Uncas

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Uncas kills the captured Narragansett sachem Miantonomo , August 1643. Edmund Ollier: Cassell's History of the United States, 1874

Uncas , according to Elmar Engel also Uncas the Younger (* 1605, † 1682 ) was sachem of the Mohegan - Indians . With these he split off from the Pequot and, as an ally of the English, played an important role in the conquest of New England . Since he helped the British in the genocide of the Pequot in the Pequot War , he is still a controversial person to this day.

Surname

The name Uncas , in modern spelling Wôks [ wãks ], comes from the Pequot-Mohegan language and means "fox".

Life

Uncas was born the son of Owaneco , a sachem of the Pequot. In 1629 he married the daughter of Upper Sachems Sassacus (chief of the Pequot and Mohegan ). Since he intrigued against his father-in-law, he fled initially to the Narragansett and later to the Mohegan, who had only a few surviving warriors in their tribe. They recognized Uncas as their sachem a short time later. Under his leadership, the Mohegan split off from the Pequot and formed their own tribe.

In 1636 the English colonists, supported by some Narragansett, went to war against the Pequot Indians under Sassacus' leadership. However, the colonists found one of their most important allies with the Mohegan, who fought under the leadership of Uncas. The Pequot tribe was almost completely destroyed.

Uncas was always peaceful towards the colonists. Nevertheless, the following years were very unsettled. Uncas tried to incite the tribes in New England against each other, which he succeeded. The tribes were weakened by wars among themselves, but Uncas took advantage of it, for example by selling land to the whites.

In June 1675 the Wampanoag uprising , also known as King Philip's War , broke out against the English colonists. The Narragansett joined the two Wampanoag sachems Weetamo and Metacomet . However, most of the New England tribes preferred to remain neutral. The Mohegan, however, fought alongside the colonists under the leadership of Uncas and his son Oneca . At the beginning the rebellious tribes were able to record some successes, but in the summer of 1676 they were finally defeated by the colonists. About 1,000 men fell on the side of the colonists, while the insurgents suffered three times as much casualty as they lost all of their key leaders.

Uncas died in 1682 as an obese alcoholic at the age of about 80, which was quite old for the time. He had gained many privileges for his tribe over the course of his life.

reception

The Americans honored his services in 1847 with a memorial in Norwich , Connecticut, and a bronze statue at the Coopers home in Cooperstown .

Indigenous North America, on the other hand, associate him, according to the Encyclopedia of Native American Biography, with attributes such as vengeance and greed, robbery, murder and treason due to his role in the extermination of the indigenous people of New England. No one else is said to have sold the colonists of New England more land to other indigenous people than he did.

Uncas in literature

James Fenimore Cooper chose the name Uncas , son of Chingachgook , for his " Last of the Mohicans " . Apart from the name, this figure has little in common with the historical Uncas. Since he operated the separation of the Mohegan from the Pequot, the Sachem Uncas is referred to in the Encyclopedia of Native American Biography rather as "the first of the Mohicans" (the first of the Mohegans) .

literature

  • Bruce Elliott Johansen, Donald A. Grinde: The encyclopedia of Native American biography: six hundred life stories of important people, from Powhatan to Wilma Mankiller . Da Capo Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1998. Entry Uncas , p. 401.
  • Michael Leroy Oberg: Uncas: First of the Mohegans. Cornell University Press, Ithaca (New York) 2006.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Mohegan Language: Mohegan English Dictionary ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2013 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. (PDF; 1.8 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.moheganlanguage.com