The Mohican Nation – Yesterday and Today

The Mohican Nation – Yesterday and Today. . , ”The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first occupied by the Europeans in this portion of the continent. They were, consequently, the first dispossessed; and the seemingly inevitable fate of all these people…is represented as having already befallen them.” , James Fenimore Cooper, 1831 Introduction to The Last of the Mohicans, In addition to the trials and injustices they shared with other Native Americans, the Mohican Nation has borne as additional burden. Because of the title of Cooper’s famous novel, the world has often thought them to be extinct. Happily, Cooper’s prediction was wrong, and as we restore access to a famous scene from The Last of the Mohicans, we also bear witness that the Mohican Nation is alive and well., Origins The Muh-he-ka-ne-ok or Mohican (sometimes spelled Manican) people came in ancient times to the shores of the Hudson River which they called the Majicannituck or “River whose Waters are Never Still.” , Related to the Lenne Lenapi (Delaware) and other Algonquian-speaking peoples to their south, the Mohicans built villages of longhouses near the rivers of longhouses near the rivers that were central to their way of life. They hunted and fished, grew crops, and celebrated traditional festivals from Lake Champlain to the southern reaches of the Hudson valley. , They taught their children the history, customs, and beliefs of their nation – as they continue to do today., Coming of the Dutch Hendrick Hudson sailed up the river in 1609, and soon Beverwijck (Albany) became a major trading post where Mohicans exchanged furs for the clothing, utensils and firearms they did not produce themselves. A war with the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy in 1625 deprived the Mohicans of much of their lands west of the Hudson. In 1792 a Mohican historian, Hendrick Aupaumut, recorded his Nation’s history., Many Trails The Mohican people were not allowed to live in peace in the lands of their ancestors, Some, converted by missionaries of the Moravian church, joined other Christian Indians in Pennsylvania – and years later shared their fate in the massacre at Gnadenhutten in 1782., Stockbridge Other Mohicans decided to adopt Western ways of living. In 1734 they established the Town of Stockbridge, in Western Massachusetts. There they lived, attended school, managed their affairs, and during the American Revolution fought alongside their Yankee brothers., New Stockbridge When Mohican soldiers returned to Stockbridge after the revolution, they were not welcomed by the White Man. Under increasing pressure, both racist and economic, most Mohicans moved in 1785 to New York State. On lands in Madison County provided by the Iroquois Oneida Nation, they built New Stockbridge.,, Wisconsin By 1818 the Mohicans of Stockbridge had to move again, as hostility against them increased in New York State. They explored several possible homes further west. Most of them, joined by Munsees (Delawares) from the lower Hudson, went to Wisconsin, where they eventually obtained the Reservation in which they live today at Bowler in Shawano County., Mohicans Today Today some 1500 Mohicans live in or near the Reservation of the “Stockbridge Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation.” Others are scattered throughout the United States. , Like other Native American groups, they attract tourist dollars through the Mohican North Star Casino and the Pine Hills Golf Club. For themselves they operate extensive community services. , Mohican writers, artists, and musicians share their culture with the rest of America.