THE STOCKBRIDGE
INDIANS
By Carl Hommel
I [COH] gave a talk on the Mohican
Indians of Stockbridge, MA, at the New Brunswick Reunion. My material was
mostly taken from “The Mohicans of Stockbridge”, by Patrick Frazier, University
of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1992. The following is a summary of my
talk.
When our ancestors started to migrate west and north from where they originally settled, from the Hartford area and from the Brookfield/Ware area, along the valleys of the three major rivers, the Connecticut, the Housatonic and Hudson, they found Indians, who had villages and hunting grounds along these rivers. The Indian villages ranged from the lower Hudson River Valley in Duchess County, north to Lake Champlain, east to the Westfield River, and west to Scholarie Creek. In 1609, their tribes consisted of a thousand braves.
These Indians were of the Mohican tribes, and they had a profound influence on the settlement of Western Massachusetts, Western Connecticut and Eastern New York. They were times rivals and other times aligned with the Mohawk Indians.
The colonial governments of Connecticut and Massachusetts and the Dutch and later English governments in New York did not allow settlers to take the Indian lands without paying for it. The deeds were recorded in the same manner as deeds between colonial settlers, and many still exist. One of these deeds said in part, “1744, from John Popnehonnukwoh and Jehoiakim Yokum of Stockbridge, Hampshire County, Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England Gentleman and Indian Claimers of a certain tract of land lying between Stockbridge ... and ...Spencer-town, .... to Jeremiah Olmsted, ......, Jabez Olmsted ... by paying us the sum of Sixty £, New York Currency....”. Jeremiah was the oldest son of Captain Jabez Olmsted of Ware. John Popnehonnukwoh was also known as John Konkapot.
The Indians had problems with alcohol, and with their dwindling population, countered with the growth of the population of the colonial settlers. To help solve these problems, Governor Belcher of Massachusetts in 1739 suggested that the provincial government layout a tract of land for the Indians to share with a minister, a schoolmaster and some tradesmen who could teach the Indian civilized Christian living and provided apprenticeship for their children. One of the first ministers sent was a 24-year-old Yale tutor from Newark, New Jersey named John Sargent. Another was Steven Williams. Later, in 1751, Jonathan Edwards, the renowned theologian, became the Indians’ minister.
In the middle of 1737 the Indians were issued a charter for a township and their descendants “to their and behoof, forever”. During the summer, work on the Meetinghouse and the Schoolhouse was commenced. In 1739 the Legislature incorporated the town with the name of Stockbridge. Konkapot was authorized to assemble the town’s freeholders to choose a town clerk and other officers. Except for the moderator, all the town officers were Mohicans.
Stockbridge was well on its way to becoming a typical New England colonial town. It had a gristmill, a sawmill, and roads were being built. There were orchards and farms where corn, beans and oats were growing, and cattle, sheep, hogs and horses were being raised. Fences were being built and many frame houses. Konkapot had a barn with a shingled roof. The Indians became town officials, such as selectmen, assessors, surveyors, constables and hog reeves. One Indian was on a committee to build a bridge across the river and to repair the Meetinghouse. And other was a deacon in the church. The young women were learning to sew and to make clothing. Some Indians had learned enough English to be able to read the Bible and some had learned to write English. Jacob Konkapot, grandson of John, was educated at Dartmouth College.
But this was short lived. More and more English moved into the town and the Indian population decreased. They were being swindled out of their land, despite the laws Massachusetts had passed to protect them. Naturally the English want to take charge of the town, and they outvoted the Indian at town meetings. The church and schools were separate. The Indians were constantly illegally selling land to pay their debts so they could keep out of jails, which were ridden with diseases such as smallpox. The town was split in 1774, and West Stockbridge was established. But the Indians who lived in the new town were allowed no voice in town affairs.
By the end of the Revolution, the Indians felt the experiment had been a failure. They sold their property and moved to live with the Oneida Indians in upstate New York. Later they move to Wisconsin where they are still settled.
The Indians had an influence on the French and Indian Wars and on the Revolution. The first alliance between Mohicans and the English occurred during King William’s and Queen Anne’s wars, in which they and the Mohawks fought against the French. The Mohicans and the Mohawks also raided the Indian tribes in Maryland and Virginia the during the late 17th century.
The Stockbridge Indians served extensively in the last French and Indian War, from 1754 to 1761.They fought at Crown Point, and at Ticonderaga., often acting as scouts for Rogers Rangers. They participated in two raids to French Canada to destroy enemy harvests and livestock and to liberate English captives.
After the war was over, they were sent in 1761 to South Carolina, to help subdue the Cherokees. Again in 1763 and 1764 they helped in the battles in the western Indian uprising called Pontiac’s Conspiracy.
They fought again in the Revolutionary War, and Jacob Konkapot was at Bunker Hill, White Plains and Saratoga.
There are a few incidences where the Olmsted’s and the Stockbridgers may have crossed paths. Nathan Hamilton, son-in law of Capt Jabez Olmsted, was at Crown Point in late 1756 and 1759 and at Ticonderoga in 1757. Israel Olmsted, son of Capt. Jabez Olmsted, was at Fort William in 1757. Jedediah Olmsted, second son of Capt. Jabez, enlisted in Rogers Rangers, but deserted in 1759. Two Jabez Olmsted’s and Aaron Olmsted were at the battle of Saratoga. Jeremiah Olmsted was born in West Stockbridge in 1752, and Gideon Olmsted was married there.
After the Revolution, the white settlers had no further use for the Stockbridgers. They were dying of starvation, alcoholism and disease. Their claims to Massachusetts Legislature and the Continental Congress were rejected and ignored. They were outvoted in Town Meetings in the town that the General Court had granted to them “forever” forty-five years before.
The remnants of the Stockbridgers accepted an invitation from the Oneida Indians, and in 1782 they moved to New York, where they established New Stockbridge on the Mohawk River. In 1833 they moved to a reservation at Green Bay, Wis., where they joined the Munsee Indians. In the 1850s most of them moved to a reservation in Shawano County, Wis.
In 1990 there were some 2,200 Stockbridgers in the United States.