Housatonic (people)
The Housatonic or Westenhuck (derived from hous atenuc - 'on the other side of the mountains', originally referred to one of their villages near what is now Great Barrington, Massachusetts) were a Native American tribe who lived in the 17th century in the Housatonic River Valley in Connecticut and in the western Massachusetts and the Great Barrington, Massachusetts area. Together with four other Mahican tribes they formed the Mahican Confederation in order to be able to withstand the growing hostile Iroquois League politically, militarily and economically. The Mahican are not to be confused with the Mohegan , a former splinter group of the Pequot , whose residential area was 150 km further east.
Traditional culture and way of life
The culture, way of life and social organization of the Housatonic largely corresponded to that of their direct neighbors, the Mahican, Esopus , Wappingern , Wyachtonok , Pocumtuc and Sokoki . Especially in their social organization and intertribal relationships, the Housatonic were very closely connected to the Wappingern, Esopus and other Munsee- speaking tribes.
The palisade villages built on hilltops near rivers consisted of 3 to 16 bark-roofed longhouses. A long house offered space for at least three core families. Chiefs' houses were larger and also decorated with paintings and carvings. A village had an average of 200 inhabitants and was relocated after 8 to 12 years at the latest, when the soil in the surrounding gardens was exhausted. Other reasons for the relocation were the increasing pollution from waste and the lack of firewood. In the vicinity of the villages, the forest was burned down and gardens were created between the charred tree stumps, in which only women grew corn , beans and squash .
In the spring, immense schools of herrings and allis shad ( Alosa sapidissima ) came up the Housatonic River and its tributaries. The men spent most of the summer fishing and gathering large quantities of freshwater clams . They went fishing with dugout canoes and bark canoes or worked with fish traps in the smaller rivers. Much of the catch was dried and smoked on the spot for winter supply. The women gathered peanuts , berries and other fruits of the forest. In late August, most of the men returned to their villages to take part in the green grain ceremonies and to help the women with the harvest. After the harvest had been stored in pits covered with grass or bark, so-called Indian barns, joint driven hunts for deer and elk were organized in autumn , followed by a deer sacrifice ritual .
history
Stockbridge
After the King Philip's War (1675–1676), the tribe was greatly increased by refugees from the east and Mahican from the Hudson River in the west. By 1720 the tribe had sold most of their land to Massachusetts and kept only two territories to themselves, one was Skatekook in Sheffield on the Housatonic River, the other Wnahktukook, 12-16 km upstream at what is now Stockbridge . Reverend John Sergeant began working there in 1734 with the permission of the tribe. Because they wanted to unite the two lands, the Housatonic swapped the Skatekookland for land near Wnahktukook, an area that was later named Stockbridge .
By 1738 all the Indians from the region had been resettled in this village, where the missionaries founded a school, preached in the Mahican language and translated various prayers. Sergeant's assistant on these translations may have been John Quinney , a member of an important Native American family now commonly known as Stockbridge after their village . Among sergeants' first converted Indians were the local chiefs with their families. Some English families were encouraged to demonstrate "civilized behavior" and they also taught the Indians about agriculture and other handicrafts. A church council and city council , largely based on the English model, were formed, in which, according to the missionary, "exemplary Indians" held various posts. The lands were jointly owned until 1740, after which they were divided up at the request of the Indians and each family got a parcel of the same size.
The American War of Independence was devastating for the Indians. Nearly half of all men lost their lives in Lexington , Bunker Hill , White Plains , Barren Hill, and many other skirmishes. Life in Stockbridge lost much of its original religious enthusiasm during these turbulent years. Despite the union with the Wappingern and other Indians, the total population was only around 300 Indians in 1774.
New Stockbridge
At the end of the war, the Stockbridge were forced to sell their land and the white settlers hurried to drive the Indians out. The Stockbridge experiment had failed. The discouraged remnants of the Mahican nation, 420 in total, accepted an invitation from the Oneida and moved to an area on Oneida Creek in New York . By 1789, all of Stockbridge's Indians had moved to a place in central New York called New Stockbridge .
Two factions had formed among the Stockbridge, one conservative, who wanted to cling to the old customs and traditions, and one progressive, who emulated the white farmers. The conservative part of the tribe preferred leasing land to whites, lived on rent and through manual labor. Excessive consumption of alcohol was widespread among the traditional Stockbridge. The progressive part of the tribe ran the farm themselves and rejected the old division of labor, according to which women had to do the farm work. The Stockbridge men who worked on the farm were reportedly mocked by the neighboring Oneida. When the Oneida wanted to introduce the teachings of the Iroquois prophet Handsome Lake to the Stockbridge, his teachings were largely rejected by them.
The spokesman for the Stockbridge in this matter was her new Obersachem Hendrick Aupaumut , the captain in the Continental Army was and played an important role in intertribal politics. As early as 1791 he recognized the need for another move because of the undesirable influence of the Oneida and whites on the settlement border on his people. Aupaumut remembered an old contract with the Miami , according to which they had to reserve part of their land permanently for the members of the former River Indian Confederation .
Indiana and Wisconsin
Tecumseh's struggle for Indian freedom came to a bitter end in the war of 1812 . In 1818 over 75 Stockbridge set out for Indiana under the leadership of John Metoxen . Upon arriving at the White River, they heard that the Delaware and Miami had been forced to sell their land. Some War Department missionaries were now buying land from the Menominee and Winnebago in Wisconsin for the Stockbridge. In 1828 a group from New Stockbridge moved to the area and settled on the Fox River . Metoxen and his wandering Stockbridge joined them, and more groups followed; the last Indians left New Stockbridge in 1829. Hendrick Aupaumut died in 1830 after all his people had arrived in their new home. In 1831, 225 Stockbridge were living on the Fox River with over 100 Delaware; her supervisor was John Metoxen.
Today the tribe is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians of Wisconsin , the reservation they inhabit is called the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and counted 2,012 members in the 2000 census.
See also
List of North American Indian tribes
Individual evidence
- ↑ Donald B. Ricky: Indians of Maryland Past and Present , Publisher: Somerset Pubs, 1999, ISBN 978-0403098774
- ↑ Handbook of North American Indians - Chapter: Mahican, pp. 198f
- ↑ a b Handbook of North American Indians - Chapter: Mahican, pp. 207f
- ↑ Handbook of North American Indians - Chapter: Mahican, pp. 208f
- ↑ History of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community ( Memento of the original from November 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16004-575-4