Davids]], (b. 1959) composer/flautist 
* [[Bill Miller (musician)|Bill Miller]], (b. 1955) musician
* [[Electa Quinney]], (1798–1885) first public teacher and school mistress in [[Wisconsin]]
* [[John Wannuaucon Quinney]], (1797–1855) diplomat
* [[Don Coyhis]] (born August 16, 1943), [[addiction]] specialist, Native American health activist and author.<ref name = "Encore">{{Cite web |url=https://encore.org/purpose-prize/don-coyhis/ |title=Don Coyhis, 2009 Purpose Prize Winner |access-date=27 July 2020 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727080003/https://encore.org/purpose-prize/don-coyhis/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

* [[Jon Kókókóhó Reavey]] (born June 17, 1986), Wildlife Activist [[Nature Conservancy Magazine]].

* [[Anthony Kiedis]] (born November 1, 1962), lead singer of the [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]].
* [[Alaqua Cox]] - actress, ''[[Hawkeye (miniseries)|Hawkeye]] & [[Echo (miniseries)|Echo]]''

== See also ==
* [[Native American tribes in Massachusetts]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Aupaumut, Hendrick. (1790). [https://books.google.com/books?id=yKZbSG-NJzIC&pg=PA64 "History of the Muh-he-con-nuk Indians", in ''American Indian Nonfiction, An Anthology of Writings, 1760s–1930s'' (pp. 63–71). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.]
* Nekatcit. ''The Celestial Bear Comes Down to Earth: The Bear Sacrifice Ceremony of the Munsee-Mahican in Canada as Related by Nekatcit'' Edited by Frank G. Speck in collaboration with Jesse Moses, Delaware Nation. Pub. 1945, Reading Public Museum.
* Jones, Electa. (1854). [https://archive.org/details/stockbridgepast00jonegoog "Stockbridge Past and Present".]
* Ruttenber, E. M. (1872). [https://archive.org/details/ruttenberindians00ruttrich "History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River; Their Origin, Manners and Customs; Tribal and Sub-Tribal Organizations; Wars, Treaties, Etc., Etc."  Albany: J. Munsell History Series.]
* Starna, William A.: ''From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600–1830.'' University of Nebraska Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0803244955}}
* Brasser, T. J. (1978). "Mahican", in B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp.&nbsp;198–212). ''Handbook of North American Indian languages'' (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Cappel, Constance, "The Smallpox Genocide of the Odawa Tribe at [[L'Arbre Croche]], 1763", ''The History of a Native American People'', [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 2007.
* Conkey, Laura E.; Bolissevain, Ethel; & Goddard, Ives. (1978). "Indians of southern New England and Long Island: Late period", in B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp.&nbsp;177–189). ''Handbook of North American Indian languages'' (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Salwen, Bert. (1978). "Indians of southern New England and Long Island: Early period", in B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp.&nbsp;160–176). ''Handbook of North American Indian languages'' (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Simpson, J. A.; & Weiner, E. S. C. (1989). "Mohican", ''Oxford English Dictionary''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Online version).
* Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978–present). ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 1–20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Trigger, Bruce G. (Ed.). (1978). ''Northeast'', ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 15). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Mahican}}
* [http://www.mohican.com/ Stockbridge-Munsee community]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120822023701/http://www.mohican-nsn.gov/Departments/Library-Museum/Mohican_History/origin-and-early.htm Mohican nation Stockbridge-Munsee band: Our history]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100111075910/http://wolfweb.unr.edu/homepage/shubinsk/mohican.html Mohican Indians]

{{Capital District}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohican}}
[[Category:Algonquian peoples]]
[[Category:Mohicans| ]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Shawano County, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Stockbridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Algonquian ethnonyms]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of North America]]
[[Category:People from New Netherland]]
[[Category:American Indian reservations in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Native American people in the American Revolution]]