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The Mohegan Indians, descendants of the Pequot tribe, are concentrated in Connecticut and have a culture of oral histories and storytelling. They own casinos and have business stakes in modern culture. They split from the Pequots in the 1600s and sided with European settlers in the Pequot War. They are a federally recognized, sovereign Indian nation with their own government and constitution. The tribe’s largest reservation is in Montville, Connecticut, and they own the Connecticut Sun WNBA team.
The Mohegan Indians are a group of Native Americans who are descended from the larger Pequot tribe and are mostly concentrated in the US state of Connecticut. The tribe is large and members live throughout the United States and the world, but most of the tribal activity takes place in and around Connecticut, which is where the people originally lived before the United States became a nation. Theirs was traditionally a culture of oral histories and storytelling, and the earliest members spoke a language unique to the Algonquin family that is nearly extinct in modern times. Many tribal customs are still celebrated on reservations throughout Connecticut and the Northeast, but the Mohegan people are also steeped in aspects of modern culture. They own and operate a number of casinos, for example, and have business stakes in businesses like basketball teams and strip malls.
Position and prominence
The Mohegan Indians are also sometimes known as the “wolf people” and many linguists believe the word “Mohegan” translates as “from the wolf.” The early Mohegans were members of the Pequot tribe who settled in upstate New York and eventually migrated to Connecticut in the upper Thames Valley, where the climate was more temperate and food was more readily available. Generally these people were non-nomads, which means that they settled in one place and lived there more or less permanently; they did not move in search of food or crops as did many tribes in the lowlands in the center of the country.
The Mohegans in Connecticut finally split from the Pequots in the early 1600s after two chiefs argued over how to deal with European settlers who were encroaching on their land, spreading disease and consuming much-needed resources. Uncas, a Mohegan chief, decided to take his followers and form his own tribe, which eventually gave rise to the Mohegans as an independent group.
European alliance
The Pequot leaders eventually went to war with the Mohegan branch over the split in what is historically known as the Pequot War of 1637. There was more at stake than the Mohegan split, and the Pequots were fighting the Europeans as much or more as they were fighting the tribal offshoots. Importantly, however, the Mohegan sided with the European settlers. With their assistance and the power of arms, the Mohegans eventually defeated the Pequots. This alliance would keep the Mohegans safe for many years afterward, although it did lead to some changes in how they conducted their business and how they shared their land.
Religion and language
Originally, the Mohegans were spirit worshipers who, like most Native American peoples, had histories and beliefs related to the natural world in which they lived. Samson Occum was one of the first Indian ministers ordained Christians to come from the Mohegan tribe. Born in 1723, he formed a New England Christian Indian school that eventually moved to New Hampshire and became Dartmouth College. Samson eventually moved to upstate New York, but his Christianization of the Mohegans helped save them from eventual relocation as government leaders of the time were more likely to benefit groups that were perceived to be Christian and more or less committed towards a traditional status quo.
Fidelia Fielding, born in 1827, is another notable of the Mohegan Indians. As the last living speaker of the Mohegan language, she is credited with saving it by capturing the language in four journals. An avid storyteller herself, she is also committed to having many of her oral histories recorded. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC now has these materials, and some scholars are looking for a way to revive the language so it can be taught to modern tribal children.
Fielding was also the first member of the tribe to live in a modern log home. Two medicine women, Emma Baker, born 1828, and Gladys Tantaquidgeon, born 1899, are largely credited with preserving much of tribal culture and history as it is known today.
Modern sovereignty
The tribe governs itself as a federally recognized, sovereign Indian nation within the United States. As such, it has its own government and a governing constitution for its approximately 1,700 members. To be a member of the tribe, a person must be able to trace their ancestry to the 1861 tribal register, and in most cases must be at least one-eighth of blood; moreover, usually he must be active within the tribe to be eligible for privileges and benefits. Since 1, nine chiefs have presided over the Mohegan Indians and their decisions are usually binding.
Mohegan’s largest reservation is located in Montville, Connecticut and gained recognition in 1994. Several casinos are operated by the tribe and it owns the Connecticut Sun, a team in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The Mohegan tribe is different from the Mahican tribe, who also speak a similar dialect of the Algonquian language. Both traditionally lived in roughly the same swath of New England, but the Mahicans are a larger group whose range also extends into Canada.
