Footnotes - ExpWob

Footnotes/Further Reading

Footnote # 1

See scene on this web site: "Founding New Communities: Schaghticoke and Odanak."

Footnote # 2

For a more detailed discussion of the movements among these different communities after King Philip's War, see Colin Calloway, "King Philip's War and the Great Dispersals, 1675-1677," in The Western Abenaki of Vermont, 1600-1800 - War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People. Norman and London : University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.

Footnote # 3

Gordon Day's work, The Identity of the Saint Francis Indians (1981), reveals the complexity of the various Native peoples who came to be known collectively as the "Saint Francis Abenaki." Colin Calloway, John Moody, William Haviland, Marjorie Power, and Frederick Wiseman have all written at length about the identity of the Missisquoi Abenaki. David Stewart Smith is one of the most reliable sources for writing about the Pennacook Abenaki. Although much information has been preserved in the New York colonial documents and court records, there is not, as yet, any comparable source that explores the background of the Native peoples who inhabited Schaghticoke, New York.

Footnote # 4

Historical errors about the origins of Schaghticoke and Odanak abound in secondary sources. The most common mistakes include the following: assuming that the Schaghticoke Indians in New York were all Mohican; confusing the Schaghticoke Indians in New York with the Schaghticoke Tribe in Connecticut; confusing the Pennacook in New Hampshire with the Pequot in Connecticut; confusing the Mohican in New York with the Mohegan in Connecticut; confusing the Cowass in Vermont with the place name Cohoes in New York; mistaking the Saco Indians of Maine for the Sokoki Indians of the Connecticut River Valley; assuming that Odanak was the origin of the Abenaki people of Vermont and New Hampshire; and confusing Eastern Abenaki people in Maine with Western Abenaki people in Vermont. The state borders around Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York, and the international border between the United States and Canada, all of which artificially cut through Western Abenaki territory, add to the confusion.

Footnote # 5

Many historians have been confused by the presence of different Native settlements by the same name during the 1600s. Russell Handsman and Trudie Lamb Richmond have argued that this kind of confusion can be blamed on the stereotypes, discourse of disappearance, and broad generalizations that American writers have long used in writing regional Native histories (see "Confronting Colonialism: The Mahican and Schaghticoke Peoples and Us" Handsman and Richmond 1996). Lazy scholarship is also responsible for the chronic confusion between the Mohican of New York and the Mohegan of Connecticut, who are two politically and historically distinct tribal groups.

Readers should be forwarned that 19th and 20th century historical writers and novelists often mixed fact, fiction, folklore, and oral tradition, making for compelling reading that inspires considerable confusion. For example, James Fenimore Cooper's popular 1830s novel Last of the Mohicans used the name of a 17th century Connecticut Mohegan sachem, Uncas, in a fictional 18th century New York Mohican setting. Local historian Grace Greylock Niles, author of The Hoosac Valley, its Legends and its History (1912), imagined all of the Native peoples of New England to be members of what she called the "Abenakis Democracy," led by "kings and councilors" who were centered in the Hudson and Housatonic valleys. This theory ignores the clear distinctions among northeastern Native leaders, the delicacies of inter-tribal alliances, the political autonomy of Abenaki and Mohican peoples, and the differences in their histories after European invasion. Many sources on the world wide web today make similar mistakes.

Footnote # 6

In 1637, after the Pequot War, a group of Native refugees settled a new community, called Schaghticoke, in northwestern Connecticut along the Housatonic River. During the 1700s, approximately 600 Native people from Mohican, Oweantinock, Pequot, Pootatuck, and Tunxis communities were permanently settled at Schaghticoke. led by sachem Gideon Mauwee. The Schaghticoke Tribe has long been recognized by the colony of Connecticut as a distinct political group. Today, the tribe is based on a 400 acre reservation of rocky, mountainous land in Kent, Connecticut. See "Schaghticoke Tribal Nation: Tribal History" on-line at: http://www.schaghticoke.com/index.php?page=history.historical.

Footnote # 7

Mohican origin stories record that the Mohican people did not originate in New York, but migrated there from the west. The 18th century sachem Hendrick Aupaumet recounted:

Our forefathers asserted, that their ancestors were emigrated from west by north of another country; they passed over the great waters, where this and the other country is nearly connected...that they lived by side of great water or sea, from whence they derive the name of Muhheakunnuck nation...As they were coming from the west, they found many waters, but none of them flowing and ebbing like Muhheakunnuck until they came to Hudson's River; then they said to one another, this is like Muhheakunnuck our nativity.

From John Heckewelder History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations (1819), Philadelphia, PA:Arno Press reprint 1971, p. 108.

Many scholars call these people "Mahican," as an anglicized version of "Muhheakunnuck," but the tribal descendants living in Wisconsin today are officially known as the "Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians" (see http://www.mohican.com/history/oeh.htm). For a more complete discussion of Mohican history, see Shirley Dunn, The Mohican World 1680-1750. Fleishmanns, NY: Purple Mountain Press 2000.

Footnote # 8

Archaeological finds suggest that the lands around Schaghticoke, New York, were inhabited by Native people for millenia. In 1613, the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block was the first to call the indigenous peoples living along what is now the "Hudson River" "Mahicans." After 1676, Albany court recorders and New York colonial leaders went to great lengths to distinguish between the Mohican, often called "River Indians," who were well-known as the indigenous inhabitants of the Hudson River Valley, and the Schaghticoke, who were the refugee newcomers.

Footnote # 9

The early colonial records are full of references to the speed and ease with which Algonkian peoples relocated entire villages of wigwams. For a fuller explanation of how this movement led to the mistaken impression that these homesites were temporary, see Elizabeth Chilton, "Towns They Have None: Diverse Subsistence and Settlement Strategies in Native New England," pp. 289-300 in J. Hart and C. Reith, eds. Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 – A.D. 1300. Albany, NY: New York State Museum Bulletin 2002.

Also see the explanation on this web site: "Native Land Use and Settlements in the Northeastern Woodlands."

Footnote # 10

For a fuller discussion of the conflicts between Mohawk people and Connecticut River Valley Indians, see Gordon M. Day. "The Ouragie War: A Case History in Iroquois-New England Indian Relations," in Extending the Rafters: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Iroquoian Studies, edited by Michael K. Foster, Jack Campisi, and Marianne Mithun, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press 1984, pp. 35-50).

For a discussion of the background and details of John Pynchon's negotiations between the Pocumtuck and Mohawk, see Margaret Bruchac and Peter Thomas, "Locating Wissatinnewag: John Pynchon's Influence on Pocumtuck Diplomacy," forthcoming in the Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Westfield, Massachusetts 2006. The clearest example of Pynchon's attempt to broker peace is a letter written July 28, 1663, to the Dutch at Fort Orange (Albany), on behalf of the Connecticut River Valley Indians and Mohican people of the Housatonic Valley, with whom Pynchon was engaged in fur trade:

This is written to your Honors at the request of the Indians of Agawam, Pajassuck, Nalwetog [Nonotuck], Pocumtuck, and the Wissatinnewag [Housatonic], to inform their friends, the Dutch, that they are very much put out, because the Sowquackick [Sokoki] Indians had killed and murdered some of the Maquaas [Mohawk]; all the above named Indians request herewith that the Dutch Commissaries [at Fort Orange, now Albany] will believe, that only Sowquackick Indians had been killing the Maquaas. As to the other Indians of the Caneticot [Connecticut] River...they deplore it exceedingly, repudiate the deed, and... are resolved to keep up their intercourse and friendship with the Maquaas as before (NYCD XIII:308-309).

The Mohawk responded to this message by attacking the Sokoki fort at present-day Hinsdale, New Hampshire that fall. By May of 1664, the records of a Dutch Court session at Fort Orange show the eagerness of the Mohawk to seek peace:

Whereas the savages, called Maquaas, have very urgently requested, that we should [endeavor to make peace between that] tribe [the Pocumtuck] and the said Maquaas [and send some] Mahicanders to the Northern savages, called Onconntehocks [Sokokis] , to procure the release of the Maquaas, who have been captured by the said savages, and to assist them in every thing and do what the circumstances shall require to conclude a peace. (NYCD XIII:378)

On May 19, 1664, Jan Dareth and Jacob Lockermans, accompanied by three Mohawk and three Mohican, left Albany for a meeting with the Pocumtuck (NYCD XIII:380-382). During this meeting, held at the Pocumtuck fort, three of John Pynchon's fur traders, David Wilton, Henry Clark and Joseph Parsons, delivered a message that if any further trouble occurred, the colonists would force the Pocumtuck to leave the valley. The Mohawk emissaries left and agreed to return with a gift of wampum. In June of 1664, however, the proposed peace between Mohawk and Pocumtuck fell apart when the Mohawk sachem Saheda and other ambassadors were murdered on their way to the Pocumtuck village.

Footnote # 11

Three months after the murder of the Mohawk sachem Saheda, the new treaty signed by New York on September 24, 1664 promised:

1. That the English do not assist the three Nations of the Ondiakes [Sokoki], Pinnehooks [Pennacook], and Pacamtohookes [Pocumtuck], who murdered one of the Princes of the Maquaas, when he brought ransomes & presents to them upon a treaty of peace.

2. That the English do make peace for the Indian Princes, with the Nations [Mohican, Wappinger, Munsee, etc.] down the [Hudson] River.

3. That they may have free trade, as formerly.

4. That they may be lodged in houses, as formerly.

5. That if they be beaten by the three Nations above menconed, they may receive accomodacon from ye English (NYCD III:67-68)

A Mohawk man named Cajadogo blamed the English for Saheda's death, but the Mohawk attacked the Pocumtuck fort regardless, in February of 1665 (NYCD XIII: 389). It's difficult at this distance to prove English guilt, but it's clear that the English benefitted from the damage, and the death of the Pocumtuck sachem Onapequin. Pynchon was only able to secure deeds to Pocumtuck lands after the Mohawk attack. This series of events, like other conflicts across New England, left lingering resentments that led to the outbreak of King Philip's War.

Footnote # 12

A letter sent from John Pynchon to Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop Jr., April 9, 1674, reads, in part, as follows:

Our Indians at Woronoco and Pojassick are generally all of them removed to Albany; what the matter is they make so universal and general a move I know not. Some few Indians that stay do not like it and wish they have not gone hard with the Mohawks.

(See Carl Bridenbaugh. The Pynchon Papers, Volume I, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654-1700, Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Masachusetts 1982, p. 124.)

This move may have been provoked by English settlers from Connecticut who were then forcing their way into Woronoco territory. Regional Native relations were also harmed by the recent prosecution and death of the Nonotuck sachem Chickwalloppe's son for a murder committed by another Native man.

Footnote # 13

In a September 8, 1675 letter to the English authorities at Albany, Pynchon recalled the 1664 peace treaty with the Mohawk against the Pocumtuck when he wrote:

I hope the engaging the Maquas not to entertain or favor our enemies may be of good use; truly their rage against us increases greatly. Since my last the Northampton and Hadley Indians have also shown themselves, and have killed seven of our men and wounded several...And unless the Maquas should manage their old quarrel against them, I doubt whether they may not at last show their rage against yourselves...

(See Carl Bridenbaugh. The Pynchon Papers, Volume I, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654-1700, Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Masachusetts 1982, p. 150).

Footnote # 14

The Kanienkehaka Mohawk who attacked Metacom's allies were supplied with guns and ammunition by New York Governor Edmund Andros. See "A New and Further Narrative of the State of New England, by N. S." in Charles H. Lincoln, ed., Narratives of the Indian Wars, 1675-1699, New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons 1913, p. 97.

Footnote # 15

See scene on this web site: "Assault on Peskeompskut."

Footnote # 16

Governor Edmund Andros' report during the New York colony's Council meeting on Indian Affairs for May 29-30, 1676 read, in part, as follows:

Ordered, That all North Indyans [Sokoki], that will come in may be protected & a stop be put to the Maquaes farther prosecuting sd North Indyans...

Also to send word by some good Mahicander Eastward (who is likewise to bee rewarded) that all Indyans, who will come in & submitt, shall be received to live under the protection of the Government and that the Governr will bee there as afore, where any of them may freely come and speake with him and return againe, as they see cause without Molestation.

Memorandm. That the ffrench do receive North Indyans under their protection, and its said, that five hundred of them are already there.

That the Governmt of Connecticut hath likewise made an order, at their late Genrall Court, That any Indyns, that will come in, shall be received, have land assigned them & be protected under their Government (NYCD XIII:497).

Footnote # 17

Like similar sites along the Connecticut River, a region near the Hudson River was also known by the name of Pachog or Paquoag, meaning "flat, cleared ground." A letter sent from John Pynchon to Governor John Leverett, August 26, 1676, reads, in part, as follows:

Some friends of Hadley and Northampton being with me this day, it hath been a metter of consideration whether the calling of all the garrison soldiers out of these towns may not expose them to the rage of the enemy who we certainly understand are gathered together at Paquoag on Hudson River about 200 men and having there their wives and children in a safe and secure place; the men may with freedom and without a clog make inroads upon these towns, doing what they do at a push, and suddenly return again to their headquarters; especially should they understand the soldiers are all drawn off hence, they may be more resolved and desperate, and we know not on what design the Indians are drawn off thither; we have no security that it is to withdraw from further persecution of the war, but rather that it is only to secure themselves, who, being engaged, will design revenge upon us.

(See Bridenbaugh, Carl. The Pynchon Papers, Volume I, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654-1700, Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Masachusetts 1982, p. 170.)

In the same month, a Native man named Menowniett reported to the English authorities at Hartford as follows:

He sayeth that the Norwottach [Nonotuck], Springfield Indians, and others are gon to a place about Hudson's River called Paquayag, and were encouraged to come there by a great man of those parts, whoe hath also encouraged them to engage against the English...He was askt where they had ye ammunition to carry on the war; he said the Powquiag Indians bought it of ye Dutch and sold it ym. He was askt how many of the North Indians [Sokoki] went that way. He sayth, "About 90 men of them and Sucquance [Soquans] is wth them, he was very sick and as like to die as live...He sayth ye Indians hid a great many gunns about Pacompuck, ye place he described to Tota.

(Louis H. Everts, ed. History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincot & Company 1879, p. 61)

Footnote # 18

Wie are informed yt you these river Indians [Mohican] haue not engaged in ye late unhappy Warr against ye English, but yt you have satt still according to ye Command of ye Honble Governr of New Yorke, &c. And wee being of ye same nation, under ye same Prince, and soe as one With ye sd Governr; Wee doe therefore acknowledge these River Indians or freinds and Neighbours, expecting well from you to carry it towards us as frinds & good neighbours and soe demeaning of your selves. Wie looke yt you should timely discover any attempte of Mischief yt you may heare of agst ye English, and yt you do not henceforward harbor or Entertaine any yt shall remain or enemies...

("Proposicons made to the Mohekandrs and other River Indians by Major John Pynchon and James Richards Genten Commissioners from ye Colonies of Massachusetts & Cannatticutt in ye Court house at Albany ye 24th of April 1677," in Lawrence H. Leder. The Livingston Indian Records 1666-1723. Gettysburg, PA, Pennsylvania Historical Association, 1956, p. 39.)

Footnote # 19

The colonial leaders in eastern Massachusetts enlisted John Pynchon to deliver a speech to the Mohawks at Albany, on November 9, 1683:

I am sent from the government of Massachusetts to you, the Maquas [Mohawk], including your neighbors; and have undertaken this far journey in a difficult season to visit you and your friends, that there may be a right understanding between us for the continuance of amity and friendliness...for we did expressly conclude with you that you should not molest or injure our friend and neighbor Indians, nor were you to come at the Christian Indians [Nipmuc at Natick] that live near us and in friendship with us.

See Bridenbaugh, Carl. The Pynchon Papers, Volume I, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654-1700, Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Masachusetts 1982, p. 170.)

Footnote # 20

John Pynchon seems to have been caught by surprise by this return of Pocumtuck people carrying passes of safe conduct from the Mayor of Albany. Samuel Partridge reported:

...the Indians that are come down are about 150 of them, men, women, and children, and are settled at Deerfield under the side of the mountain southerly from the town, living in the woods about a mile out of the town, the men plying hunting and leaving their women and children at home. (Partridge, quoted by Pynchon in writing to Massachusetts Governor Simon Bradstreet, December 2, 1691.

John Pynchon was well known to these Indians from his decades of trading furs, serving as a judge, fighting in King Philip's War, and now, reporting to the governors of the New England colonies. Pynchon wrote a set of directions for Partridge to deliver to the Pocumtuck, including the following:

...we shall for the present overlook your seeming intruding upon us, and allow you abiding where you are this winter time, you behaving yourselves peacably and orderly and carrying it well to all our people...We do particularly caution you to beware of strong drink...We let you know that we are now apprehensive of some approach of the French and Indian enemy and therefore intend to keep out scouts, and to have more strict watch, and shortly to settle some more soldiers at Deerfield, wherefore none of you...are to go or wander from your present stations without orders in writing...

The Pocumtuck, who apparently hoped for a more welcoming response, replied that they:

...intend no ill to the English but to carry it peaceably...They desire their squaws may be safe under protection while they are all hunting.

(See Carl Bridenbaugh. The Pynchon Papers, Volume I, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654-1700, Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Massachusetts 1982, p. 236-245.)

Footnote # 21

Chepasson seems to have taunted the English by boasting of his recent participation in Saint Francis Abenaki attacks on Dover, New Hampshire and Schenectady, New York. John Pynchon described this incident in a letter to Robert Treat, written from Springfield on June 19, 1690, transcribed in the Judd Manuscripts Miscellaneous, Volume 8:219-224, Forbes Library, Northampton, Massachusetts. For a description of the various events contributing to this incident, see Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney, Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield, p. 29-30.

Footnote # 22

In 1696, a young man named Pemaquansett, who was apparently a relative of the Nonotuck sachem Umpanchela, was out hunting with three other Native men near Kunckwatchu (Mount Toby) when they discovered Richard Church of Hadley, hunting in what they still considered Indian land. Mahqualos and Mahweness were initially reported to have killed and scalped the Englishman; Wenepuck and Pemaquansett fled the scene. All four Native men were arrested, interrogated, and tried in the Northampton Court. After Indians from Hatfield testified, it was agreed that the two older men, Mahqualos and Mahweness, should be put to death for Church's murder. They were executed on October 23, 1696, but in May of 1697, Soquons, the Pocumtuck sachem at the refugee village of Schaghticoke, testified that a different man altogether had confessed to the murder. As a compromise, the Massachusetts General Court released the two younger men, Wenepuck and Pemaquansett. This event only led to more distrust and hostilities. (See James Spady. "As If In a Great Darkness: Native American Refugees of the Middle Connecticut River Valley in the Aftermath of King Philip's War," Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Vol. XXIII, No. 2, p. 183-197, Summer 1995.)

Footnote # 23

On July 6, 1698, John Pynchon and Samuel Partridge posted a letter from Northampton to the Earle of Bellomont in London, England, complaining that:

Those Indians have plainly declared themselves to be a body of thieves and murderers. If at any time they have given assistance to us, and been instrumental to destroy our enemies, it had not been out of any principle of friendship or obedience, for at other times they have been ready to assist our adversaries and destroy us. It is indifferent to them to destroy other English, so they run ganie their prey, and satisfy their bloodthirsty spirit. Sometimes they dwell at Stratburk [Schaghticoke], sometimes at the eastward and make marriages with the Eastern Indians [Eastern Abenaki, Pennacook, Pequawket, etc.], and sometimes at Canada [Saint Francis Abenaki], and live like beasts and birds of prey upon the destruction of others.

(See Carl Bridenbaugh. The Pynchon Papers, Volume I, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654-1700, Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Massachusetts 1982, p. 305-307.)

Footnote # 24

The depiction of northern New England as "wilderness" was a romantic device in writing about unfamiliar territory that did not look like the carefully groomed landscape of Europe. In fact, New England consisted of much land that had been managed by human intervention over long spans of time, including burning of the forest undergrowth to eliminate brush and encourage new browse and berry plants, hunting and fishing in specific areas, and selective harvesting of various medicinal plants. For a fuller discussion of Native use of the natural landscape, see Gordon M. Day, "The Indian as an Ecological Factor in the Northeast Forest," Ecology 1954, Vol. 32, p. 329-346.

Footnote # 25

For a detailed discussion of the history of Odanak, see Gordon Day, The Identity of the Saint Francis Indians, Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1981.

For an overview of regional Abenaki culture, see Gordon M. Day, "Western Abenaki," pp. 148 159 in Bruce G. Trigger, ed. Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast. Volume 15. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute 1978.

Footnote # 26

Footnote # 27

On October 15, 1722, Father Sebastian Rale wrote to his nephew of his arrival at Norridgewock:

I am in a district of this vast extent of territory which lies between Acadia and New England. Two other missionaries are, like myself, busy among the Abenaki Indians; but we are far distant from one another...The village in which I dwell is called Nanrantsouak...(Black Robe on the Kennebec, p. 119).

For the history of Norridgewock, see Mary R. Calvert, Black Robe on the Kennebec, Monmouth, ME: Monmouth Press 1991.

Footnote # 28

On March 18 [1690] the French with Indians, being half one half the other, half Indianized French and half Frenchified Indians, commanded by Monsieur Artel [Francois Hertel de Rouville] and Hoop-Hood [Hopehood or Wohawa], fell suddenly upon Salmon Falls [New Hampshire], destroying the best part of the town with fire and sword.

See Cotton Mather, "New Assaults from the Indians," originally published in Magnalia Christi Americana, London 1701, reprinted in Alden T. Vaughn and Edward W. Clark, eds. Puritans Among the Indians: Accounts of Captivity and Redemption, 1676-1724, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University 1981, p. 137.

Footnote # 29

The incident started when a "north Indian" named Naerenachteno, who was apparently drunk at the time, insulted Philip Schuyler. Schulyer's African slave, Jan, jumped the Indian, and an unnamed Native woman was trying to pull him off when a Native man named Aert stabbed Jan. A Mohican sachem witnessed the court proceedings. The full report can be found in the collected Court Minutes of Fort Orange, Albany, Rennselaerswyck and Schenectady, edited by Van Laer, 1680-1685, pp. 274-276.

Footnote # 30

Sadochques' speech to New York's colonial leaders was made during a meeting at the Court House in Albany, on July 1, 1685, after Sadochques had been personally invited to relocate from Saint Francis to Schaghticoke. Many beaver skins and much wampum was exchanged during this meeting (Livingston Papers, pp. 77-79).

Footnote # 31

Sadochques agreed to carry the New York Government's invitation to other Saint Francis Abenaki. Livingston and the other colonial leaders stated:

Wee are very glad to see you here & that you have so Readily obeyd the governours Commands and therefore in his Behalf wee doe bidd you hertily wellkom to this Place and the govr haveing orderd Scachkook for ye Place of your abode among the Rest of your nation you may freely goe and live there and your Children after you: in Peace and quietnesse and never fear off any Persuit of ye french for ye govr will take Such care to Secure & Protect you that you may wholly Rely upon itt and Sleep att quiet as your Broyer Sachim wamsachko and his People have hitherto done therefore desyre you to acquaint the Rest of your nation that are Still at Conida of ye good Entertainment you have here and send them this Belt of wampum as a lettr from ye govr who Promises them all favor and Protection and you are to use all means to Perswade them to live at Skachkook for there yr is lan Eneugh and it shall be for you & them and Posterity after you and you need not doubt but a firm and Strong Covenant chain Shall be kept unviolable on our Parts between us and all oyr of your nation that shall come & live under this government (Livingston Papers, pp. 77-79).

Footnote # 32

For a full discussion of the sale of Mohican and Schaghticoke lands in the Hudson River valley, see Shirley Dunn, The Mohicans and Their Land.

There is some mention of Native history in Schaghticoke in Rita B. Klopott, The History of the Town of Schaghticoke, New York, 1676-1855. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Albany, 1981. Most of this work, however, focuses on the English settlement that displaced the Native one.

Footnote # 33

In response to the 1714 complaint, the New York Governor reassured the Schaghticoke that

...they shall have more land than they can manure and that it shall be broke up in the Spring with the Plow (Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York V:388).

During a meeting on August 31, 1722, the Schaghticoke described the specific method by which the English were duping the Indians out of their land when writing deeds:

We have no more land the Christians when they buy a small spot of land of us, ask us if we have no more land & when we say yes they enquire the name of the Land & take in a greater Bounds than was intended to be sold them & the Indians not understanding what is writ in the Deed or Bill of Sale sign it and are so deprived of Part of their Lands (Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York V:663).

Footnote # 34

"Taking up the hatchet" was an apt metaphor for going to war. This quote can be found in Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York V:713.

Footnote # 35

During a 1724 conference, the New York Governor complained:

I see that you have no command over your people. Its surprising that your people are so fond of going to Canada, what can be the reason here is better Land and hunting for you. There has been a Tree planted by the former Governors for you to shelter under that you might live Plentifully & increase under the shadow of it...

The Schaghticoke sachems responded:

...its true that a Tree has been planted and we are recommended to live & shelter under the shadow of it but that Tree begins to decay and the leaves to wither, having but a small plot of Land to Plant on (Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York V:722).

Footnote # 36

The negotiations for the Kayaderossera patent in present-day Saratoga County were settled in 1768 with a payment of $5,000 to the Mohawk to "relinquish their claims to their old favorite hunting grounds." Title to the land was requested by Robert Livingston Jr. and David Schuyler in 1693, granted in an August 26, 1702 Indian deed, and then disputed by Sampson Shelton Broughton, whose widow took the original Indian deed with her when she returned to England. Thirteen claimants, most of them Dutch, had requested a warrant for the same lands through Viscount Cornbury in 1701, and their patent was secured in 1708. In 1764, the first settlers were driven off by the Mohawks, who pushed Sir William Johnson to appeal the claim on their behalf. The Abenaki protested Johnson's involvement in the matter, but Governor Sir Henry Moore finally settled the claim to title with the lump sum payment to the Mohawk in 1768 for what was actually Mohican land (Sylvester 1878:73-75). The Schaghticoke refugees apparently had a hand in the agreement, since Sir William Johnson went to some effort to distinguish their homelands from both Mohican and Mohawk claims:

...the Mohocks do acknowledge the title of the Scarticook [Schaghticoke] Indians to the east of our bounds, and we the Mohocks and Stockbridge [Mohican] Indians do declare the foregoing bounds to be just and true (Sir William Johnson Papers 12:603-4, cited in Dunn 1994:58-59).

Footnote # 37

Gray Lock was also known as Wawenorrawot, and La Tete Blanche. The name came from a premature white streak in his hair. His brother, Malalamet, remained as a leading sachem at Schaghticoke during Gray Lock's War. See Gordon Day's summary in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume III 1741-1770, pp. 265-267.

Footnote # 38

On November 28, 1723, John Schuyler, writing from Albany, New York, reported to Colonel Samuel Partridge:

The two Indians yt have been with the belt of wampum to Cagnowaga are come back again. They found the Cagnowaga Indians were gone to yr parts: but ye Sachems said they went against their will; their young people were deluded...Three Cagnowga who have been at Northfield arrived here yesterday. Saguenognas and Cahowasco two chief captains, and his brother-in-law. They tell me they had no desire to do any harm: but Gov. Vaudreuil persuaded them, and gave them powder and shot and ten guns; but they are very sorry and ashmed that they have gone, and say they will never go again. All the Indians who have been out, upwards of 300, are come back again, except 5 eastern Indians, who have returned to your frontiers. I hope they may do no harm.

John Schuyler in Josiah H. Temple, and George Sheldon. A History of the Town of Northfield, for 150 Years, with an account of the prior occupation of the territory of the Squakheags. Albany, NY: J. Munsell 1875:198).

Footnote # 39

While Colonel Samuel Partridge was sending wampum belts to the Kahnawake seeking peace in 1723, Captain Benjamin Wright proposed a different solution to end Gray Lock's War, offering to muster a party to attack the Wôbanakiak by way of Otter Creek: "We are desirous we might go upon the wages the Province allows and the encouragement they give to such for scalps." A Massachusetts legislative committee considered the matter, and proposed:

...that an expedition to St. Francis, the headquarters of the Indians, would be of great service, and may if prospered put an end to the present war: 400 able bodied men, English and Indians might be thought sufficient. A smaller party to the heads of the rivers may be of service to destroy some small hunting parties of the enemy.

John Stoddard in Josiah H. Temple, and George Sheldon. A History of the Town of Northfield, for 150 Years, with an account of the prior occupation of the territory of the Squakheags. Albany, NY: J. Munsell 1875:199.

Although scalping was practiced by both Native and non-Native people, the bounty paid by Boston authorities became a strong incentive for English colonists to attack the Wôbanakiak. For example, Hannah Dustin, taken captive from Haverill, Massachusetts in 1697, earned 50 pounds for the Abenaki people ? one man, two women and six children ? she personally scalped.

On June 10, 1756, the price paid for Wôbanaki scalps, and the threat to all Native people living north of Massachusetts, increased dramatically when a new proclamation from the English king was passed by the House of Representatives in Boston as follows:

Whereas the tribe of Penobscot Indians have repeatedly in a perfidious manner acted contrary to their solemn submission unto his Majesty long since made and ferequently renewed.

I have therefore, at the desire of the House of Representives...thought fit to issue this Proclamation and to declare the Penobscot Tribe of Indians to be enemies, rebels and traitors to his Majesty...And I do hereby require his Majesty's subjects of the province [of Massachusetts] to embrace all opportunities of pursuing, captivating, killing and destroying all and every of the assorted Indians.

And whereas the General Court of this Province have voted that bounty... be granted and allowed to be paid out of the Province Treasury...the premiums of bounty following viz.:

For every scalp of a male Indian brought in as evidence of their being killed as aforesaid, forty pounds.

For every scalp of a female Indian or male Indian under the age of twelve years that shall be killed and brought in as evidence of their being killed as aforesaid, twenty pounds...

Also voted, that the same allowance be made to private persons who shall... kill any Indian enemy which is made to soldiers on the frontiers of the province.

Reprinted in Frank Speck, Penobscot Man: The Life History of a Forest Tribe in Maine, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press 1940, p. xix-xx.

Footnote # 40

In 1726, about 40 Penobscots attended a conference to request the removal of English houses recently built at Richmond and St. George, but the English refused. Much to the annoyance of the English, no other tribes had accepted Governor Dummer's invitation to ratify the peace made in Boston in 1725. When the Penobscot suggested that the conference should have been held at Montreal, the governor declared that it was beneath the dignity of the English to meet with Indians on French soil. The conference proceedings were published under the title The Conference With the Eastern Indians, at the Ratification of the PEACE, held at Falmouth in Casco Bay, in July and August 1726, Boston: American Antiquarian Society 1726.

Dummer had better success at a 1727 conference with the Penobscot, Pequawket, Norridewock and Wawenock, held at Falmouth. An earlier treaty, dated Boston, 15th December, 1725, which attempted to settle disputes over land and captives, was read and agreed to by four sachems whose totems were affixed to it. Several Pequawket Indians, including a young girl, Molly Ockett, who would later grow up to become a famous Indian Doctress, were sent to live at Plymouth, Massachusetts, to ensure the peace among these Indians and Massachusetts colony. The conference proceedings were published under the title The Conference With the Eastern Indians at the further Ratification of the PEACE, Held at Falmouth in Casco-bay, in July 1727, Boston: American Antiquarian Society 1726.

Footnote # 41

In July of 1732, another conference was held by Dummer's successor, Jonathan Belcher, who met with the sachems Edawakenk and Loron (also called Laurent) of Penobscot, Toxus of Norridgewock, Adiawando (Atecouando) of Pequawket, and Medaganesset of Amerescoggin (Androscoggin) at Falmouth. The Native sachems demanded proper trading posts, security of hunting rights, and an end to English encroachments, but Belcher's chief business seemed to be to lecture the Indians against French religion and rum-drinking. Although peaceful relations were agreed upon, little other business was settled. The conference proceedings were published under the title Conference Between Governor Belcher and Indians of the Penobscots, Norridgewocks, Pigwackets, and Amerescoggins at Falmouth and Casco Bay, July 1732, Boston, American Antiquarian Society 1732.

Footnote # 42

This is from an unpublished letter written November 13, 1732 from Massachusetts Governor Jonathan Belcher in Boston to be read before the Governor's Council and the House of Representatives, Belcher correspondence on microfilm p 535-542. The manner in which the English chose to pursue diplomacy reveals a distinct anti-Wôbanaki bias during this time period. In fact, Belcher tried to encourage the Kahnawake to move into Sokoki territory when he wrote:

The Cagnawaga, or those more especially call'd the French Mohawks have lately been to pay a visit to the Government by two of their Chiefs, who we took care to entertain in th most Kind of friendly manner I possibly cou'd, and what they propos'd to me the Secretary will lay before you; They are a very considerable Nation of Indians, and I am of the opinion it will be much for our Interest & Safety to cherish their motion of coming to settle in the Province between Otter Creek & Fort Dummer

Footnote # 43

The conference proceedings were published under the title Conference at Deerfield, 27th August, 1735, Between Governor Belcher and the Caughnawagas, St. Francis, Housstonnoucs, Schaghtigcokes and Mohegan [Mohican] Tribes, Boston, American Antiquarian Society 1735.

The conference was originally scheduled to be held in Northampton, but the Wôbanaki requested a change of venue, to Deerfield. The site, later occupied by the David Dickinson house, is on the Main Street, with a clear view between the Pemawatchuwatunck (Pocumtuck Range) and the Pocumtuck (now Deerfield) River.

Footnote # 44

This conference has been poorly understood, in large part due to errors made by Deerfield's town historian, George Sheldon, who published the proceedings in 1906. Sheldon misidentified all of the "Mohican" people at the conference as "Mohawk," and he was apparently unaware of, or unwilling to admit, that the "Schaghticoke" Indians were people who originally came from the Connecticut River Valley.

Footnote # 45

In 1735, Ebenezar Hinsdell, Joseph Kellogg, and others transacted four deeds for Sokoki lands in northern Massachusetts. On February 10, 1735, four Indians - Nechehoosqua, her husband Massequnt, and their children Aumesaucooanch and Tecaumis – accepted "One Hundred Pounds in Bills of Credit" for lands lying "upon or by Connecticutt River to the north of Fort Dummer [Brattleboro, Vermont]" extending twenty miles on either side of the river. In correspondence leading up to the Deerfield conference, Governor Bcleher wrote to Kellogg on March 4, 1735:

I take notice you and Mr. Hinsdell have purchased some land near your Fort [Fort Dummer], I hope you have not interfered with the Law of the Province ag[ain]st purchasing of the Indians (Belcher to Kellogg, MHSC March 4, 1735).

In another deed, signed at Deerfield on August 29, 1735, four Schaghticoke Indians signed over a large tract of Wachusett territory in what is now Athol, Barre, Dana, Gardner, Hubbardston, Orange, Petersham, Phillipston, Princeton, Rutland, Templeton and Westminster, MA. The signatories,"Francois Son of Nepuscauteusqua Dec[ease]d, and Ompontinnuwa, Penewanse, Cockiyouwah and Wallenas Sons to Woolauootaumesqua de[ceas]ed Sister to the Said Nepuscauteusqua," testified that they were "true owners of the Same and have in ourselves good right to sell" (Wright 1905:130). At a September confirmation hearing on the deed in Northampton, the signers also noted: "We do further declare to Our certain knowledge that no Indian or Indians of what name or nation Soever has any just right Challenge or interest to or in the abovesaid Tract of Land." (See Wright Indan Deeds of Hampden County 1905:120-133).

These transfers of land coincided with the movements of these same families north to Abenaki communities in Vermont and New Hampshire, or further north to the Abenaki mission village on the St. Lawrence, also called Odanak. Gordon Day sums up a portion of these relocations:

By 1724 and perhaps before, some Schaghticokes who had originally come from the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts joined the village of Missisquoi...In 1736 there were said to be 180 warriors (perhaps 900 persons) in Odanak and Missisquoi together...In 1754 the last of the Schaghticoke village, then numbering 50 to 60 in all, moved to Odanak (Day 1981:64).

Footnote # 46

Colonel John Stoddard oversaw the construction of Fort Dummer when it was established during Gray Lock's War. Jospeh Kellogg was in charge of scouts, and Timothy Dwight was the lieutenant in command. The Kanienkehaka sachem Hendrick served at the fort, as did the Mohican sachem Aupaumut, later joined by Massoqunt, Naunautoohoah, and Mascommah, Schaghticoke Indians who were present at the 1735 conference and had signed the 1735 deeds. The scouts typically served from spring to early winter, when they would return to their families for the winter hunting. For a discussion of how their activities demonstrated traditional use of the valley, see Lisa Brooks Brooks, 2004. The Common Pot: Indigenous Writing and the Reconstruction of Native Space in the Northeast. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University.

English soldiers depended on these Indian scouts, but they also admitted that it was difficult to tell friend from foe. When the Schaghticoke Indians came to hunt in the region, they would inform the commanding officers of the towns of the signal that would identify them. One such signal was the wearing of green boughs on their heads, but this was not always reliable, as Colonel Samuel Partridge observed in a July 27, 1724 letter regarding the arrival of some Pequot allies to assist the English:

They must have some signal, which must be known to our people, to prevent any evil that might otherwise happen...I have always directed all parties scouting from our parts of Hampshire Co. to observe your directions: but shall find it impracticable for them to be always safe. They may hide and seek as the Indians do, and your Indians will not always have the green bough upon their heads, sleeping as well as waking; and the sign may be stolen and used by the enemy as a decoy, and thus our men deceived to their hurt (Samuel Partridge in Josiah H. Temple, and George Sheldon. A History of the Town of Northfield, for 150 Years, with an account of the prior occupation of the territory of the Squakheags. Albany, NY: J. Munsell 1875:205).

Footnote # 47

Unpublished letter from Massachusetts Governor Jonathan Belcher of Boston written October 20, 1740, to Captain Gyles regarding a recent meeting with Wôbanaki sachems at Norridgewock. On p. 12 of Belcher's copybook on microflm.

Footnote # 48

In July of 1752, the Abenaki sachem Atiwaneto (also known as Atecouando) sent a strong message to Phineas Stevens, at Fort No. 4, during a council meeting in Montreal:

We hear on all sides that this Governor and the Bostonians say that the Abenakis are bad people. ‘Tis in vain that we are taxed with having a bad heart. It is you, brother, that always attack us... Brothers, we tell you that we seek not war, we ask nothing better than to be quiet, and it depends, brothers, only on you English, to have peace with us. We have not yet sold the lands we inhabit, we wish to keep the possession of them... we will not cede one single inch of lands we inhabit beyond what has been decided formerly by our fathers... We acknowledge no other boundaries of yours than your settlements whereon you have built, and we will not, under any pretext whatsoever, that you pass beyond them. The lands we possess have been given to us by the Master of Life. We acknowledge to hold only from him.

(See Colin G. Calloway. Dawnland Encounters: Indians and Europeans in Northern New England. Hanover and London: University Press of New England 1991, p. 121-122.

Footnote # 49

By July of 1754, the older sachems at Schaghticoke had passed away, and the Schaghticoke explained to the Colonial Congress in Albany

Father: We are glad that the Governor sees his children now before him, we are small in number but next time we hope we shall be more. Your Honor may see that we are but young and unexperienced, our ancient people being almost all dead, so that we have nobody to give us any Advice, but we will do as our Fathers have done before us ((Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York VI:880)

Footnote # 50

On the 28th August a Party of French Indians said to be of Bekancourt, a place between Quebec and Montreal, made an incursion into this Province and burnt the houses and Barns full of grain at Hoseck, a place lying about 18 or 20 miles East from that part of Hudson's River, which is 10 miles above Albany, they carried off with them the few remaining Indians of Scachtacook, being between fifty and sixty Men, Women and Children, these had a little before, when I was at Albany, assured me of their fidelity (Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York VI:909)

Footnote # 51

Many of the Connecticut River Valley Indians who came to Schaghticoke returned to New England, or relocated to Abenaki and Mohawk communities in northern environs (Calloway 1990, Day 1981), but some moved into rural areas of upstate New York. Nathaniel Sylvester's History of Saratoga County (1878) notes:

Long before the northern part of Saratoga County was settled by white men, tradition says a band of Indians, fleeing from the east after King Philip's war, settled at the foot of this [Palmertown] mountain range, in what is now the town of Wilton (Sylvester 1878:13).

Stories about the Native people who lived around the Sacandaga River Valley wer preserved in regional oral traditions and family histories that are barely known to public historians. A glimpse into these families can be found in the reminiscences of Don Bowman, Go Seek the Pow Wow on the Mountain and Other Indian Stories of the Sacandaga Valley. Vaughn Ward, ed. Greenfield Center, New York: Bowman Books, Greenfield Review Press 1993.

Footnote # 52

For military accounts of Roger's Raid, see Burt Garfield Loescher, The History of Rogers' Rangers. Vol. 4. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books 2002.

Footnote # 53

See Colin Calloway, "Odanak: Abenaki Ambiguity in the North," in The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities, London: Cambridge University Press 1995.

Footnote # 54

There are descriptions of the plants Louis Watso used in Stephen W.Williams M.D., Report on the Indigenous Medical Botany of Massachusetts American Medical Association Transactions (Philadelphia, PA: American Medical Association 1849). One was the stimulant Asarum canadense, commonly called Canadian Snakeroot or Wild Ginger, known to the Abenaki as skogabedakwa, "snake head plant." Dr. Williams wrote:

When a company of Indians from Canada were in Deerfield, in the year 1837, I was much affected with palpitation of the heart, and they were much offended with me because I would not take one of their preparations which contained a large proportion of this snakeroot. They use it extensively in many complaints.

The complaint about frequent visits is found in an unpublished page in the Stephen West Williams Papers, Box 15, Folder 1, in collections of Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Memorial Libraries, Deerfield, MA. For a fuller description of the Watso family's visit to Deerfield in 1837, see Marge Bruchac, "Abenaki Connections to 1704: The Watso and Sadoques Families in Deerfield," in Captive Histories: Captivity Narratives, French Relations and Native Stories of the 1704 Deerfield Raid, edited by Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney, University of Massachusetts Press 2005 (forthcoming).

Footnote # 55

For the Abenaki oral traditions of Rogers' Raid, see Gordon M. Day, "Rogers Raid in Indian Tradition," in Historical New Hampshire. Vol. XVII June 1962, pp. 3-17.

Footnote # 56

Penewanse and Capino derive from "kepinawos" "the person who takes care of someone," and Wallenas derives from "wolhanas" "valley person" (Day 1981: 78, 98). For a full discussion of the regional origins of Abenaki family names at Odanak, see Gordon M. Day, The Identity of the Saint Francis Indians. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1981.