Mohegan

1. 1. A Native American people formerly inhabiting eastern Connecticut, with present-day descendants in southeast Connecticut and Wisconsin. The Mohegan broke away from the Pequot in the early 17th century under the leadership of Uncas.
   2. A member of this people.
2. The Algonquian language of the Mohegan.

For more information on Mohegan, visit Britannica.com.

The Mohegans, an Eastern Algonquian-speaking people located in southeastern Connecticut, first appear on a 1614 Dutch map that shows them located close to the Pequots. If not part of the Pequot tribe, the Mohegan village was under Pequot control until the outbreak of hostilities between the English and Pequots in the 1630s. By the commencement of the English-Pequot War (1636–1638), the Mohegans, under the leadership of Uncas, had broken with the Pequots and joined the English against them.

After the war, Uncas became the most important pro-English Indian leader in New England, but his loyalty did not prevent the English from acquiring most of his tribe's lands. By the 1750s the tribe was split over issues of leadership, which were exacerbated by the last tribal sachem Ben Uncas III. The opposition was led by Samson Occom, Mohegan minister, who after Uncas's death in 1769, organized the Brothertown movement.

The tribe held some 2,000 acres until 1861 when the state legislature divided the land among the tribal members, with the title and citizenship being granted in 1872. Only the plot on which the Mohegan Church was located remained tribal.

The tribe continued to function throughout the twentieth century, centering its activities around the church. It brought suit in the 1970s for the land lost in 1861, and in 1994 it was granted federal recognition and settled its land claim.

Bibliography

Conkey, Laura E., Ethel Boissevain, and Ives Goddard "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island: Late Period." In Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15: Northeast. Edited by Bruce Trigger. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.

DeForest, John W. History of the Indians of Connecticut from the Earliest Known Period to 1850. Hamden, Conn.: Archon, 1964. Originally published in 1851.

For other uses, see Mohegan (disambiguation).

The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames valley of Connecticut.^[1] The Mohegan were originally a conjoined tribe with the Pequot until the period of European contact in the 17th century, briefly coming under Pequot rule in the 1630s until the dominant tribe was destroyed in 1637.^[1] The tribe gained federal recognition in 1994, and currently operates the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, as well as a casino at Pocano Downs, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Contents 1 Synonymy 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References 5 External links

Synonymy

Although similar in name, the Mohegans are a different tribe from the Mahicans. Both tribes have been referred to as Mohicans, a source of confusion based upon a mistake in translation^[2] Adriaen Block who was one of the first Europeans to refer to both tribes, distinguished between the "Morhicans" and the "Mahicans, Mahikanders, Mohicans, [or] Maikens".^[2]

The Mahicans came from the Hudson River Valley (around Albany, New York). Many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts after 1780, before the remaining descendants moved to Wisconsin during the 1820s and 1830s.^[3][4] The Mohegan tribe, in contrast to the Mahicans, has mostly remained in New England.

See also

• Mahican - tribe with similar name
• The Last of the Mohicans
• Mahomet Weyonomon- A sachem who traveled to England in 1735 to seek better and fair treatment of his people

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Mohegan" history, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007, webpage: EB-Mohegan.
2. ^ ^{a b} William C. Sturtevant (General Editor), Bruce G. Trigger (Volume Editor). Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15, Northeast. Smithsonian Institution, Washington (1978). 
3. ^ "Mohican" (history), Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007, webpage:EB-Mohicans.
4. ^ "Mahican" (history), Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007, webpage:EB-Mahican.

References

• Brasser, T. J. (1978). Mahican. In B. G. Trigger (Ed.), Northeast (pp. 198-212). Handbook of North American Indian languages (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-74624-5.
• Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne. (1979). Introduction: North American Indian historical linguistics in current perspective. In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment (pp. 3-69). Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Oberg, Michael Leroy, Uncas, First of the Mohegans (2003). ISBN 0801438772.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Mohegan

• Mohegan Tribe Homepage

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