Brief History of the Stockbridge Mohican tribe

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

According to tradition, Mohican history says that a great people came from the north and west. They crossed the waters where the land almost touched. The people inhabited these lands for many years, leaving settlements behind when they moved on. It is said that they were looking for a place where the waters were never still, like the land from which they originally came.

After a long journey, these people settled in the east. In time, they divided into different groups and dialects. The oldest of these, the Muh-he-con-ne-ok or Mahicans, lived along the Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, later called Hudson's River. The waters of this river are never still because of the influence of the tides. There they lived, forming a great Mahican Confederacy, for several hundreds of years before the arrival of white men. The area they inhabited included land south of what is now called Lake Champlain, west to Scoharie Creek, east to Vermont and New Hampshire and south to Manhattan Island.

The Stockbridge Indians were originally part of the Mahican Confederacy. The Munsee, on the other hand, were a group of native people in the Delaware Confederacy. The land where they lived was west of the Hudson River, covering an area on either side of the Delaware River and stretching south to what was later called the state of New Jersey.

The lifestyles of the Mahican and Munsee were so similar that to describe one is to describe the other also. Their lives were rooted in the woodlands in which they lived. These were covered with red spruce, elm, pine, oak, maple and birch trees. They were filled with black bear, deer, moose, beaver, otter, bobcat and mink, as well as turkey and other birds. The clean rivers were filled with fish.

Usually the native people built their homes near rivers so that they could be close to food, water, and transportation. Their village homes, called wigwams, were circular and made of bent saplings covered with hides or bark. They also lived in long- houses, which were often very large, sometimes as long as one hundred feet, with curved roofs shingled with elm bark. Several families of the same clan lived in each long-house. There were no windows, but every twenty feet or so there was a fire pit with a smoke hole above it , the center of one family's section.

While women planted gardens in the spring, the men fished for herring and shad which swam up the river in large schools. From dugout and bark canoes, the men speared or netted fish. During late summer and fall they hunted the animals which were so plentiful in the woods. After the harvest, dried meat and vegetables and smoked fish were stored in pits dug deep in the ground and lined with grass or bark.

During the winter months, time was spent doing a variety of things. Eating utensils and containers were made and repaired, as were hunting gear and tools. Pottery was made for future use, clothing and blankets were fashioned and often beautifully decorated with porcupine quills, shells and other natural things. If the food supply began to run low during the winter, men traveled by snowshoe to hunt game.

Early spring meant gathering sap from the maple trees to make syrup and sugar. The round of planting and fishing began again. The Mahican and Munsee people lived in harmony with the seasons and found everything they needed to live the good life from the abundance that Mother Earth provided.

THE COMING OF EUROPEANS

Fur Trade

In September of 1609, Henry Hudson, a Dutch trader, sailed up the Muh-he-kun-ne-tuck into the lands of the Mahicans. This territory was full of beaver and otter, which had the kinds of fur the Dutch wanted most. It was not long (1614) before a trading post was set up along Hudson's River on Castle Island.

As the fur trade expanded and furs became more difficult to find, tensions developed between the Mahicans and the Mohawks, an Iroquois people to the west. Each group wanted to maintain its share of the fur trade business, as well as keep relations friendly with its European allies. Not only did conflicts occur between the Mahicans and the Mohawks, but the Native people got caught in wars among the Dutch, English and French also. The Mahicans were eventually crowded out of their territory along the Muh-he-kun-ne-tuck. They settled farther to the east near rivers in what are now the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Efforts to Europeanize the Native People

Other changes were taking place in the Mahican way of life. They stopped making many traditional items because of the availability of new tools, pots and other things, for which they traded furs. The English, who eventually replaced the Dutch in this area, also began trying to change the Mahicans in other ways. They wanted to 'civilize' them; that is, make them like themselves. The land, which the Mahicans had once freely used for gardens, hunting and fishing, began to have boundary lines and fences. The Native people, who had traditionally depended only upon themselves and their use of what Mother Earth supplied, began to depend on white people and what they could provide.

Disease

The coming of white people into the lands of the Mahicans affected them in another serious way. Europeans brought diseases with them, such as smallpox and measles. The Native people of this land had never had such diseases, and therefore had not built up any immunity to them. Thus, hundreds of thousands of Native people sometimes whole villages died, since they had no way to protect themselves. It is not known how many Mahicans died as a result of new diseases brought by Europeans.

Missionary Activity

Non-Indian missionaries also began to enter Native villages, persuading the people to give up their traditional spiritual ways and become Christians. They argued that this was the only way Indians would survive. In 1734, a missionary named John Sergeant came to live with the Mahicans. He began to preach the Christian religion to them, baptize them, and give them new names.

In 1738, a meeting of the Mahicans was held and Sergeant was given permission to start a mission village. Later this village was named Stockbridge. It was located in an area of beautiful mountains that were later called the Berkshires, in the state of Massachusetts. In this mission village the first church and school were built and the Mahican, as well as some other native people living there, became known as the Stockbridge Indians.

Wars

All people living in America during the 1700s and 1800s were affected by a number of wars. The French and Indian War was really fought between the English and the French for control of the lands they had taken from Native peoples. The Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 were fought between England and the American colonists who no longer wanted to be governed by the "Mother Country." Mahicans from various parts of the confederacy fought during these wars on the side of the colonists. Because many of the battles were fought in what had been Mahican territory, many of their villages were totally destroyed and nearly half of the Mahican male population was killed.

Cultural Losses

The lives of Mahican people were drastically changed by the fur trade, European missionaries, disease and war. For the Stockbridge Indians, all of these worked together to cause a breakdown in their traditional ways of Mahican life and beliefs. Their original ceremonies were replaced by Christian customs. Fewer and fewer people among them spoke the Mahican language, and traditional Mahican dress was seen less and less frequently. The ancient art of basket-making continued, but other seasonal occupations were abandoned. The Stockbridge looked and behaved more and more like their non-Indian neighbors, engaging in farming and lumbering, worshipping in church, and sending their children to school. But as the eighteenth century neared its last twenty years, their lives were to change even more drastically.

REMOVALS WESTWARD

It became apparent after the Revolutionary War, with their numbers greatly reduced and intruders (called "settlers) using questionable means to gain title to their land, that the Stockbridge people could not live peaceably in their Christian village any longer. The Oneida Indians, who had also fought for the colonists in the Revolution, offered them a portion of their land and invited them to live there. The Stockbridge accepted the invitation and moved to New Stockbridge near Oneida Lake by the mid-1780's. Again they cleared forests and built farms. The women spun wool and made baskets. A school, a church and a sawmill were built, and the tribe flourished under the leadership of Joseph Quinney and his counselors.

In 1802 a group of eastern Indians from Brothertown, New Jersey also acquired land from the Oneida and called their new home Brothertown. However, this area of New York was rich farm and timber land. Several land companies wanted the state of New York to force the Indians out so they could profit from the land sales. The pressure was great and John Sergeant records in his journal of August, 1818, "About one-third of my church and one-fourth of the tribe (70 souls) started from this place for White River." Their leader, John Metoxin, led the group to the White River area in what is now Indiana to settle among their relatives, the Miami and Delaware. When they reached their destination, the Delaware had already been coerced into selling their land.

Meanwhile, missionaries, the state of New York and commissioners from the War Department were negotiating with the Menominee and Winnebago for a vast tract of land in what is now Wisconsin, hoping to relocate Indians there. The Stockbridge were included in the treaty, which was finally negotiated in 1822, and thus another move began. The little band from Indiana were the first to arrive, and they began to build a new village at Grand Cackalin (Kaukauna) called Statesburg.

But the Menominee, after the New York Indian began to arrive, had second thoughts about the amount of land granted, and negotiations began again. The settlement which was finally made resulted in the Oneidas moving to Duck Creek. The Stockbridge, and another group from the east called the Munsee, were moved to two townships on the east shore of Lake Winnebago in 1834.

Meanwhile the federal government was forcing Indian nations to agree to land cession treaties, often physically moving them out of their original homelands to live in areas far away. In 1830 Congress passed President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act which would move all Indians east of the Mississippi to land west of that river. A group of Stockbridge, fearing the inevitable, moved to Indian Territory in 1839. Many died on this journey. Some arrived and married into other tribes, but most simply gave up and returned to Wisconsin.

The federal removal policy caused dissension and conflict among the people who remained in Wisconsin, which in turn led to political divisions in the tribe. The federal government, enforcing its removal policy to benefit non-Indians hungry for land, was pressuring the tribe to move again. Some Stockbridge relinquished their Indian identity and became taxpaying citizens of the United States, while others chose to retain their tribal membership and form of government. New moves were considered and treaties were negotiated, ratified, and renegotiated. Finally, in the Treaty of 1856, the Stockbridge and Munsee moved to the townships of Bartelme and Red Springs in Shawano County.

RESERVATION

By the late 1800s, almost every Native nation in the United States had been assigned to a reservation. Having failed to bring Indian people into the cultural mainstream by Christianizing and educating them, the government's approach was to isolate them from non-Indian society. Life on the reservation was totally controlled by the government through the Indian agent. Incoming goods were usually of poor quality and food was scarce. This was generally a bad time for Indian people.

The reservation land of the Stockbridge- Munsee was sandy, swampy and covered with a pine forest. Farming was tried in some areas but overall was not very successful. Forestry became the base of the economy. By 1895, about 300 people remained on the reservation, with about 200 living in other places around the country.

In 1887 the General Allotment Act was passed by Congress. This law divided up the reservations and allotted the pieces to individual Native people. This happened on the Stockbridge reservation also. However, some individuals who needed cash sold their allotments to business dealers who wanted the forest for lumbering. The lumbering companies cut down the trees and moved out, leaving behind land with little economic value. Other individuals lost their allotments because of failure to meet tax or loan payments. Thus, the tribe began to see its reservation land disappear. Hard times continued and grew even worse during the Great Depression of the early 1930s.

In 1934, however, a new act was passed by Congress called the Indian Reorganization Act. This law made it possible for the Stockbridge-Munsee people to get funds from the federal government to reorganize a tribal government and get back some of the land that had been lost. About 15,000 acres of land in the township of Bartelme were purchased for the tribe. Only about 2,500 acres were put in trust for the tribe, now officially called the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. Not until 1972 was the remaining acreage finally put into trust. By 1938, the tribe had a new constitution and bylaws based on a Bureau of Indian Affairs model. It also had a land base on which to rebuild. New programs were started to build homes and plant new forests.

Local government was now in the hands of the Stockbridge-Munsee people. They elected their own tribal council and their first tribal president, Harry A. Chicks. Their second president was Arvid E. Miller, a Quinney descendant, who was a leader of his people for twenty-six years. He was active in many local, state, and national organizations and is remembered for his struggles to obtain justice for his people and protect their rights as Native Americans.

STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE TODAY

Today the Stockbridge-Munsee community is still located on this reservation in east central Wisconsin, although enrolled members of the tribe live in many other parts of Wisconsin, the United States and the world. The reservation boundaries encompass the two townships of Bartelme and Red Springs.

Some tribal families live on trust land which is assigned to tribal members for their use. Others live on privately owned land within these boundaries, which they hold like any other individual owners of land.

Many tribally owned facilities are located on the reservation tribal offices, a comprehensive health center, a community center and residences for the elderly, a family center, a historical library museum, a bingo hall, casino and golf course. In addition, several privately owned businesses operate within reservation boundaries. Together with tribal programs, these offer many opportunities for employment, but some community members also travel to nearby towns and cities to work.

The children attend school in the Bowler or Gresham public schools. Many of them now go on to college, technical school or the university. Tribal members hold degrees in law, medicine, education, fine arts and other disciplines.

The population on the reservation is increasing. Not only are families often larger than average American families, but also more tribal members are now staying in the community or returning to it. Several federal projects have helped provide housing for the growing population, new roads have been constructed, and plans have been made to develop tribally-managed tourism on a limited scale on the reservation.

At present the Arvid E. Miller Memorial Library Museum welcomes visitors from near and far on a daily basis. The annual Honor Our Veterans Powwow, held in early August, draws drummers, dancers, traders and spectators from all over the country. Bingo and casino games attract many residents of nearby Indian and non-Indian communities on a daily basis, as does the Pine Hills Golf Course.

The Stockbridge-Munsee now call themselves the Mohican Nation, Stockbridge-Munsee Band. Having survived centuries of struggle to maintain their identity and pride as a people, they have truly earned the Many Trails a symbol of their courage and perseverance as their tribal symbol.

(This paper was originally developed for the Rhinelander, Wisconsin School District in 1981, with Bernice Miller and Dorothy Davids serving as Stockbridge-Munsee consultants.

This fourth revision was prepared by the Stockbridge-Munsee Historical Committee, May, 1996) Minor corrections were done by R. Shubinski, webmaster of this site: pow-wow changed to powwow Mahikan changed to Mahican links and banner added

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