The Stockbridge-Munsee Community, the People of the Waters that Are Never Still, were forced to move many times after they first encountered Europeans.

In 1609, Dutch trader Henry Hudson sailed up the Mahicannituck, the River that Flows Both Ways, into Mohican land. By 1614 there was a Dutch trading post established on a nearby island to take advantage of the beaver and otter availability. The arrival of the Europeans changed the economic pattern of the Mohicans, and brought both disease and religion into their land.

The Mohican people, part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, originally occupied large areas of land in what is now New England and the Hudson River Valley, including parts of what is now Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and were neighbors to the Lenape, to whom they are related. Over time, the Mohican people and the Munsees, who were also Lenape, and whose language and lifestyles were similar, affiliated with each other. 

After the arrival of the Europeans, the Mohicans were driven out of their land, into what would become Massachusetts and Connecticut, where they were introduced to Christianity and became known as the Stockbridge Moohicans. Then they were driven into New York, then to Indiana, then to Wisconsin and then further into Wisconsin.

By the late 19th century, the Stockbridge-Munsee, like nearly every Native nation within the United States, was assigned to a reservation. Theirs was largely pine forest that was difficult to farm. Reservation land was portioned and allotted to individuals and families. Much of the land was sold to lumber companies or lost when the taxes couldn’t be paid. By the 1920s the Stockbridge Munsee were virtually landless and living in poverty. When Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, Native communities were able to obtain funds from the federal government to reorganize their tribal governments and recover some of their land. By the end of 1937, the Stockbridge-Munsee had a new Constitution.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community is still located on the reservation in Wisconsin, which currently includes a little over 17,000 acres of trust land and around 7,500 acres of non-trust land. Around half of the tribe’s population of 1500 people live on or near the reservation. In 1999, they established a Tribal Historic Preservation office to formalize the work of protecting burial sites and other cultural areas in its Eastern homelands.

I’m joined in this episode by Heather Bruegl, who is enrolled Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and first line descendant Stockbridge Munsee and who is the Director of Education at the Forge Project.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is “Papscanee Island Nature Preserve,” by Andy Arthur, May 12, 2013. (CC BY 2.0)

We ask that you consider supporting the efforts of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community's Historic Preservation program with a donation. 

 

Sources and links:

• Brief History, Stockbridge Munsee
• Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican History, PBS
• Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
• “'It's Been Erased': Stockbridge Mohicans Retell, Reclaim Their Story In Berkshires,” by Nancy Eve Cohen, New England Public Media, January 16, 2021
• “Mohicans, forced from their ancestral lands, still connect to their heritage here,” The Altamont Enterprise Bethlehem, Thursday, September 27, 2018
• “Native American and Indigenous Studies: Stockbridge Munsee Community,” Library Guide, Williams College

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