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53-489: At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were a unified tribal entity living in the southeastern Connecticut region, but the Mohegan gradually became independent as the hegemonic Pequot lost control over their trading empire and tributary groups. The name Pequot was given to the Mohegan by other tribes throughout the northeast and was eventually adopted by themselves. In 1637, English Puritan colonists destroyed

106-742: A Native American people of Connecticut . The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe , four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation , or the Brothertown Indians of Wisconsin . They historically spoke Pequot, a dialect of the Mohegan-Pequot language , which became extinct by the early 20th century. Some tribal members are undertaking revival efforts. The Pequot and

159-466: A few hundred self-identified Pequot descendants. Pequot is an Algonquian word whose meaning is disputed among language specialists. Considerable scholarship on the Pequot claims that the name came from Pequttôog , meaning "the destroyers" or "the men of the swamp". Frank Speck was a leading specialist of the Mohegan-Pequot language in the early twentieth century, and he believed that another term

212-755: A principal fortified village at Mistick with the help of their sachem Uncas , the Christian convert and sagamore Wequash Cooke , and the Narragansetts during the Pequot War . This ended with the death of Uncas' cousin Sassacus near Albany, New York, where he had fled, at the hands of the Mohawk , an Iroquois Confederacy nation from west of the Hudson River . Thereafter, the Mohegan became

265-471: A reservation called "Lantern Hill." The Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation is recognized by the state of Connecticut . The 800+ Mashantucket Pequot or Western Pequot gained federal recognition in 1983 and have a reservation in Ledyard . The Poospatuck Reservation on Long Island is also home to a few hundred self-identified Pequot descendants. Nearly all individuals who are identified as Pequot live in

318-549: A reservation. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe received federal recognition in 1983 through a settlement of a land claim. In 1986, they founded the Foxwoods Resort Casino on their land. Located in proximity to the New York City metropolitan area , it has become one of the country's most successful Native American casinos . The Pawcatuck River Pequot formed the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation , which

371-663: A separate tribal nation under the leadership of Uncas. Uncas is a variant anglicized spelling of the Algonquian name Wonkus, which translates to "fox" in English. The word Mohegan (pronounced / ˈ m oʊ h iː ɡ æ n / ) translates in their respective Algonquin dialects ( Mohegan-Pequot language ) as "People of the Wolf". Over time, the Mohegan gradually lost ownership of much of their tribal lands. In 1978, Chief Rolling Cloud Hamilton petitioned for federal recognition of

424-458: A traditional selection process based on heredity. She was a direct descendant of Uncas and of Tamaquashad, Sachem of the Pequot tribe. In Mohegan tradition, the position of tribal leadership was often hereditary through the maternal line. In the 1960s, during a period of rising activism among Native Americans, John Hamilton filed a number of land claims authorized by the "Council of Descendants of Mohegan Indians." The group had some 300 members at

477-497: Is now the leader of the "Hamilton group." Despite their contentious histories and disagreements, both groups continued to participate in tribal activities and to identify as members of the Mohegan people. The Hamilton band of Mohegans continues to function and govern themselves independently of the MTIC, holding periodic gatherings and activities in their traditional territory of south-central Connecticut. The last living native speaker of

530-551: Is recognized by Connecticut but is not federally recognized. Additionally, Pequot descendants are enrolled in the federally recognized Mohegan Tribe , as well as the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation and Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation of Connecticut, and the Brothertown Indians of Wisconsin, which also have degrees of state recognition. The Poospatuck Reservation on Long Island is home to

583-522: The Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America , including the Iroquois . The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Algonquian languages . Some sources indicate the sagamore was a lesser chief elected by a single band, while the sachem was the head or representative elected by a tribe or group of bands; others suggest

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636-468: The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) established a formal administrative process. The process included specific criteria that BIA officials would judge as evidence of cultural continuity. In that same year, Hamilton's band submitted a petition for federal recognition for the Mohegan tribe. The petition process stalled when John Hamilton died in 1988. The petition for federal recognition was revived in 1989, but

689-614: The Mashantucket Pequot Reservation where many members of the tribe continue to live. The Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation was recognized in 2002. Since the 1930s, both Pequot tribes had serious tension over racial issues, with some people claiming that darker-skinned descendants should not be considered fully Pequot. Two groups of Eastern Pequots filed petitions for recognition with the BIA, and they agreed to unite to achieve recognition. The state immediately challenged

742-652: The Mohegan were formerly a single group, but the Mohegan split off in the 17th century as the Pequot came to control much of Connecticut. Simmering tensions with the New England Colonies led to the Pequot War of 1634–1638, which some historians consider to be a genocide under modern day terms, which dramatically reduced the population and influence of the Pequot; many members were killed, enslaved, or dispersed. Small numbers of Pequots remain in Connecticut, receiving reservations at Mashantucket in 1666 and at

795-614: The Mohegan Pennsylvania racetrack and casino near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania . The Mohegan Indian Tribe was historically based in central southern Connecticut, originally part of the Pequot people . It gradually became independent and served as allies of English colonists in the Pequot War of 1636, which broke the power of the formerly dominant Pequot tribe in the region. In reward, the Colonists gave Pequot captives to

848-711: The Mohegan language , Fidelia "Flying Bird" A. Hoscott Fielding , died in 1908. The Mohegan language was recorded primarily in her diaries, and in articles and a Smithsonian Institution report made by the early anthropologist , Frank Speck . Her niece, Gladys Tantaquidgeon , worked to preserve the language. Since 2012, the Mohegan Tribe has established a project to revive its language and establish new generations of native speakers. The Mohegan people have always had extensive knowledge of local flora and fauna, of hunting and fishing technologies, of seasonal adaptations, and of herbal medicine, as practices passed down through

901-531: The Narragansett tribes sided with the colonists. Around 1,500 Pequot warriors were killed in battles or hunted down, and others were captured and distributed as slaves or household servants. A few escaped to join the Mohawk and the Niantic tribes on Long Island . Eventually, some returned to their traditional lands, where family groups of friendly Pequots had stayed. Of those enslaved, most were awarded to

954-593: The Pawcatuck River in 1683; others lived in different areas and with other tribes. In the 18th century, some Christian Pequot joined members of several other groups to form the Brothertown Indians in western New Hampshire . They relocated to western New York in the 19th century, where they were allowed land by the Oneida people of the Iroquois League , and later to Wisconsin, where they were granted

1007-598: The Wappinger of the east bank of the central and lower Hudson River, relocated to central New York to live among the native Oneida people . In time the settlement became known as Stockbridge, New York . During the 1820s the majority of these people removed further west, eventually settling in Wisconsin, where today they constitute the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. These removals inspired

1060-527: The sugar maple as a cough remedy, and the sap as a sweetening agent and to make maple syrup. Although similar in name, the Mohegan are a different tribe from the Mohican , who share similar Algonkian culture and the members of whom constitute another speech community with the greater Algonquian language family. The Mohican (also called the Stockbridge Mohican) were historically based along

1113-600: The "Morhicans" (now the Mohegans) and the "Mahicans, Mahikanders, Mohicans, [or] Maikens". In 1735, Housatonic Mohican leaders negotiated with Massachusetts Governor Jonathan Belcher to found the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts , just to the west of the Berkshire Mountains, as a mission village. After the American Revolution , these Mohican people, along with New York Mohicans and members of

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1166-756: The 1970s and 1980s, especially the Mashantucket Pequot tribe which opened a casino in the same timeframe, and tribal chairman Richard A. Hayward encouraged them to return to their tribal homeland. He worked for Federal recognition and economic development. In 1976, the Pequots filed suit with the assistance of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and the Indian Rights Association against landowners and residents of North Stonington to get their land, which

1219-473: The 1970s. During this time, a Kent, Connecticut , property owners' organization, with some Native and non-Native members, worked to oppose the Hamilton land claims and the recognition petition for federal recognition, out of fear that tribal nations would take private properties. In 1978, in response to the desires of tribal nations across the country to gain federal recognition and recover tribal sovereignty,

1272-445: The 21st century, the Mashantucket Pequot are undertaking aggressive efforts to revive the language. They are conducting careful analysis of historical documents containing Pequot words and comparing them to extant closely related languages. So far, they have reclaimed more than 1,000 words, though that is a small fraction of what would be necessary for a functional language. The Mashantucket Pequots have begun offering language classes with

1325-555: The BIA cited the vital statistics and genealogies as documents that were decisive in demonstrating "that the tribe did indeed have social and political continuity during the middle of the 20th century." As a result, the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut (MTIC) gained recognition as a sovereign tribal nation. That same year, Congress passed the Mohegan Nation (Connecticut) Land Claim Settlement Act, which authorized

1378-415: The BIA's preliminary finding was that the Mohegan had not satisfied the criteria of documenting continuity in social community, and political authority and influence as a tribe through the twentieth century. In 1990, the Mohegan band led by Chief Courtland Fowler submitted a detailed response to meet the BIA's concerns. The tribe included compiled genealogies and other records, including records pertaining to

1431-472: The Mashantucket Pequot tribe, enabling them to buy the land covered in the Settlement Act and place it in trust with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for reservation use. In 1986, they opened a bingo operation, followed by the first phase of Foxwoods Resort Casino in 1992. Revenue from the casino has enabled the development and construction of a cultural museum which opened on August 11, 1998, on

1484-711: The Massachusett tribes called their kings "sachems" while the Penobscots (of present-day Maine) used the term "sagamos" (anglicized as "sagamore"). Conversely, Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley of Roxbury wrote in 1631 that the kings in the Massachusetts Bay bay area were called sagamores, but were called sachems southward (in Plymouth). The two terms apparently came from the same root. Although "sagamore" has sometimes been defined by colonists and historians as

1537-657: The Mohegan Congregational Church in Montville. BIA researchers used records provided by the Hamilton band, records from the Mohegan Church, and records maintained by Gladys Tantaquidgeon , who had kept genealogy and vital statistics of tribal members for her anthropological research. In 1990, the Fowler group, identifying as the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut (MTIC), decided that

1590-463: The Mohegan nation, [REDACTED] The Chair of the Indian King . and [REDACTED] Burial of Mazeen .. The first she describes as a rough rocky recess in the region of Mohegan and known as "the chair of Uncas": Mazeen she calls the last of the royal line of the Mohegan nation. Pequot 1637: 3,000 (est.) 1910: 66 1972: 21 The Pequot ( / ˈ p iː k w ɒ t / ) are

1643-623: The Mohegan tribe. The Mohegan homelands in Connecticut include landmarks such as Trading Cove on the Thames River, Cochegan Rock, Fort Shantok, and Mohegan Hill, where the Mohegan founded a Congregational church in the early 1800s. In 1931, the Tantaquidgeon family built the Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum on Mohegan Hill to house tribal artifacts and histories. Gladys Tantaquidgeon (1899–2005) served for years as

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1696-545: The Mohegan. Descendants of his Mohegan band operate independently of the federally recognized nation. In 1994, a majority group of Mohegan gained federal recognition as the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut (MTIC). They have been defined by the United States government as the "successor in interest to the aboriginal entity known as the Mohegan Indian Tribe." The United States took land into trust

1749-584: The Native Americans of the eastern coast of New England, but it did not reach the Pequot, Niantic, and Narragansett tribes. In 1633, the Dutch established a trading post called the House of Good Hope at Hartford . They executed the principal Pequot sachem Tatobem because of a violation of an agreement. After the Pequot paid the Dutch a large ransom, they returned Tatobem's body to his people. His successor

1802-492: The Pequot had already attained a position of political, military, and economic dominance in central and eastern Connecticut. They occupied the coastal area between the Niantic tribe of the Niantic River of Connecticut and the Narragansett in western Rhode Island . The Pequot numbered some 16,000 persons in the most densely inhabited portion of southern New England. The smallpox epidemic of 1616–1619 killed many of

1855-609: The Pequot had invaded the region sometime before the establishment of Plymouth Colony , rather than originating in the region. In the aftermath of King Philip's War , Hubbard detailed in his Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England the ferocity with which some of New England 's tribes responded to the English. Hubbard described the Pequot as "foreigners" to the region; not invaders from another shore, but "from

1908-480: The Pequot received at the hands of the colonists was remembered almost two centuries later by other Native American tribes such as some groups of Shawnees . It was commonly thought that they had disappeared entirely due to violence against Native Americans provoked by American colonists, although this was not true. The 1910 census numbered the Pequot population at 66, and they reached their lowest number several decades later. Pequot numbers grew significantly during

1961-577: The Pequots claimed had been illegally sold in 1856 by the State of Connecticut, and they settled after seven years. The Connecticut Legislature passed legislation to petition the federal government to grant tribal recognition to the Mashantucket Pequots, and the "Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claims Settlement Act" was enacted by Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan on October 18, 1983. This settlement granted federal recognition to

2014-548: The Tribe's medicine woman and unofficial historian. She studied anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for a decade with the Bureau of Indian Affairs . Returning to Connecticut, she operated this museum for six decades. It was one of the first museums to be owned and operated by American Indians. In 1933, John E. Hamilton (Chief Rolling Cloud) was appointed as a Grand Sachem by his mother Alice Storey through

2067-574: The United States to take land into trust to establish a reservation for the Mohegan and settle their land claim. The final 1994 agreement between MTIC and the State in the settlement of land claims extinguished all pending land claims. The MTIC adopted a written constitution . MTIC is governed by a chief, an elected chairman and an elected tribal council, all of whom serve for specific terms. The Mohegan people associated with Sachem John Hamilton persist as an independent group today. In his will, Hamilton named his non-Mohegan wife, Eleanor Fortin as Sachem. She

2120-677: The allied tribes, but many were also sold as slaves in Bermuda. The Mohegans treated their Pequot captives so severely that officials of Connecticut Colony eventually removed them. Connecticut established two reservations for the Pequots in 1683: the Eastern Pequot Reservation in North Stonington, Connecticut and the Western Pequots (or Mashantucket Pequot Reservation) in Ledyard . The poor treatment

2173-603: The decision, and the Department of the Interior revoked their recognition in 2005. That same year, it revoked recognition for the Schaghticoke tribe who had gained recognition in 2004. The Connecticut state government and Congressional delegation opposed the BIA's recognition because residents were worried that the newly recognized tribes would establish gaming casinos. The 1130-member Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation has

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2226-472: The generations. Gladys Tantaquidgeon was instrumental in recording herbal medicinal knowledge and folklore, and in comparing these plants and practices to those of other Algonquian peoples like the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) and Wampanoag, For example, an infusion of bark removed from the south side of the silver maple tree is used by the Mohegan for cough medicine. The Mohegan also use the inner bark of

2279-613: The help of the Mashpee Wampanoag . The Wampanoag recently initiated the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project. The southern New England Indian communities participating in the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project are Mashpee Wampanoag, Aquinnah Wampanoag, Herring Pond Wampanoag, and Mashantucket Pequot. Sachem Sachems / ˈ s eɪ tʃ ə m z / and sagamores / ˈ s æ ɡ ə m ɔːr z / are paramount chiefs among

2332-516: The interior of the continent" who "by force seized upon one of the goodliest places near the sea, and became a Terror to all their Neighbors." Much of the archaeological, linguistic, and documentary evidence now available demonstrates that the Pequot were not invaders to the Connecticut River Valley but were indigenous in that area for thousands of years. By the time of the founding of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies,

2385-598: The myth of the "Last of the Mohicans." Most of the descendants of the Mohegan tribe, by contrast, have continued to live in New England, and particularly in Connecticut, since the colonial era. Lydia Sigourney published her poem [REDACTED] The Rival Kings of Mohegan, contrasted with the Rival Brothers of Persia . in her 1827 collection of poetry. In that same collection are two other poems relating to

2438-675: The same year, under an act of Congress to serve as a reservation for the tribe. Most of the Mohegan people in Connecticut today live on the Mohegan Reservation at 41°28′42″N 72°04′55″W  /  41.47833°N 72.08194°W  / 41.47833; -72.08194 near Uncasville in the Town of Montville , New London County . The MTIC operate the Mohegan Sun Casino on their reservation in Uncasville and

2491-470: The time. In 1970 the Montville band of Mohegans expressed its dissatisfaction with land-claims litigation. When the Hamilton supporters left the meeting, this band elected Courtland Fowler as their new leader. Notes of that Council meeting referred to Hamilton as Sachem . The group led by John Hamilton (although opposed by the Fowlers) worked with the attorney Jerome Griner in federal land claims through

2544-443: The tribe's membership would be restricted to documented descendants from a single family group, ca. 1860. This criterion excludes some of the Hamilton followers. By law, a Federally recognized tribe has the authority to determine its own rules for membership. The MTIC unsuccessfully attempted to stop other Mohegan people from using "Mohegan" as their tribal identity, in public records and in craftwork. In its 1994 "Final Determination",

2597-524: The two above-named communities. Historically, the Pequots spoke a dialect of the Mohegan-Pequot language , an Eastern Algonquian language . The Treaty of Hartford concluded the Pequot War in 1637, when the colonists made speaking the language a capital offense. Within a generation or so, it became largely extinct. Pequot from both the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mashantucket Pequot now speak English as their first language. In

2650-716: The two terms were interchangeable. The positions are elective, not hereditary. Although not strictly hereditary the title of Sachem is often passed through the equivalent of tanistry . The Oxford English Dictionary found a use from 1613. The term "Sagamore" appears in Noah Webster 's first An American Dictionary of the English Language published in 1828, as well as the 1917 Webster's New International Dictionary . One modern source explains: According to Captain John Smith , who explored New England in 1614,

2703-420: The upper Hudson River in present-day eastern New York and along the upper Housatonic River in western Massachusetts. In the United States, both tribes have been referred to in various historic documents by the spelling "Mohican", based on mistakes in translation and location. But, the Dutch colonist Adriaen Block , one of the first Europeans to record the names of both tribes, clearly distinguished between

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2756-406: Was Sassacus . In 1633, an epidemic devastated all of the region's tribes, and historians estimate that the Pequot suffered the loss of 80 percent of their population. At the outbreak of the Pequot War , Pequot survivors may have numbered only about 3,000. Members of the Pequot tribe killed a resident of Connecticut Colony in 1636, John Oldham , and war erupted as a result. The Mohegan and

2809-416: Was more plausible, meaning "the shallowness of a body of water", given that the Pequot territory was along the coast of Long Island Sound . Historians have debated whether the Pequot migrated about 1500 from the upper Hudson River Valley toward central and eastern Connecticut . The theory of Pequot migration to the Connecticut River Valley can be traced to Rev. William Hubbard, who claimed in 1677 that

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