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88-479: Indigenous people began using the river area for fishing and hunting at least 6,000 years ago. By 1600, the inhabitants were mostly Mohicans and may have numbered 30,000. The river's name is derived from the Mohican phrase "usi-a-di-en-uk" , translated as "beyond the mountain place" or "river of the mountain place". It is referred to in the deed by which a group of twelve colonists called "The Proprietors" captured

176-647: A bright light rise from the Housatonic River, then found themselves inside "what appeared to be an airplane hangar," where they saw creatures that "resembled large insects." Supporters of the family erected a memorial to the incident at the Old Covered Bridge in Sheffield, Massachusetts , in 2015. The 5,000-pound memorial was removed by the town in 2019. The incident featured in a 2020 episode of Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix . Historically,

264-612: A deal with the tribe. They would be given nearly 2 acres (0.81 ha) in Madison County and give up their larger claim in exchange for the state's giving them 330 acres of land in 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

352-476: 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 longhouses , 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

440-631: A freshet, the Dutch abandoned the fort. In 1618, having once again negotiated a truce, the Dutch rebuilt Fort Nassau on higher ground. Late that year, Fort Nassau was destroyed by flooding and abandoned for good. In 1624, Captain Cornelius Jacobsen May sailed the Nieuw Nederlandt upriver and landed eighteen families of Walloons on a plain opposite Castle Island. They commenced to construct Fort Orange . The Mohicans invited

528-521: A large quantity of ordnance and ammunition. These imports were of such great potential value to the South that they have been called "the war's most important single cargo of contraband." It is possibly in the hope of recovering this invaluable prize that the Confederate ironclad rams CSS  Chicora and CSS  Palmetto State slipped out of the main ship channel of Charleston Harbor to attack

616-570: A new location among the Oneida people in central New York, who had been granted a 300,000-acre (120,000 ha) reservation for their service to the Patriots, out of their former territory of 6,000,000 acres (2,400,000 ha). They called their settlement 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

704-983: A source of power for paper, iron, textiles, and electricity industries. At Great Barrington , a grist mill built by David Ingersoll in 1739 used the river for power. The paper industry grew using the river's power from circa 1800. The river was dammed with the advent of industry. In 1900, there were 30 dams on the river in Pittsfield. Many have been removed, but many remain, such as the Woods Pond dam in Lenox, Columbia Mill dam in Lee, Willow Mill dam in South Lee, Glendale dam in Stockbridge, and Rising Pond dam in Great Barrington, Massachusetts . Five dams impound

792-462: Is a popular whitewater paddling destination beginning at Falls Village, Connecticut , and continuing to Gaylordsville . Most of the river is quickwater and Class I whitewater with long sections of Class II-III whitewater. A deadly and extreme Class VI resides at Great Falls in Canaan (Falls Village) and is most likely not able to be paddled. The most dangerous and difficult section that is navigable

880-605: Is also known as the Housatonic Valley Region. The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area is a designated National Heritage Area consisting of an 848-square-mile (2,200 km) area in the watershed of the upper Housatonic River, extending from Kent, Connecticut , to Lanesborough, Massachusetts , including eight towns in Connecticut and eighteen in Massachusetts. The Housatonic River

968-641: Is among the finest for trout in the eastern United States. The most popular area for fly fishing is in Litchfield County, Connecticut , between the dam at Falls Village and Cornwall Bridge . The Appalachian Trail follows the river along this section from the Bulls Bridge covered wooden bridge near Kent to Falls Village. As U.S. Route 7 runs along the Housatonic River Valley between Pittsfield and New Milford, it crosses

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1056-479: Is an Algonquian term translating to "river of the falls" while others relate the term was eponymous, reflecting the name of the tribe that had their principal village along the river in the area of Newtown, Connecticut . "Pootatuck River" eventually came to refer a lesser tributary in the Housatonic watershed which empties into the Housatonic River at Sandy Hook, Connecticut . The river passes through land that

1144-464: Is by Bulls Bridge, with Class V whitewater. There are several minor and major dams along the river that form lakes. Most notable are two lakes in Connecticut, Lake Zoar , which borders Monroe , Newtown , Oxford , and Southbury , and Lake Lillinonah . Both lakes are major water-sport recreation outlets for the surrounding towns. Two of the three lakes formed by the dams are used for rowing by clubs, schools, and to host regattas . Lake Lillinonah

1232-505: Is the Housatonic's largest tributary with a contributing watershed of 312 square miles (810 km). Candlewood Lake is a pumped storage facility which is replenished when water is pumped into it from the Housatonic during times of non-peak electrical consumption; the water is then allowed to flow back into the river during peak times to generate electricity. The Greater Danbury metropolitan area in Western Connecticut

1320-870: Is used by the GMS Rowing Center and is host to the GMS Regatta. Lake Housatonic is used by the Yale University Crew Team at the Gilder Boathouse and by the New Haven Rowing Club . It is also host to the Derby Sweeps & Sculls and the Head of the Housatonic . The Housatonic River is also a popular fly fishing destination. Fly fishing on the Housatonic River has been compared with western rivers and

1408-720: The Algonquin and 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

1496-658: The Eastern Agricultural Complex . Horticulture and the gathering and processing of nuts (hickory, butternuts, black walnuts and acorns), fruits (blueberries, raspberries, 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). The formally extinct Mohican language belonged to

1584-746: The Eastern Algonquian branch of the Algonquian language family. The Mohican were a confederacy of five tribes and as many as forty villages. 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 (sometime between 1580 and 1600). This

1672-715: The Four Mohawk Kings . The Stockbridge Indians allowed Protestant missionaries , including 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

1760-857: The Hoosic River , and south along the Hudson to the Roeliff Jansen Kill , where they bordered on the Wappinger people. This nation inhabited the river area and its interior southward to today's New York City. 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

1848-590: The Housatonic watershed . Mohican territory reached along Hudson River watersheds northeastward to Wood Creek just south of Lake Champlain . The Mohican villages were governed by hereditary sachems advised by a council of clan elders. They had a 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

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1936-556: The Iroquois 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. A group of Mohican also migrated to Ontario, Canada to live with the predominately Iroquois Six Nations of

2024-624: 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 directed a 1992 adaptation , which starred Daniel Day-Lewis as a Mohican-adopted white man. In 2016, German metal band Running Wild released their 16th album Rapid Foray . The last song in

2112-537: The Schaghticoke tribe , who still hold a portion of the former reservation on the west side of the Housatonic River, in what is now called the town of Kent . English settlement of the northern Housatonic Valley began in 1725 in Sheffield, Massachusetts . By 1734, Mohicans established the Indian Town of Stockbridge, which grew over 15 years but then failed, with land pressures increasing. The river has been

2200-550: The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron . She took station outside the bar. On 29 January 1863, her boats, aided by those of USS  Augusta , USS  G. W. Blunt , and USS America , boarded and refloated the iron steamer Princess Royal . The gunboat Unadilla had driven the blockade runner ashore as she attempted to slip into Charleston from England with a cargo consisting of two marine engines destined for Confederate ironclads and

2288-591: 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

2376-536: The West Cornwall Covered Bridge . Reinforced with present-day materials, both bridges carry normal vehicle traffic, albeit in only one direction at a time. The third bridge, Old Covered Bridge located in Sheffield, Massachusetts , was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1998; it is now open only to foot traffic. Lydia Sigourney 's poem The Housatonic is in her volume, Scenes in my Native Land, 1845, where it accompanied by descriptive text on

2464-873: The Williams River (in Great Barrington ), Green River and Konkapot River (in Ashley Falls ). Crossing south into Connecticut, the Housatonic's major tributaries are the Blackberry River (in Canaan ), Salmon Creek (below Falls Village ), Ten Mile River (above Gaylordsville but originating in New York), Still River (south of New Milford ), Shepaug River (at the Bridgewater and Southbury border), Pomperaug River (at Southbury ), and Naugatuck River (in Derby ). The Naugatuck River

2552-831: The 1830s, and other reservations in the American West later. Decades later the United States government organized the Stockbridge-Munsee Community with registered members of the Munsee people and a 22,000-acre (89 km ) 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

2640-445: The 1910s, drawing his text from a poem of the same name by Robert Underwood Johnson . The town of Stockbridge is located in southwestern Massachusetts. The river enters Stockbridge on the east side of town before turning south toward Connecticut. There was a 1962 American nuclear weapon test of the same name ; several such tests used Native American words as codewords. In 1969, nine-year-old Thom Reed and his family claimed to see

2728-418: The 407 ton iron-hulled blockade runner SS  Georgiana ashore on Long Island, South Carolina . Georgiana ' s cargo of munitions, medicine and merchandise was then valued at over $ 1,000,000. Georgiana was described in contemporary dispatches and newspaper accounts as more powerful than the Confederate cruisers Alabama , Shenandoah , and Florida . This was a serious and very important blow to

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2816-612: The Atlantic coast. The Mohican 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 to the west during the Beaver Wars , many were driven southeastward across the present-day Massachusetts western border and

2904-608: The Berkshires and into western Connecticut , and empties into the Long Island Sound between the cities of Stratford and Milford , forming a border between Connecticut's Fairfield County and New Haven County , respectively. It includes 83 towns. For most of its extent the watershed is just to the west of the watershed of the lower Connecticut River , and to the east of the Hudson River Basin . Near

2992-460: The Christian religion. 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 concerning the sale of their land near Shekomeko. The Governor promised they would be paid as soon as

3080-600: 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,

3168-506: The Confederacy. The wreck of Georgiana was discovered by pioneer underwater archaeologist Lee Spence in 1965. Housatonic captured the sloop Neptune on 19 April as she attempted to run out of Charleston with a cargo of cotton and turpentine . She was credited with assisting in the capture of the steamer Seesh on 15 May. Howitzers mounted in Housatonic ' s boats joined in the attack on Fort Wagner on 10 July, which began

3256-691: 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 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,

3344-431: The Grand River reserve. The tribe identified by the place where they lived: Muh-he-ka-neew (or "people of the continually flowing waters"). According to Daniel G. Brinton and James Hammond Trumbull "two well-known authorities on Mohican history", the word 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 Mahicanuck , or

3432-486: The Housatonic River and its Naugatuck River tributary hosted the southernmost spawning runs of the Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ). The Salmon Creek tributary of the Housatonic River may have been named for this salmonid , which can reach up to 30 pounds (14 kg). From circa 1932 until 1977, the river received PCB pollution discharges from the General Electric (GE) plant at Pittsfield, Massachusetts . The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated

3520-402: The Housatonic several times. Mohican The Mohicans ( / m oʊ ˈ h iː k ən z / or / m ə ˈ h iː k ən z / ) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American 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

3608-413: The Indians would lose their lands if the Colonists achieved independence. Sir William Johnson , his son 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 , Onondaga , Cayuga , and Seneca ultimately became allies and provided warriors for the battles in the New York area. The Oneida and Tuscarora sided with

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3696-406: The Mohican identified collectively as the Muhhekunneuw , "people of the waters that are never still". At the time of their first contact with Europeans traders along the river in the 1590s, the Mohican were living in and around the Hudson River (or Mahicannituck ). After 1609, at the time of the Dutch settlement of New Netherland , they also ranged along the eastern Mohawk River and

3784-408: The Mohican land. In August 1775, the 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 Patriots ), and that they should stay out of it. Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant feared that

3872-453: 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 and some other Iroquois nations, in filing land claims against New York for what were considered unconstitutional purchases of their lands after

3960-405: The Mohicans and Mohawks throughout the area from Skahnéhtati ( Schenectady ) to Kinderhoek ( Kinderhook ). By 1629, the Mohawks had taken over territories on the west bank of the Hudson River that were formerly held by the Mohicans. 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

4048-469: The Mohicans. Besides exposing them to European epidemics, the fur trade destabilized the region. In 1614, the Dutch decided to establish a permanent trading post on 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 badly damaged by

4136-459: 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 in 1637. The property is managed by Rensselaer County and the Rensselaer Land Trust for public access and protection, while owned by the Mohicans. James Fenimore Cooper based his novel, The Last of the Mohicans , on the Mohican tribe. His description includes some cultural aspects of

4224-474: The Pittsfield plant and several miles of the Housatonic as a Superfund site in 1997, and ordered GE to remediate the site. EPA and GE began a cleanup of the area in 1999. Most of the PCBs used in the United States during this period were made by Monsanto . Aroclor 1254 and Aroclor 1260, made by Monsanto, was a primary contaminant of the pollution in the Housatonic River. Although the water quality has improved in recent decades, and some remediation has taken place,

4312-462: 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 330 acres (130 ha) in Sullivan County in the Catskills , as a settlement in exchange for dropping their larger claim in Madison County . The deal had many opponents. In their own language ,

4400-508: The Union blockading fleet in the early morning fog two days later. They rammed Mercedita , forcing her to strike her colors "in a sinking and perfectly defenseless condition", and moved on to cripple Keystone State . Gunfire from the rams also damaged Quaker City and Augusta before the Confederate ships withdrew under fire from Housatonic to the protection of shore batteries. On 19 March 1863, Housatonic and Wissahickon , responding to signal flares sent up by America , chased

4488-495: The album is 'Last of the Mohicans'. USS Housatonic (1861) USS Housatonic was a screw sloop-of-war of the United States Navy , taking its name from the Housatonic River of New England . Housatonic was launched on 20 November 1861, by the Boston Navy Yard at Charlestown , Massachusetts, sponsored by Miss Jane Coffin Colby and Miss Susan Paters Hudson; and commissioned there on 29 August 1862, with Commander William Rogers Taylor in command. Housatonic

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4576-412: The blast's pressure wave damaging their lungs and brains. On February 20, 1864, Capt. Joseph W. Green of the USS Canandaigua surveyed the wreck and observed that the ship's spar deck was about [15 ft 0 in (4.57 m) below the water and that the deck "appears to have been entirely blown off." Soon thereafter, the Union began recovery efforts to raise the Housatonic ' s guns, which

4664-504: The blockade outside the bar. Robert F. Flemming, Jr. , a black landsman , first sighted an object in the water 100 yards off, approaching the ship. "It had the appearance of a plank moving in the water," Pickering later reported. Although the chain was slipped, the engine backed, and all hands were called to quarters, it was too late. Within two minutes of the first sighting, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley rammed her spar torpedo into Housatonic ' s starboard side, forward of

4752-541: 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

4840-411: The coast, smaller watersheds border it: on the east the Quinnipiac River and Wepawaug River watersheds, and on the west the Norwalk River , Saugatuck River , and Pequonnock River watersheds. The river's total fall is 1,430 feet (440 m) (959 feet (292 m) from the confluence of its east and west branches) to Long Island Sound. Its major tributaries in Massachusetts are (heading downstream)

4928-419: The colonists. 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 Shekomeko in Dutchess County, New York . Henry Rauch reached out to two Mohican leaders, Maumauntissekun , also known as Shabash ; and Wassamapah , who took him back to Shekomeko. They named him

5016-421: 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. War continued to rage between

5104-405: The confluence with the Still River . The hat manufacturing industry of Danbury, Connecticut , which operated from the 19th to the mid-20th century, was the source of most of this mercury pollution, from mercury nitrate used in the felting process. In the 21st century, the mercury remains in the river sediment and flows downstream, especially during storm events. High mercury levels are measured in

5192-447: The contaminated areas south of Pittsfield had continued for many years since the initial Superfund site designations, involving GE, EPA, local governments, citizen groups and other stakeholders. In February 2020 EPA announced a settlement agreement involving GE, EPA and most of the concerned parties, to remove contaminated sediment from the river. Highly contaminated soil would be removed and shipped to federally approved facilities outside

5280-400: The continuing bombardment of the Southern works at Charleston. In ensuing months her crew repeatedly deployed boats which shelled the shoreline, patrolled close ashore gathering valuable information, and landed troops for raids against the outer defenses of Charleston. On Sept 9th, 1863 Charles W. Pickering, Captain of the USS Housatonic, would submit a report to Rear Admiral Dahlgren concerning

5368-446: The entire confederacy. In his history of the Indians of the Hudson River, Edward Manning Ruttenber described the clans 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 , the easternmost of the Five Nations of the Iroquois. Like the Munsee-speaking communities to their south, Mohican villages followed

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5456-428: The fur trade with the Dutch by prohibiting the nearby Algonquian-speaking tribes to the north or east from trading. Many Mohicans settled in the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts , where they gradually became known as the "Stockbridge Indians". Etow Oh Koam , one of their chiefs, accompanied three Mohawk chiefs on a state visit to Queen Anne and her government in England in 1710. They were popularly referred to as

5544-405: The land now called Sherman and New Fairfield as "Ousetonack". Samuel Orcutt , a 19th-century historian, explained the term's pronunciation as "more properly...Howsatunnuck" and also noted an early spelling in the form of "Oweantinock". Prior to the 18th century, the river was alternatively known as the Pootatuck River. Accounts differ on the origin of this name, with some claiming that Pootatuck

5632-443: 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 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

5720-432: 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 23,000 acres (9,300 ha) in Madison County, the location of its former property. In 2011, outgoing governor David Paterson announced having reached

5808-412: The men of his command who were involved in the attack on Fort Sumter of the evening prior. He would list men of the 4th cutter- Lieut Edwin T. Brower, commanding. Among the 17 men of Cutter Four was Frederic Augustus James - the report ends with "All the above, with the boat, are missing." At just before 9pm, 17 February 1864, Housatonic , commanded by Charles Pickering , was maintaining her station in

5896-467: The missionaries' work accused them of being secret Catholic 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 expelled the missionaries from New York, in part because of their advocacy of Mohican rights. European colonists soon took over

5984-415: The mizzenmast, in history's first successful submarine attack on a warship. Before the rapidly sinking ship went down, the crew managed to lower two boats which took all the men they could hold; most others saved themselves by climbing into the rigging which remained above water after the stricken ship settled on the bottom. Two officers and three men in Housatonic died. The Confederate submarine escaped but

6072-410: The new Royal Governor 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. The lots were eventually bought up by European-American colonists and the Mohicans were forced out of Shekomeko. Some who opposed

6160-432: 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

6248-409: The permit appeal. Following the EAB ruling, EPA has continued to design the new PCB disposal facility and has conducted public meetings in 2022. Two citizen groups appealed the EAB decision to the First Circuit Court of Appeals , and in July 2023 the court rejected the plaintiffs' challenge. The Connecticut segment of the river is polluted with mercury levels far beyond background levels, starting at

6336-553: The property became Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York.) The Battle of Kingsbridge decimated the troop's ranks. It received a commendation from George Washington, was paid $ 1,000 and dismissed. 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

6424-580: The river and its neighbourhood. The United States Navy named a ship for the Housatonic River. The USS  Housatonic has the distinction of being the first ship in history to be sunk by a submarine, the Confederate vessel CSS H.L. Hunley , in 1864. Inspired by the river during his honeymoon, the American classical music composer Charles Ives wrote "The Housatonic at Stockbridge" as part of his composition Three Places in New England during

6512-564: The river continues to be contaminated by PCBs. Between 2005 and 2018 GE completed remediation and restoration of the 10 manufacturing plant areas within the city, and continues to conduct inspection, monitoring and maintenance activities. Additional remediation is planned for the downstream polluted areas of the river. The highest concentrations of PCBs in the Housatonic River are found in Woods Pond in Lenox, Massachusetts , just south of Pittsfield, where they have been measured up to 110 mg/kg in

6600-594: The river in Connecticut to produce hydroelectricity : the Falls Village , Bulls Bridge, Shepaug , Stevenson and Derby dams. The last three dams form a chain of lakes: Lake Lillinonah , Lake Zoar and Lake Housatonic, from New Milford south to Shelton . Three wooden covered bridges cross the Housatonic River. Two are in Connecticut: one known as Bull's Bridge , which spans the river between Gaylordsville and Kent , and another at Cornwall , known as

6688-580: The river with waters that are never still. 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

6776-480: The sediment at the outflow delta of the Housatonic River into Long Island Sound . The Housatonic River watershed drains 1,948 square miles (5,050 km) in western Connecticut and Massachusetts and eastern New York. The Housatonic rises from four sources in far western Massachusetts in the Berkshire Mountains near the city of Pittsfield . It flows southward through western Massachusetts through

6864-459: The sediment. About 50% of all the PCBs currently in the river are estimated to be retained in the sediment behind Woods Pond dam. This is estimated to be about 11,000 pounds of PCBs. Former filled oxbows are also polluted. Birds, such as ducks, and fish that live in and around the river contain significant levels of PCBs and can present health risks if consumed. Negotiations regarding how to clean up

6952-609: 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. 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 and Schodack . The land was donated to descendants of its indigenous inhabitants by

7040-638: The state, while less-contaminated soil would be placed in a new specially designed landfill in Berkshire County. Following a public comment period, EPA issued a permit in December 2020 for the final cleanup phase. In 2021 two of the citizen groups that were parties to the settlement filed an appeal of the permit, criticizing the design of the planned landfill. In February 2022 the US Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) denied

7128-592: 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 . 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. In

7216-638: Was accomplished later in 1864. In 1872, the Army Corps of Engineers commissioned Benjamin Maillefert to clear some of the wrecks from the Charleston Harbor , including the Housatonic . Throughout 1873 and 1874, Maillefert scavenged the wreck of any useful materials, and in 1909, the remnants of the ship (notably, its boilers) were further broken up to ensure the wreck was not a hazard. In 1995–96, NUMA -funded researchers tentatively located

7304-400: 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 Scodac (east of present-day Albany) to decide important matters affecting

7392-470: Was formerly occupied primarily by native people of Algonquian lineage, typically living in villages of two to three hundred families housed in hide wigwams. These native inhabitants burned the forests along the Housatonic Valley in the autumn to keep the underbrush down, a practice which was customary throughout Connecticut prior to European settlement. One notable native was Chief Squantz of

7480-456: Was lost with all hands not long after this action; new evidence announced by archaeologists in 2013 indicates that the submarine may have been much closer to the point of detonation than previously realized, thus damaging the submarine as well. In 2017, researchers at Duke University further established through simulation that the Hunley's crew were most likely killed immediately at their posts by

7568-471: Was one of four sister ships which included USS  Adirondack , USS  Ossipee , and USS  Juniata . Housatonic is recognized as being the first ship sunk in combat by a submarine when she was attacked and sunk by H.L. Hunley in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Housatonic departed Boston on 11 September and arrived at Charleston, South Carolina , on 19 September to join

7656-513: Was perhaps in response to the formation of the League of the Iroquois. 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

7744-643: Was still rooted in traditions of the past. 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 reservations with the Lenape (called Munsee after one of their major dialects), who were also speakers of one of the Algonquian languages. Together,

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