44°53′55″N 88°51′42″W / 44.89861°N 88.86167°W / 44.89861; -88.86167
84-510: The Stockbridge–Munsee Community , also known as the Mohican Nation Stockbridge–Munsee Band , is a federally recognized Native American tribe formed in the late eighteenth century from communities of so-called " praying Indians " (or Moravian Indians ), descended from Christianized members of two distinct groups: Mohican and Wappinger from the praying town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts , and Munsee (Lenape), from
168-612: 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
252-476: 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
336-582: A family was $ 54,500. Male full-time workers had a median income of $ 45,290 versus $ 39,519 for female workers. The per capita income was $ 21,293. About 13.6% of families and 18.6% of the population were below the poverty line , including 32.1% of those under age 18 and 7.3% of those age 65 or over. Of the population age 25 and over, 84.6% were high school graduates or higher and 11.5% had a bachelor's degree or higher. The Stockbridge–Munsee have continued to negotiate with local and state governments over land and tax issues. For instance, in 2012 they were working with
420-678: A fourth proposal under review in the Southern Tier. The new casinos were expected to open in 2017. The tribe was unsuccessful in another land claims case. A case filed in 1986 against New York and the Oneida Nation was dismissed on June 21, 2014, by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. It has also dismissed other tribal claims since the US Supreme Court decision in City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). In
504-631: 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
588-570: 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
672-537: A spur to economic development, and to keep revenues in the state that some residents were spending at other casinos. The Albany-Saratoga area, the Southern Tier-Finger Lakes region, and the Catskills and mid-Hudson River Valley were designated for resort gaming facilities and the state accepted proposals. Learning that several groups were bidding on an Orange County, New York site (this county
756-412: A unanimous decision, the court said that the tribe had taken too long to press its land claim and could not recover land lost in 'early American history.' It ruled: [I]t is now well‐established that Indian land claims asserted generations after an alleged dispossession are inherently disruptive of state and local governance and the settled expectations of current landowners, and are subject to dismissal on
840-409: Is land and 0.05 sq mi (0.13 km) is water. As of the census of 2020 , the combined population of Stockbridge Munsee Community and Off-Reservation Trust Land was 733. The population density was 26.9 inhabitants per square mile (10.4/km). There were 321 housing units at an average density of 11.8 per square mile (4.6/km). The racial makeup of the reservation and off-reservation trust land
924-632: Is used by the BIA to publish the list of "Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs". Tribes in the contiguous 48 states and those in Alaska are listed separately. 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
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#17327723343011008-720: 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
1092-609: The American Revolutionary War . They became Christianized Indians. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they migrated west to central New York. The Oneida people allowed them to share a 22,000-acre portion of the Oneida Reservation south of Syracuse, New York . The Munsee were Lenape who occupied the northern part of their total territory. As they spoke the Munsee dialect, one of
1176-607: The Brothertown Indians were terminated; however, it authorized all payments to be made directly to each enrollee, with special provisions for minors to be handled by the Secretary. These payments were not subject to state or federal taxes. The Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation consists of a checkerboard of land across the towns of Bartelme and Red Springs in Shawano County, Wisconsin . When created in 1856,
1260-649: The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States. Of these, 228 are located in Alaska and 109 are located in California. 346 of the 574 federally recognized tribes are located in the contiguous United States. Federally recognized tribes are those Native American tribes recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as holding a government-to-government relationship with
1344-658: 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
1428-746: 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
1512-654: The Emigrant Indians of New York are "(now known as the Oneidas , Stockbridge–Munsee, and Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin)". In an effort to fight termination and force the government into recognizing their outstanding land claims from New York, the three tribes began filing litigation in the 1950s. As a result of a claim filed with the Indian Claims Commission, the group was awarded a settlement of $ 1,313,472.65 on August 11, 1964. To distribute
1596-715: 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
1680-857: 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
1764-590: 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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#17327723343011848-616: 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
1932-630: The Menominee , whose homelands these were. Since the late twentieth century, the Stockbridge–Munsee Community has developed the successful North Star Mohican Resort and Casino to generate revenues for welfare and economic development of the tribe. The Brotherton Indians have a separate reservation. As part of the Indian termination policy that was followed by the US government from the 1940s to
2016-624: 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
2100-541: The Oneida Nation , the Cayuga Nation and Onondaga Nation . The doctrine invented to deny these claims is known as "new laches" or "Indian law laches" and has been widely condemned by law review articles. Federally recognized tribe This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States . There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes . As of January 8, 2024 , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by
2184-653: The U.S. Congress the right to interact with tribes. More specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Sandoval warned, "it is not... that Congress may bring a community or body of people within range of this power by arbitrarily calling them an Indian tribe, but only that in respect of distinctly Indian communities the questions whether, to what extent, and for what time they shall be recognized and dealt with as dependent tribes" (at 46). Federal tribal recognition grants to tribes
2268-689: 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
2352-403: The 1950s, the BIA in 1978 published final rules with procedures that groups had to meet to secure federal tribal acknowledgment. There are seven criteria. Four have proven troublesome for most groups to prove: long-standing historical community, outside identification as Indians, political authority, and descent from a historical tribe. Tribes seeking recognition must submit detailed petitions to
2436-644: The 1960s, several former New York tribes were targeted for termination. A 21 January 1954 memo by the Department of the Interior advised that a bill for termination was being prepared including "about 3,600 members of the Oneida Tribe residing in Wisconsin." Another memo of the Department of the Interior memo entitled Indian Claims Commission Awards Over $ 38.5 Million to Indian Tribes in 1964, states that
2520-457: The 574th tribe to gain federal recognition on December 20, 2019. The website USA.gov , the federal government's official web portal, also maintains an updated list of tribal governments . Ancillary information present in former versions of this list but no longer contained in the current listing has been included here in italic print. The Federal Register
2604-561: The BIA's Office of Federal Acknowledgment. To be formally recognized as an Indian tribe, the US Congress can legislate recognition or a tribe can meet the seven criteria outlined by the Office of Federal Acknowledgment. These seven criteria are summarized as: The federal acknowledgment process can take years, even decades; delays of 12 to 14 years have occurred. The Shinnecock Indian Nation formally petitioned for recognition in 1978 and
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2688-460: 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
2772-600: 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,
2856-616: 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
2940-638: 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,
3024-567: 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
3108-580: 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
3192-524: 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
3276-467: 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
3360-568: 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
3444-405: 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
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3528-469: 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
3612-605: 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
3696-462: 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 ,
3780-434: The Tribal Affairs Committee of Shawano County on issues related to the potential impact of their converting purchased land to trust lands. They thought they had reached agreement to pay the towns and county $ 140,000 annually for ten years in exchange for the county's support for their land-to-trust deals in Red Springs or Bartelme, which had been part of the reservation in the 1850s. While the committee had reached agreement with
3864-414: The US federal government . For Alaska Native tribes, see list of Alaska Native tribal entities . In the United States , the Native American tribe is a fundamental unit of sovereign tribal government. As the Department of the Interior explains, "federally recognized tribes are recognized as possessing certain inherent rights of self-government (i.e., tribal sovereignty)...." The constitution grants to
3948-471: The addition of six tribes in Virginia under the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017, signed in January 2018 after the annual list had been published. In July 2018 the United States' Federal Register issued an official list of 573 tribes that are Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs . The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana became
4032-405: The area where present-day New York , Pennsylvania and New Jersey meet. Their land-base, the Stockbridge–Munsee Indian Reservation , consists of a checkerboard of 24.03 square miles (62.2 km) in the towns of Bartelme and Red Springs in Shawano County, Wisconsin . Among their enterprises is the North Star Mohican Resort and Casino. In settlement of a large land claim in New York, where
4116-433: The basis of laches, acquiescence, and impossibility," the decision stated. In this case, the tribe was suing the state of New York and the Oneida Nation ; the court ruled that the Oneida were protected by sovereign immunity. While the tribe discussed appealing the case to the US Supreme Court, analysts believe it is unlikely the court will hear it. The US Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals of similar land claims from
4200-541: 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
4284-419: 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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#17327723343014368-421: 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
4452-446: 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
4536-524: The funds, Congress passed Public Law 90-93 81 Stat. 229 Emigrant New York Indians of Wisconsin Judgment Act and prepared separate rolls of persons in each of the three groups to determine which tribal members had at least one-quarter "Emigrant New York Indian blood." It further directed tribal governing bodies of the Oneida and Stockbridge–Munsee to apply to the Secretary of the Interior for approval of fund distributions, thereby ending termination efforts for these tribes. The law did not specifically state that
4620-428: 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
4704-439: The land in trust, making it eligible for development as a gaming casino, and the state would allow gaming, an increasingly important source of revenue for American Indians. The state believed this would help stimulate other development in the region. Race track and casinos, private interests and other federally recognized tribes opposed the deal. The state in 2013 passed legislation to license four gaming casinos in three regions as
4788-443: 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
4872-432: 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
4956-454: The location of its former homelands. In November 2010, the outgoing New York governor David Paterson announced having reached a deal with the tribe. They would be given nearly 2 acres 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
5040-404: The major three branches of the language, they were sometimes referred to by colonists and settlers by that term. They occupied coastal areas around present-day New York City , the western part of Long Island , and northern New Jersey. Lenape to the South spoke two other dialect variations. After the 1778 Stockbridge Massacre of Stockbridge Militia during the American Revolutionary War , what
5124-467: 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
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#17327723343015208-410: 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
5292-432: 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
5376-405: The once large Wappinger people and some Mohican . Although the Oneida allowed them to share some of their reservation, eventually the two groups agreed to removal together to present-day Wisconsin. Historically each of these tribes had spoken a distinct Algonquian language. The Stockbridge–Munsee share a 22,000-acre reservation in Shawano County, Wisconsin . This land was initially assigned to
5460-408: The original reservation boundaries. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in 2020 was 24.03 square miles (62.2 km). The tribe also administered 3.17 square miles (8.2 km) of off-reservation trust land . The combined reservation and off-reservation trust land have a total area of 27.25 sq mi (70.6 km), of which 27.2 sq mi (70 km)
5544-551: 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
5628-442: 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
5712-406: The reservation included both townships in their entirety, amounting to roughly 72 square miles (190 km). Legislation in 1871 and 1906 nearly eliminated the band's land holdings. The current reservation consists of parcels that the U.S. has placed into trust for the band since the 1930s. In 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled against the band's appeal to restore
5796-405: The right to certain benefits, and is largely administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). While trying to determine which groups were eligible for federal recognition in the 1970s, government officials became aware of the need for consistent procedures. To illustrate, several federally unrecognized tribes encountered obstacles in bringing land claims ; United States v. Washington (1974)
5880-466: 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
5964-455: 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
6048-600: The tribe had occupied land in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in 2010 the state of New York agreed to give the tribe 330 acres in Sullivan County in the Catskills and two acres in Madison County (their former territory). This was in exchange for dropping their larger claim for 23,000 acres of land in Madison (near the city of Syracuse ), which they had occupied in the early 19th century. The state granted
6132-527: The tribe the right to develop the Catskills property as a gaming casino. The deal is controversial and opposed by numerous interests, including other federally recognized tribes in New York. The tribe dropped their bid for a gaming casino in New York in June 2014, given a high level of competition from other developers for sites in Orange County , which is closer to the metropolitan market. Another land claim
6216-561: The tribe, the County Board did not approve the deal. In 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 Native Americans in the post-American Revolutionary War years without United States Senate ratification. The Stockbridge–Munsee filed a land claim against New York state for 23,000 acres in Madison County ,
6300-592: 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
6384-493: Was 78.0% Native American , 11.2% White , 0.1% Black or African American , 0.1% from other races , and 10.5% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 2.9% Hispanic or Latino of any race. According to the American Community Survey estimates for 2016-2020, the median income for a household (including the reservation and off-reservation trust land) was $ 46,250, and the median income for
6468-585: Was a court case that affirmed the fishing treaty rights of Washington tribes; and other tribes demanded that the U.S. government recognize aboriginal titles . All the above culminated in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 , which legitimized tribal entities by partially restoring Native American self-determination . Following the decisions made by the Indian Claims Commission in
6552-511: Was added to the legislation) located closer to New York, the Stockbridge–Munsee and their developer withdrew their bid in June 2014. They are investigating other uses of the property. Sullivan County, which had previously supported their plan, was also concerned that a casino in Orange County could siphon off too much business, as it is closer to the metropolitan New York market. That year New York approved three resort casino licenses, with
6636-399: Was dismissed by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2014. The Stockbridge–Munsee members are descendants of tribes historically located in the Hudson River valley, New England and the mid-Atlantic areas, respectively, at the time of European encounter. The Stockbridge were Mohicans from the upper east Hudson area who migrated into western Massachusetts in and near Stockbridge before
6720-400: 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
6804-621: Was left of a combined Mohican and Wappinger community in Stockbridge, Massachusetts left for Oneida County in western New York to join the Oneida people there. Many Munsee -speaking Lenape also migrated from New Jersey to there by 1802. They were joined there by Brothertown Indians of New Jersey (from a reservation in Indian Mills, New Jersey ), as well as by the Stockbridge Indians , which included remnants of
6888-457: 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
6972-729: Was recognized 32 years later in 2010. At a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing, witnesses testified that the process was "broken, long, expensive, burdensome, intrusive, unfair, arbitrary and capricious, less than transparent, unpredictable, and subject to undue political influence and manipulation." The number of tribes increased to 567 in May 2016 with the inclusion of the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia who received their federal recognition in July 2015. The number of tribes increased to 573 with
7056-543: 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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