MAHICAN

The Mahican and MOHEGAN, with similar-sounding tribal names, often are confused. Both peoples are ALGONQUIANS and perhaps are descended from the same distant ancestors, but they have distinct identities and histories. The Mahican lived along the northern end of the Hudson valley, mainly in present-day New York, but also in southern Vermont, western Massachusetts, and the northwestern corner of Connecticut. Many Algonquian bands and villages near the Hudson River were united into the loosely knit Mahican Confederacy. The Mohegan, on the other hand, lived in Connecticut and were an offshoot of the PEQUOT.

The name Mahican, pronounced muh-HEE-cun, is derived from their Native name Muhhekunneuw or Muh-he-con-ne-ok, meaning “people of the waters that are never still.” Mohegan is from Maingan for “wolf” Both tribes have been referred to as “Mohican.” This alternate spelling became widespread with the publication of the book The Last of the Mohicans by James Fen-imore Cooper in 1826, a fictionalized account involving Indian peoples, perhaps drawing on both the Mahican and Mohegan for inspiration.

The capital and largest Mahican village at the time non-Indian explorers became aware of them in the early 1600s was Schodac, near present-day Albany, New York. The Mahican were enemies of the IROQUOIS (hau-DENOSAUNEE) tribes, especially the MOHAWK immediately to their west, who often invaded their villages. The Mahican traded with Algonquian allies to their east and south. They were masters of spears and clubs, bows and arrows, and nets and traps. They depended on hunting and fishing, gathering wild plants, especially maple syrup, as well as growing corn, beans, and squash. They built long bark lodges as well as domed wigwams that they covered with birch bark, elm bark, or mats woven from plant materials. They had light birch-bark canoes. They used porcupine quills to decorate their clothing and containers. They believed that Manitou, the Great Spirit, lived in all things.

Mahican life changed drastically with the arrival of Europeans. Trading with the whites for iron tools and other goods made life easier, but disease and alcohol took their toll. Moreover, Europeans aggravated traditional Indian rivalries by supplying some tribes with firearms to use against others. The swanneken (the Indian word for Dutch traders) provided the Mohawk with guns in order to gain dominance over the Mahican along the Hudson River, the primary trade route for Dutch boats.

In 1664, the same year that the English took control of the region from the Dutch, the Mohawk drove the

Mahican away from Schodac to lands farther to the east. The Mahican Confederacy moved the council fire to Westenhuck, among the Housatonic Band of Mahican in present-day Massachusetts. But whites were settling in the Housatonic valley. The settlers called the village Stockbridge and, in 1736, established a Calvinist mission there for the Mahican. The various Mahican bands came to be known as the Stockbridge Indians. In the meantime, other Mahican moved to Pennsylvania and Indiana and merged with other peoples, especially their Algonquian kin the LENNI LENAPE (DELAWARE).

The Stockbridge band moved several more times in the 1700s and 1800s. In 1756, they founded a new settlement among the ONEIDA of central New York. In 1788, white officials forced many Algonquians of the region, including some Mahican bands, to settle in eastern New York, not far from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This group became known as the Brotherton Indians. In 1822, both the Stock-bridge and the Brotherton were relocated to Wisconsin west of Green Bay. There, in 1856, they were granted reservation lands along with the Munsee band of Lenni Lenape. They still hold this reservation today and use the Stock-bridge-Munsee name (as well as Mohican). They operate the Mohican North Star Casino and Bingo as well as the Pine Hills Golf Course. Other Mahican descendants have chosen to live in Connecticut.