The Stockbridge Munsee Tribe of Mohican Indians
The Muh-he-ka-ne-ok
NEW! La page est traduite en francais!

Overview of tribal history

prior to 1609: Mohicans roam lands from Manhattan Island to Lake Champlain, from the coast to the Housatonic River valley

1609: Henry Hudson sails down the Hudson River, encountering the Mohicans

1628-1675: at war with the Mohawks, decline of Mohican influence in the area

1675-1710: growth of English and Dutch colonies, infringing on Mohican hunting grounds, introducing tuberculosis and smallpox endemics....alcoholism appears amongst the indians... cultural losses begin...

1734: missionary work begins with the Mohicans settled in Stockbridge, Massachusetts

1776: Mohicans join the colonists in the revolutionary war

1785: resettlement to a 6 sq. mile piece of land offered by the Oneida Indians (Brothertown Indians) in NY state

1808: offer of land in Indiana Territory by the Miami Indians attested by President Jefferson

1818: Mohicans move to Indiana, but find that the land had been sold to settlers

1818-1821: settlement along the White River in Indiana; joined by Munsee Indians to form the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohican Indians

1821: treaties for land east of the Fox River in Wisconsin negotiated with the Menominee and Winnebago tribes

1831: new treaty offered by the US gov't for a reservation east of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin

1843: Congress offers US citizenship to the Mohicans in exchange for surrendering tribal ownership of land

1849: Mohicans surrender the title to Wisconsin lands for $25,000 and promise of land west of the Mississippi...that land never materialized...

1856: a new treaty allotted land individually to US citizen Mohicans, the non-US citizen Mohicans settle on a new 40,000 acre reservation offered by the Menominees

1887-1910: loss of communally held lands due to consequences of the General Allotment Act of Congress through tax delinquency or debts

1910-1931: poverty stricken Mohicans remain in area surrounding the former reservation in the township of Red Springs

1931: The Stockbridge-Munsee Business Comittee is formed in Red Springs, Wisconsin leading to political activity amongst the Mohicans

1934: Indian Reorganization Act passed by Congress allowing tribes to purchase lands for reservations

1935: some of the land lost from the former reservation is repurchased for the tribe by the gov't ( 2,250 of the original 40,000 acres )

1936: 11 Mohican families resettle on newly purchased gov't controlled lands

1938: Tribal Council formed, title to the 2,250 acres is given to the tribe

1972: Mohicans given title to an additional 13,000 acres of adjoining land that had been in control of the Interior Dept. since 1935

Present day: the Mohican Nation, Stockbridge-Munsee Band with members on and off the reservation in east central Wisconsin is thriving.

The Mohican homeland

The proud nation of Mohican Indians that once roamed a vast homeland in the woodlands of New England from the ocean to the shores of the Hudson and Housatonic rivers to the west, and from Manhattan Island to Lake Champlain in the north now holds its tribal council on the reservation in Bowler, Wisconsin. Mohican, Wappinger, and other Algonquian Indians banded together in the missionary town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts as they were pushed westward by the European colonists. Brothertown Indians from Pennsylvania and Delaware Munsee Indians later joined this group which underwent 6 major resettlements following the loss of the homeland. The Many Trails symbol represents the travels of the Mohicans far from the council fires of New England to the present day location of north central Wisconsin.

Thanksgiving, in a perhaps romanticized version of the events as told to me by my late grandfather and former tribal historian Elmer Davids, was the result of an invitation to the colonists to join the indian's annual harvest feast to give honor and thanks to the Great Spirit for the gifts of the warm months and to seek the benevolence of the Great Spirit for the forthcoming cold winter months. Sadly, the Mohican (Mahican) language and customs have been in large part lost and forgotten. This is attributable to the contact and influence of the European settlers and missionaries which for our tribe occured much earlier than was the case for tribes west of the Mississippi.

Van Cortlandt Park, in the north Bronx has a history area describing Indian Field, which is an athletic field built on a burial site of Stockbridge Indians who were ambushed and killed by British soldiers during the Revolutionary war. A plaque was put up there in 1906.

Mahican words

Most of these mahican words were conributed by Carl Masthay, editor of Schmick's Mahican Dictionary available from:

The American Philosophical Society
104 South Fifth Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Note: Most Algonquian scholars prefer to spell the name of our tribe mahican or mahikan.

Onayo Uske-kateek! Good New Year!

aquai	hello	nohhum	my grandmother
nomasis	my little grandmother	nemoghhome	my grandfather
machom	grandfather	mnohti	bag of peace
squau-tho-won	belts of wampum	un-nuh-kau-kun	messenger, runner
Wauntheet Monnitoow	Shining Spirit	tpochgo	night
onaquega	evening	namees	fish
pachkenum	dark	gemeze	eat
tahaso	cold	menachk	drink
achwahndowagan	love	pachan	it is snowing
Nia ktachwahnen	I thee love	m'sauneeh	snow
kschittau	hot	wastachquaam	tree
nachk	hand	wenanno	tongue
mahkwa	bear	siipo	river
mattape	sit down	Pachtamawas	God
aki	earth	mbei	water
soganahn	rain	kshachchen	wind
geshoch	sun	anakusak	stars
stau	fire	wachtshu	hill
nemanau	man	tah	heart
mkhook-que-thoth	owl	woh-weet-quau-pee-chee	counselors
wunneet	it is good	we-ku-wuhm	wigwam, house
wnahktukook	land at the end of the river (Mahican name for Stockbridge; also spelled Wanachquaticock)	quin'a month'ee	How are you?
komeekha	come in, be at home	muh-he-con-nuk	great waters (sea)

Wneeweh: I thank you (contributed by Debra Winchell)

Woodland Indian Customs

The Mohicans were woodland Indians and lived in wigwams and longhouses, and not in tepees like the plains indians did. Wigwam means "bark-dwelling" in Mahican and was made of a frame of wood poles covered by bark and rush mattings. They slept on spruce boughs covered with deerskins and blankets. Woodland indians used corn husks, quillwork, feathers, beads and paint to decorate deer skin clothing, baskets and other ornaments. Common designs were plants, flowers, and semicircles depicting walking trails in the forest using the colors blood-red, white, blueberry and coal black. Corn, beans and squash "the three sisters" were food staples, augmented by hunting in the forest and maple sugaring each year in the spring. Women's roles included planting and harvesting crops, and men spent much of their time away, hunting, fishing and trapping. Children were never spanked or hit and were allowed considerable autonomy. Spirituality prior to missionary contact involved belief in a good Great Spirit and an evil spirit or trickster. A number of feasts and fasts were observed, including the harvest feast now known as Thanksgiving.

Archeology, Prehistory, Paleoindian Links

The Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans

                    The Native Circle is a website mainly
       __           devoted to the Mohican Indians. It has a
     /    \         page about our tribe's symbol:Many Trails
  NATIVE CIRCLE     >>-----> see it here if you
     \ __ /         use a  text browser. This wonderful
                    site, maintained by Debbie Lonesome Dove
                    of Mohican ancestry, has links to
                    Stockbridge musicians, and links to sites
                    of interest to Native Americans.

A brief history of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans revised by the Stockbridge-Munsee Historical Committee, May, 1996
History of the Mahican People ... from a series of tribal histories authored by Lee Sultzman. See also his account of the Massachusett tribe and the Delaware tribe. According to Stockbridge-Munsee oral tradition, the Muh-he-con-ne-ok tribe occupied New England from the seashore at Manhattan to Lake Champlain. The tribe prior to 1730 was composed of different bands including Mohegans, Manahattas, Housatonic River Indians, Massachusetts and others which together formed one nation, one family, "bound by blood, marriage and descent".
Early history of Colonie, New York and the History of Lenox, Massachusetts provide a few interesting tidbits about the Mohicans.
Vanguilder Marriage Note that Vanguilder was the Mohican in this story...see Debbie's Native Circle Page for more details !!
Dialog on Native-L about the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans.
USCode 459b Mohican land and mineral rights
USCode 1142 Mohican tribal membership
Poem by Aupaumut: 1725
Algonquian language classification
Treaty with Oneida, Tuscarora and Stockbridge Munsee (1794)
Treaty with New York Indians (1838)

Delaware Indians-the Munsee connection

A group of Munsee Indians (Wolf Sachem of the Delaware Indians) settled near the White River in Indiana joined the band of Stockbridge Indians which was composed of Mohicans along with some Brothertown and Wappinger Indians ...this group became the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohican Indians...of which I am an enrolled member!!!

Delaware Tribe of Indians
The Lenapes: A study of Hudson Valley Indians a series of papers about the Mohican, Wappinger, Brotherton and Lenape Indians from Marist College in NY State.

1999 Mohican Powwow

Powwow information wigwam: enter here!!!

The Mohican Homeland in the 1990s

On Monday, October 7, 1996, Wal-Mart formally withdrew their application to build on Leeds Flat, in NY state where Mohican remains were found.

Present day Stockbridge , Massachusetts

Stockbridge History Site

Map of Historic Stockbridge

Community Profiles Stockbridge

Berkshire Museum

Stockbridge Library

The Mission House

Wisconsin Links

North Star Casino
Mohican North Star Casino
Wisconsin weather
Wisconsin On-Line
Wisconsin Department of Tourism
Will's place a poem inspired by a place on the Stockbridge Munsee Reservation

The Last of James Fenimore Cooper ??!!

He wrote fictional accounts about Mohicans including his novel the Last of the Mohicans which is on line courtesy of the Univ. of Virginia...
We Mohicans sometimes get tired of the invariable assumption based on this unfortunate book title that the Mohicans are no more. If you are interested in reading non-fictional works about the Mohicans I would you suggest you look at Debbie's excellent list of resources, read The Mohicans of Stockbridge , by P. Frazier, and also The Tribal Reorganization of the Stockbridge-Munsee: Essential Conditions in the Recreation of a Native American Community, 1930-1942 ;J Savagian; Wisconsin Magazine of History; vol.77;autumn 1993.

For more info on North American Indians:

BraveArrow's Native American links

Mohican Contact Information

Stockbridge-Munsee Community
N8467 Moh He Con Nuck Road
Bowler, WI 54416
Tel. (715) 793-4111
Fax: (715) 793-1307
email: mnation@frontiernet.net

nota bene

BraveArrow is my Indian name, given to me by my mother at birth. Mom is known as DeeDee on the rez. Altho I am Mohican and enrolled on the tribal scrolls, the above information has not been officially endorsed by the tribal council. I have made every effort to portray my people, the Mohicans, as accurately as possible and welcome feedback that may improve the site. I am indebted to my godmother and tribal elder Aunt Dot for her suggestions which have greatly impacted the content of this site.
Many thanks to Dr. Carl Masthay for his assistance with Mahican words and pointing out various other corrections and oversights.

Thanks for stopping by!!

BraveArrow