The
Mahicans (also
Mohicans) are an
Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the
Hudson River Valley (around
Albany, NY), many then moving to
Stockbridge, Massachusetts after 1780, before the remaining descendants moved to northeastern
Wisconsin during the 1820s and 1830s.
"Mohican" (history), Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007, webpage:
.
"Mahican" (history), Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007, webpage:
.
The tribe's name for itself was
Muhhekunneuw, or "People of the River." Their current name is the name applied to the Wolf Clan division of the tribe, from the Mahican
manhigan.
History
The Mahicans were living in and around the
Hudson Valley at the time of their first contact with
Europeans in 1609. Over the next hundred years, tensions between the Mahicans and the
Mohawks as well as the Europeans caused the Mahicans to migrate eastward into western Massachusetts and Connecticut to the
Hudson River. Many settled in the town of
Stockbridge, Massachusetts becoming known as the
Stockbridge Indians.
The Stockbridge Indians allowed
Protestant Christian missionaries, including
Jonathan Edwards, to live among them and converted to
Christianity in the 18th century. Although they fought on the side of the American colonists in both the
French and Indian War (North American part of the
Seven Years' War) and the
American Revolution, they were dispossessed of their land and forced to move westward, first to New Stockbridge in the 1780s, on land allocated for them by the Oneidas, and later to
Shawano County, Wisconsin in the 1820s and 1830s. In Wisconsin, they settled on
reservations with the
Munsee; the two were jointly known as
Stockbridge-Munsee. Today the reservation is known as that of the
Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians (
Stockbridge-Munsee Community).
The first
Christian Indian community in America was established by
Moravian Church missionaries at the Mahican village of
Shekomeko in 1740. Their intent was to incorporate the native American people into European society through
Christianity. They were so successful in their efforts and so diligently defended the Indians against white exploitation that the missionaries were hounded and finally forced out by the government.
The now extinct
Mahican language belonged to the
Eastern Algonquian branch of the
Algonquian language family. It was an Algonquian N-dialect, as were
Massachusett and
Wampanoag, but in many ways, it was more similar, and just as easily considered an L-dialect, such as that of the
Lenape.
James Fenimore Cooper's novel
The Last of the Mohicans is based on the Mahican tribe but includes some cultural aspects of the
Mohegans, a different Algonquian tribe living in eastern
Connecticut. The novel takes place in the Hudson Valley, Mahican land, but some characters' names, such as
Uncas, are Mohegan.
Notable members
