The Maïngan People of Connecticut
Just
who are the American native eastern woodland
The Moiigans, 'Maïngan – Yáw – Wolf-People',
(Maïngan),
people
and where did they come from?
Scholars,
archeologists, anthropologists and just plain people have been trying to trace
our people the Moiigan's' for years now.
I
believe most would agree to start someplace in the middle east or the middle of
Africa, this is the place that is agree on as the start of our life as we now
know it.
Religion
set aside for now only so that I may make the point of where my people got that
name, many now believe that their ancestors followed the food chain across the
Striates
(what
was then a land bridge between what is now Russia & Alaska)
across
(what
is now Canada)
and
then our people continued down into what is now called
(the
Great Lakes in upper New York Lower Canada).
My
ancestors, a part of the (Monheags) Mohican people, after some time became
closer to Mother Earth as farmers; they became so good at farming that 'other
villages' wanted their land
and
pushed
them all the way across the land and over what we call the Pequot river
(Thames
River).
After
so many years of being beat up and pushed around, our people finely learned how
to fight back, so when the villages of this new land started pushing, our
people pushed back and pushed back so well they ended up with all of the land!
When
the Europeans showed up and stated pushing they pushed back and pushed so hard
that the Europeans called our ancestors the Piquet’s
(destroyers),
later
the English changer the name to
Pequot’s.
When
Grand Sachem Wopigwooit, one of many of our peace loving Sachem’s, died in 1631
(there
should never be a vote of the people).
However,
two names came up as too who should be the next sachem,
Uncas
had seniority and the blood line and Sassacus wanted war so he
(Sassacus)
became
the next Sachem of the Pequot people?
This
is wrong as wrong could be, to go against the wishes of our ancestors!
After
many years, many wars and the loss of so many young braves of the Pequot
people, Uncas, now war chief,
tried
to get Sachem Sassacus to stop the wars and try peace with the Europeans and
neighboring tribes.
As
Uncas explained,
Every
time the Europeans lost a warrior, ten more would come to fight in his place;
the
Pequot’s had no replacements and would soon no longer exist.
The
trickster
(Coyote,
Satan)
blinded
the eyes of Sassacus and most of the Pequot people,
So,
Uncas took all that wished to go over the Pequot river to what is now called
the
Great falls
and
changed the name back to Moiigan's.
This
group of his people asked Uncas to take his rightful place as Sachem of this
group of Moiigans.
Martha,
his wife, had one husband, Uncas as Sachem had many wives.
Now
Because
of this
Sassacus
considered Uncas and his people to be just another of his many enemy so the
Pequot’s. Immediately attacked this group across the river at a place now known
as Fort Shantok park. named after one of the Moiigan braves,
that held off this brutal attack from their
relatives.
Eventually
the Europeans and all of the Pequot neighboring tribes grew tired of this
constant fighting joined forces
and
regardless
of what you now read in the papers
or
from
some people.
Completely
decimated the entire Pequot tribe, now called nation!
It
was at this time that Uncas became
"The Grand Shechaim Ohjieshan of all of the people".
Because
of new wars with the Narragansett’s
(who
many time were much more brutal to the peace loving smaller tribes then the old
Pequot tribe)
Uncas
moved a small band of non-royal mixed clan
of
his new tribe and settled them as lookouts in the area now known as Fort
Shantok.
As
usual the European’s began misspelling the name of our people and started
calling them
Mohegan’s.
As
Paul Harvey liked to say,
“Now
you know the rest of the story”.
As
told to me by our Elders.
“AHO”
O
K I may need to go through this once again before you read the following
article.
In
an Eastern Woodland American Native Society
(a
Matriarch Society)
the Shechaim Ohjieshan (Sachem), is the ruler
of the people.
This
person is born into the Royal family
no
one can vote for a Sachem (Shes-um).
This
person male or Female
can
designate anyone of his people as chief
and
that
person will be a chief for as long as the Sachem needs that person to be chief
of a job for the tribe.
Each
tribe has a number of clan mothers with one chosen
by
the Sachem as head Clan Mother.
The
tribe also has a council of Elders and this council is set up and run by the
clan mothers.
Now
the entire tribe collects and hands over everything to their Sachem,
then
the Sachem distributes everything through-out the tribe!
Once
everything is evenly distributed the Sachem and family must rely on the tribe
for the families care and comfort!
This
has a tendency to have a very good Sachem.
Prior
to her death on July 15, 1929,
and
because
he was the next in line
Alice
Melinda Storey/Tracy/ Fielding
appointed
William
James Storey
to
be Sachem Tallfox
and
her
choice to rule
The Moiigans, 'Maïngan – Yáw – Wolf-People', (Mohegan).
Alice
Storey/Tracy Fielding was at that time known as the Princess (Sachem) of the
Mohegan’s, and is a direct descendant of Uncas, acknowledged leader of the
Mohegan Indian Tribe,
during
the "Pequot War" of 1637, and thereafter.
This
title was affirmed as
"Sachem
for Life" by the Officers of Tribal Council of Mohegan Indians
and
on November 18, 1933
Sachem
Tallfox appointed his cousin John Hamilton as his War Chief of land claims
and
this
was recognized and supported by the Mohegan’s, including Courtland Fowler, from
1933 through the 1960s.
In
the late 1960s, War Chief Hamilton was authorized by the Council of Descendants
of Mohegan Indians to act on its behalf in matters pertaining to the relations
between the Mohegan Indian Tribe
and
the
State of Connecticut.
At
that time, Fowler served on the Council under war chief John Hamilton.
In
1970,
A
faction of Mohegan’s became dissatisfied with the prospects
of
the Mohegan Indian Tribe filing of land claim suit against the tribe’s
neighbors.
So
at an unofficial Council meeting in May 1970,
sought
to elect a new leader of the Mohegan Tribe?
War
Chief Hamilton rejected the asserted authority of the Council to replace him so
he and his followers left the meeting.
The
remaining Mohegan Indians and non Indians at the meeting elected Courtland
Fowler as their leader?
The
total number of people casting votes was fewer than 10
according
to public statements made by Courtland Fowler.
Fewer
than 10 people tried
and
succeeded
to
overthrew the Sachems Constitutional government and leadership tradition
older
than recorded history
and
leave
the majority of Mohegan’s out.
Of
course
this
delighted the federal and state government because it closed all of our
treaties forever!
Despite
this separation however, from the 1970s until 1994,
no
Mohegan Indian was excluded from participation in traditional practices, events
or ceremonies by virtue of association with either the Storey/Hamilton or
Fowler faction of Mohegan Indians.
War
Chief Hamilton continued to pursue a land claim suit on behalf of the Mohegan
Tribe, and retained counsel for the purpose of prosecuting the land claim suit.
In
1977,
"The
Mohegan Tribe,"
acting
through War Chief Hamilton,
filed
a land claim suit in federal district court in Connecticut against the State of
Connecticut, asserting that aboriginal and historic claims and titles to over
2,000 acres in Montville, Connecticut
had
been extinguished in violation of the Non-Intercourse Act.
War
Chief Hamilton further filed a notice with the Bureau of Indian Affairs
("BIA")
seeking
federal acknowledgment of
"The
Mohegan Tribe" in 1978.
Both
the land claim suit and the acknowledgment petition were filed on behalf of the
Mohegan Tribe by Attorney Jerome Griner,
who
had been retained by Hamilton under his authority as Chief of Land claims.
From
May 1970 through 1979, the Fowler faction continued to actively and publicly
oppose both the land claim suit and the federal acknowledgment petition.
From
1979 to 1981,
the
Fowler faction organized an entity called the
"Mohegan
Tribal Council"
and
adopted
a constitution for its governance in 1980.
At
around this time, Attorney Griner, counsel of record for the Mohegan Tribe in
the land claim suit and the federal acknowledgment petition, ceased accepting
direction from Chief Hamilton. and
instead
began to take direction from the Fowler faction, without notifying either the
federal court
or
t
he
BIA of his change in clients.
WHY?
(M
O N E Y)!
Upon
discovering that Attorney Griner had begun to serve the interests of the Fowler
faction,
in
1981.
Hamilton
discharged him and retained separate counsel from Attorney Robert Cohen.
Although
the State raised the issue of the propriety of filings by two attorneys on
behalf of
"The
Mohegan Tribe"
in
the land claim suit when Cohen filed his appearance in 1981 and then later in
1989, the issue of authorization for the filings of Griner and Cohen was never
resolved by the district court.
The
Fowler faction amended its constitution in 1984
and
renamed
itself the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut
("MTIC").
In
1985, Attorney Griner filed detailed documentation before the BIA in support of
the 1978 acknowledgment petition on behalf of
"The
Mohegan Tribe, petitioner."
Griner
submitted an MTIC membership roll of 1,017 members, claiming that this roll
relied on lists of Mohegan Indians prepared by the State of Connecticut.
The
BIA then placed the petition under
"active
consideration."
Also
in 1985, the State of Connecticut filed a formal opposition to federal
acknowledgment with the BIA,
characterizing
Hamilton and his followers and the Fowler group as two factions of a single,
unitary Mohegan Tribe.
In
support of this position, the State relied on a 1979 letter from a member of
the Fowler faction stating that
"‘they
do not have a tribal organization because they are going to organize to form a
tribal group for the sole purpose of combating War Chief John Hamilton.’"
In
November 1989, the BIA announced its proposed decision that the United States
would not acknowledge the Mohegan Tribe, based on its finding that
from
1941 to the date of the rejection, the Mohegan Tribe did not demonstrate
sufficient social community or sufficient political authority and influence as
required under 25 CPR 83.7 (b) and (c).
The
BIA did not examine the files and records of Hamilton or the Council prior to
issuing the proposed rejection.
In
1990,
Cohen
submitted a response to the BIA pointing out that the BIA had never examined
these files, and in which he narrated the internal leadership and external
political and land claim efforts of Hamilton from 1941 until his death in 1988.
Because
of the crossing of War Chief Hamilton
And
the crossing in 1986 of Sachem Tallfox’s last
living son Sachem Zeak, Clarence J Storey,
another
Mohegan
tribal faction started under the leadership of Eleanor Fortin a White Person
and
The Secretary/driver of War Chief John E
Hamilton.
