80-624: Munsee-Delaware Nation ( Munsee : Nalahii Lunaapewaak , meaning: Lenapes from the Upstream , in contrast with The Lenape at Moraviantown , referred to as "Downstrean Lenapes") is a Lenape First Nations band government located 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of St. Thomas , in southwest Ontario , Canada. Known previously as the Munsee of the Thames , their land base is the 1,054 hectares (2,600 acres) Munsee-Delaware Nation 1 reserve , with
160-459: A registered population of 524 in April 2004, of whom 163 lived on the reserve. By January 2011, the nation had a total registered population of 555, of whom 145 lived on the reserve. Munsee-Delaware Nation's Chief and Council are elected officials who serve a two (2) year term of office. Elections are governed by their own Band Custom Election Code. Chief and Council are directly accountable to
240-612: 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
320-476: 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
400-726: A disyllable with a weak penultimate syllable, the final syllable is strong, and receives primary stress. (a) ăsə́n 'stone' (disyllabic Weak-Strong) The grammar of Munsee is characterized by complex inflectional and derivational morphology . Inflection in Munsee is realized through the use of prefixes and suffixes added to word stems to indicate grammatical information, including number (singular or plural), gender , person , possession , negation , obviation , and others. Nouns use combinations of person prefixes and suffixes to indicate possession and suffixes to indicate gender, number, diminutive , absentive , and obviation. Verbs use
480-631: 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
560-410: A linguistically oriented transcription, followed by the same words written in a practical system. The linguistic system uses a raised dot (·) to indicate vowel length. Although stress is mostly predictable, the linguistic system uses the acute accent to indicate predictable main stress. In addition predictable voiceless or murmured /ă/ is indicated with the breve accent (˘). Similarly, the breve accent
640-570: 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
720-604: A self-designation in English. The term Delaware was originally applied by British colonists to Unami speakers living along the Delaware River , which is named after Lord De La Warr , the first governor of Virginia. The term was gradually extended to refer to all Delaware groups. The Munsee in Ontario are sometimes referred to as "Ontario Delaware" or "Canadian Delaware". Munsee-speaking residents of Moraviantown use
800-529: A single language.) Aboriginally, and for a period subsequent to the arrival of Europeans, Munsee was spoken within a series of small and largely autonomous local bands, located primarily within the drainage of the Hudson and upper Delaware rivers, the major river systems of the area. The general pattern, found throughout the Eastern Algonquian area, was one in which indigenous groups resided along
880-929: A single set of person prefixes and a series of suffixes in position classes after the verb stem to indicate combinations of person, number, negation, obviation, and others. There is no standard writing system for Munsee. Linguists have tended to use common phonetic transcription symbols of the type found in the International Phonetic Alphabet or similar Americanist symbols in order to represent sounds that are not consistently represented in conventional standard writing systems. Europeans writing down Delaware words and sentences have tended to use adaptations of European alphabets and associated conventions. The quality of such transliterated renditions has varied widely, as Europeans attempted to record sounds and sound combinations they were not familiar with. A practical orthography for Munsee has been created in
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#1732766154842960-699: A | and | ə | . It is possible to determine which vowel is older and which might be the innovation by using evidence from other Algonquin languages, other Munsee communities and earlier sources. An initial and three words show variation between short and long vowels. These words are: ans ~ a·ns - 'scoop': ánsham ~ á·nsham 'he dips up water' me·xalapó·ti·s ~ me·xa·làpó·ti-s 'spider' wekó·li·s ~ we·kó·li·s 'whippoorwill' Mahican 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
1040-544: Is a fair going on'; ntáyrəm 'my tire.' Different analyses of the Munsee vowel system have been proposed. Goddard (1979) presents an analysis in which Munsee and Unami have the same vowel system, unchanged from the Proto-Eastern-Algonquian vowel system (discussed in the History section below). In this analysis, there are four long vowels /i·, o·, e·, a·/ and two short vowels /a, ə/ . Vowel length
1120-418: Is indicated with a raised dot (·). However, in modern Munsee there are several sources of new short /i, o, e/ that arise from such sources as reduplication, loan words, and other various phonological changes, and that cannot be derived from other underlying vowels. Hence an analysis in which there are four positions that have contrastive vowel length as well as /ə/ , is appropriate. The short vowel /i/ has
1200-643: Is little information on dialect variation within the Munsee-speaking area. The primary known named Munsee groups, from north to south on the west side of the Hudson River, were the The Wappinger were to the east of the upper Hudson; below them going north to south on the east bank of the Hudson were the The disruptions resulting from the entry of European settlers, fur traders, and explorers led to
1280-455: Is not an indigenous term, and that it results from a "corruption" of English use of Minisink is incorrect. The term follows a regular pattern of Munsee word formation. Names for the speakers of Munsee are used in complex ways in both English and in Munsee. The Unami language is sometimes treated as "Delaware" or "Delaware proper", reflecting the original application of the term Delaware to Unami speakers, but Munsee speakers use Delaware as
1360-493: Is of Unami origin, and is used in English as a self-designation by speakers of Unami; Exceptionally among scholars, Kraft uses Lenape as an English-language cover term to refer to all Delaware-speaking groups, while noting that this usage is "not entirely appropriate". Munsee speakers refer to their language as /hə̀lə̆ni·xsəwá·kan/ , literally 'speaking the Delaware language'. Speakers of Munsee originally resided in
1440-413: Is used to indicate an ultra-short [ə] that typically occurs before a single voiced consonant followed by a vowel. The practical system indicates vowel length by doubling the vowel letter and maintains the linɡuistic system's practices for marking stress and voiceless/ultra-short vowels. The practical system uses orthographic ⟨sh⟩ for the phonetic symbol /š/ , and ⟨ch⟩ for
1520-477: The -w . This drop also carried over into "careful speech". A large class of particles and pre-words that are usually heard with final /-ɘ/ retained the original /-i/ in the speech of some speakers. Words that end with the negative suffix /-wi/ or the subjunctive suffix /-e/ had variants with final /-ɘ/ . Another large class of particles and pre-words are found in older sources ending in /-Í·wi/ , e.g. Some words have variation between underlying |
1600-590: The Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of two Delaware languages (also known as Lenape languages , after the tribe's autonym). It is very closely related to the Unami Delaware, but the two are sufficiently different that they are considered separate languages. Munsee was spoken aboriginally by Lenape in the vicinity of the modern New York City area in
1680-720: 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
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#17327661548421760-658: 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
1840-688: 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
1920-715: 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
2000-743: 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
2080-590: 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
2160-616: 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
2240-624: 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
2320-731: The Raritan River to the Atlantic Ocean. To the south of the Munsee were the Unami Delaware. To the north were the Algonquian Mahican , and to the east were the Eastern Long Island peoples, who also spoke Algonquian languages, such as Unquachog (also spelled Unkechaug ) and southern New England languages, such as Quiripi . (Quiripi and Unquachog are likely members of a dialect continuum of
2400-612: The United States , including western Long Island , Manhattan Island , Staten Island , as well as adjacent areas on the mainland: southeastern New York State , the northern third of New Jersey , and northeastern Pennsylvania . As of 2018, Munsee was spoken only on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario , Canada , by two elderly individuals, aged 77 and 90, making it critically endangered. The language that
2480-590: The unincorporated community of Muncey , west from the Oneida Nation of the Thames , as their main community. The reserve is splintered into several non-contiguous areas, made up of individual lots within the Chippewas of the Thames reserve . As of January 2014, their registered population was 612 people, though only 148 lived on their own reserve. Members of the Munsee branch of the Lenape nation arrived in
Munsee-Delaware Nation - Misplaced Pages Continue
2560-779: 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
2640-460: 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
2720-600: 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,
2800-524: The Delaware languages, comprising a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian. Taken together with Mahican , the Delaware languages constitute Delawaran, a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian. The term Munsee developed as an English name for the aggregated group that formed along the upper Delaware River north of the Delaware Water Gap . Other Munsee dialect speakers joined the Minisink group;
2880-547: The Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape , whose indigenous territory was to the south as far as 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
2960-583: 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,
3040-554: The English term Munsee to refer to residents of Munceytown, approximately 50 km (31 mi) to the east. In English, Moraviantown residents call themselves Delaware , and in Munsee /lənáːpeːw/ 'Delaware person, Indian'. Some Delaware at Moraviantown also use the term Christian Indian as a preferred self-designation in English. The equivalent Munsee term is ké·ntə̆we·s ('one who prays, Moravian convert'). Munsee speakers refer to Oklahoma Delaware as Unami in English or /wə̆ná·mi·w/ in Munsee. The English term Lenape
3120-567: 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
3200-580: 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
3280-524: 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
Munsee-Delaware Nation - Misplaced Pages Continue
3360-467: 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
3440-453: 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
3520-405: 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
3600-469: 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
3680-605: 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
3760-771: 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 ,
3840-570: The area in the 18th century. John Graves Simcoe , the lieutenant governor, encouraged the Munsee to settle there although Chippewa were already established there. In 1819 the Chippewa of the Thames reserve was established, and in 1840 the Munsee and the Chippewa finally reached an agreement to share the land. In 1967 the Munsee portion became part of the current reserve, which was established by Order in Council . The Munsee-Delaware First Nation had
3920-434: The band membership for the success of the Nation and the conduct of its affairs and for carrying out the community's mission and vision. The history of Munsee-Delaware Nation elected Chief and Council are: Munsee language Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware, Delaware : Huluníixsuwaakan, Monsii èlixsuwakàn ) is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of
4000-541: 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
4080-419: 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
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#17327661548424160-421: 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
4240-438: The context of various language preservation and documentation projects. A recent bilingual dictionary of Munsee uses a practical orthography derived from a linguistic transcription system for Munsee. The same system is also used in a recent word book produced locally at Moraviantown. The related Unami language is written using a distinct practical orthography . The table below presents a sample of Munsee words, written first in
4320-525: The deletion of certain short vowels. All syllables containing long vowels are strong. Any short vowel in a closed syllable (i.e. (C)VC) is strong. Counting left to right, in a sequence of two or more open syllables containing short vowels, the odd-numbered syllable is weak and the even-numbered syllable is strong. As well, certain syllables containing short vowels (frequently such syllables occur in reduplicated syllables and loan words) must exceptionally be marked as strong. In words longer than two syllables,
4400-453: The displacement of these local groups. They gradually consolidated into larger groups that brought together speakers from the different groups within the Munsee-speaking area. Munsee phonology is complex but regular in many regards. Metrical rules of syllable weight assignment play a key role in the assignment of word-level stress , and also determine the form of rules of vowel syncope that produce complex but mostly regular alternations in
4480-436: The drainages of major river systems, with divisions between upriver and downriver groupings. Named groups were found on the major tributaries; they developed larger sites on the main streams and smaller camps at the headwaters and on feeder streams. Estimates vary, but these local groups may have had a population of up to two hundred people each. These groups spoke localized varieties of the language now called Munsee, but there
4560-480: The earliest recorded mention of Munsee dates from 1725. Minisink is a Munsee term meaning 'at the island', and is to be transcribed mə̆nə́sənk . It is the locative form of a now disused word /mənə́s/ 'island' (no source given, not a form given in records and not a normal Munsee noun ending; viz. manan , manhan ; form suggests 'small island'); cognates in other Algonquian languages are e.g. Ojibwe minis , 'island'. Orthographic ⟨ink⟩ in
4640-446: 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
4720-526: The final syllable is excluded from consideration of stress placement, i.e. is extrametrical , and the last strong syllable preceding the final syllable in the word receives the main stress. (a) payaxkhı́·kan 'rifle' (strong penultimate, receives primary stress) (b) né·wake 'if I see him' (weak penultimate, preceding syllable receives primary stress) In disyllabic words a strong penultimate syllable receives primary stress. (a) á·mwi·w 's/he gets up from lying down' (disyllabic Strong-Strong) In
4800-417: The first two locations, the language is used only by a few elders at Moraviantown, Ontario. Since the early 21st century, the language has been taught to tribal members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Native Americans, and the Delaware Nation , Moraviantown Reserve. The southern boundary of Munsee territory was the area north of the Delaware Water Gap, following the river system southeast along
4880-452: The form Minisink is the modern Munsee locative suffix /-ənk/ (discussed below in the Grammar section). The term Munsee is the English adaptation of a regularly formed word, mə́n'si·w ('person from Minisink'). Over time the British extended the term Munsee to any speaker of the Munsee language. Attempts to derive Munsee from a word meaning 'stone' or 'mountain,' as proposed by Brinton , are incorrect. Kraft 's claim that Munsee
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#17327661548424960-432: The forms of words. Word-level stress is largely predictable, with exceptions occurring primarily in loan words, reduplicated forms, and in words where historical change has made historically transparent alternations more opaque. Munsee has the following inventory of consonants; International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) values are given in brackets. Some loan words from English contain /f/ and /r/ : fé·li·n 'there
5040-428: 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
5120-549: The greater Manhattan area, the drainage of the Lower Hudson River valley , and the upper Delaware River. The arrival of European explorers, traders and settlers resulted in the progressive displacement of Munsee people over a period of several centuries. Munsee groups affected by this process ultimately moved away from their homeland to communities in both the United States and Canada. In the 20th century, surviving Munsee speakers in Canada lived at Six Nations , Ontario; Munceytown , Ontario; and Moraviantown Reserve. Now extinct in
5200-425: The individuals speak differs between speakers, each having a personal dialect. There has been interest in learning the language by younger individuals. Munsee is an Eastern Algonquian language, which is the sole recognized genetic subgroup descending from Proto-Algonquian , the common ancestor language of the Algonquian language family. Munsee is very closely related to Unami Delaware. Munsee and Unami constitute
5280-443: 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
5360-432: 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
5440-467: 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
5520-410: 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
5600-432: 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
5680-461: The phonetic symbol /č/ . Currently, the Munsee language has eight native speakers whose personal dialects vary from each other. Extensive details about how the language differs between all eight speakers have been cataloged in a paper by Ives Goddard titled "The Personal Dialects of Moraviantown Delaware" which was published in Anthropological Linguistics volume 52. Nouns and verbs that end in -i·w , -e·w and -a·w ; some speakers often dropped
5760-459: The phonetic value [ɪ] . Short /a/ has values centring on [ʌ] , with [a] occurring before [hC] (where 'C' represents any stop or the lateral consonant). Short /o/ has values centring on [ʊ] . The long vowels /iː, eː, aː, oː/ have the primary values [iː] , [ɛː] , [aː] , and [oː] , with /a/ varying to [ɑ] , and [ɒ] after labial consonants. Syllable weight plays a significant role in Munsee phonology, determining stress placement and
5840-797: The powerful Mohawk to the west during the Beaver Wars , many were driven southeastward across the present-day Massachusetts western border and 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
5920-553: 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
6000-580: 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
6080-609: 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
6160-592: 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
6240-400: 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
6320-457: 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
6400-591: 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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