Uncas: First Of The Mohegans PDF
Preview Uncas: First Of The Mohegans
SV3UQ Uncas First of the Mohegans Michael Leroy Oberg CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON Copyright © 2003 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writ ing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2003 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Oberg, Michael Leroy. Uncas : first of the Mohegans / Michael Leroy Oberg, p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8014-3877-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Uncas, Chief of the Mohegans, d. 1684. 2. Mohegan Indians—Biography. 3. Mohegan Indians—History. 4. Connecticut—History— Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. I. Title: First of the Mohegans. II. Title. E99.M83 U536 2003 974.6'02'092—dc2i 2002015646 Cornell University Press strives to use environmen tally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.comellpress.comell.edu. Cloth printing 10 987654321 Contents Preface vii Introduction: Uncas in Myth and Memory i i. World in Balance 15 2. The Mohegans’ New World 34 3. The Rise of the Mohegans 63 4. Killing Miantonomi 87 5. To Have Revenge on Uncas 110 6. Amongst the English 139 7. Uncas, the Mohegans, and King Philip’s War 171 Conclusion: Uncas’s Legacy 204 Abbreviations Used in Notes 217 Notes 219 Index 259 v Preface Uncas, the Mohegan Indian sachem who flourished in seventeenth century Connecticut, led his people through the tremendous changes produced by the coming of the Europeans and forged a regional power in colonial New England. Employing diplomacy, rumor, the threat of violance, and war, Uncas was tremendously successful in dealing with a great variety of Native New Englanders and English colonists. By examining his Ufe and the world in which he lived, this book aims to broaden our understanding of Native American history, American colonial history, and the many ties that bind these impor tant stories together. Writing the biography of an American Indian leader is fundamen tally a difficult task, especially when that leader was born over four hundred years ago. The evidence is ambiguous and, at times, difficult to decipher. Almost all of it is second-hand, in that Uncas's words and deeds come to us translated by English observers who did not always understand the language and culture of their native neighbors. Even with attention to archaeological research and oral tradition, impor tant ethnohistorical sources, one still must rely on evidence that raises all sorts of interpretive challenges: the problems of bias, per ception, and incompleteness that historians and ethnohistorians have long confronted in their attempts to reconstruct the early Amer ican past. That Uncas is a historical figure about whom generations of New Englanders have had strong feelings, and whose life has taken on mythic proportions, makes writing his life history all the more challenging. What observers of his life knew, and what they wanted to believe, often are difficult to distinguish. My goal has been to tell a good story based upon the extant sources. In places, gaps in the evidence have forced me to make certain interpretive leaps of viz Preface faith, and as a result not everyone will agree with the interpretation of Uncas’s life and career that appears in these pages. I am comfort able with that. But I hope that all who read this book will share my appreciation of the significant role Uncas and other Native American leaders played in the history of colonial North America. I did not confront the challenges of this project alone. A great many friends and colleagues have generously given support and assis tance. In the department of history at SUNY-Geneseo, Tzi-ki Hon read the entire manuscript, taking time from his own research to give me advice. David Tamarin and my fellow American historians in the department, Carol Faulkner and Kathy Mapes, read and commented upon portions of the manuscript. Jim Williams has been a supportive department chair. I have been talking with Stephen Saunders Webb about this project for over eight years now, and I am grateful to him for taking the time to read the manuscript, and for allowing me to try out early versions of several chapters with the students in his gradu ate seminar in early American history at Syracuse University. The members of the Rochester U.S. Historians’ Group strengthened the second chapter with their criticism, and I thank audiences at SUNY- Geneseo and SUNY-Brockport for commenting on early versions of the introduction. Peter Mancall, Alden T. Vaughan, and Pat Cleary all read the manuscript. Wendy St. Jean was always willing to share with me her own research on the Mohegans, and Francis Bremer of Millersville University and the Winthrop Papers project helped track down crucial citations at the last moment. At Cornell University Press, Sheri Englund, Karen Laun, and Kay Scheuer have done a won derful job of seeing the manuscript through to publication. Harriet Sleggs runs an outstanding interlibrary loan department in Milne Library at SUNY-Geneseo. Librarians and archivists at the Connecticut State Library, the Huntington Library, and at the Massa chusetts State Archives all helped in the search for source material. I am grateful as well to the staff at the Huntington for granting me a Michael J. Connell Foundation Fellowship in the summer of 1999, which allowed me to complete much of the research. Additional sup port for travel to archives and libraries in southern New England was provided by a Geneseo Presidential Summer Fellowship and smaller grants from the Geneseo Foundation. Finally, I thank my family. Leticia Ontiveros willingly allowed me viii Preface to skulk off to the University of Rochester Library to work on “the Un- cas thing." My two younger children, Adam and Eliana, could not care less about Indian leaders in seventeenth-century New England, but they have made my life much richer by their presence. And last, I need to thank my oldest son, Nathan, who listened to all I had to say about Uncas and who wants to write his own books someday.
The list of books you might like
