THE MARK OF UNCAS
Produced, Written & Directed by Kenneth A. Simon
www.simonpure.com
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NARRATOR: This is the story of Uncas, the controversial 17th-Century
Sachem of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut.
His life
has become legend, passed down through 13 generations. It is a complex legacy,
mingling fact and fiction.
According
to Mohegan Oral Tradition, “The people are the story.”
Telling
this story are the descendants of Uncas, the English and neighboring tribes;
American Indian scholars and activists; and the residents of Uncasville, the
village that bears his name.
KURT
EICHELBERG: I’d like to tell you a story of a great warrior that lived in the
time of our ancestors. This warrior’s
wisdom, courage, and vision saved the Mohegan from total annihilation. This
great warrior, who became our first sachem, is known as Uncas.”
JOHNNY
LONDON: In his time, in the early 1600s, he was the major player in America
NATHANIEL
FIENNES: All nations and cultures do produce outstanding men from time to time.
Perhaps the British saw in him somebody who was outstanding, with whom they
could, as it were, do business.
ERNEST
GILMAN: Tahbut ne Mundo, Mundu Wigu
ROBERTA
COONEY: He cared for his people. He cared for the colonists, too. He also was
shrewd and cunning.
RAY
GEER: Uncas was a greedy individual that wanted power and he sold his soul to
the colonists.
JOHN
BROWN: He coped with people whose intent was truly black and black-hearted and
he won.
UNCAS AROUND THE WORLD
NARRATOR:
In 1826, James Fenimore Cooper’s novel “The Last of the Mohicans,”
introduced a fictional Uncas to the world.
JOE BRUCHAC
(Writer and Storyteller, Abenaki Nation): In many ways it’s the first American
adventure novel, the first American popular novel, and the first novel that
features Native Americans as main characters.
It became probably the icon by which all Native Americans were drawn for
generations after that because we have those two images in the characters of on
the one side Uncas and Chingachgook, who were the noble Mohegans, and on the
other side Magua, who is the despicable, lying, dangerous redskin, who is the
villain of the piece.
And
they’re names that were picked out of the popular imagination. But Uncas, of
course, was an historical character, the leader of the Mohegan people, who
became the primary ally of the English and was a sort of exemplar of the
relationship between the white man and the Indian. In the popular imagination he was the good Indian, so when Cooper
wrote this book it’s not surprising that the Uncas character should be used in
name if not an actual person because, of course, the fictional Uncas is totally
different.
So
you had this picture of Uncas as being absolutely steadfast. He is sort of the
image of Tonto. He’s the first Tonto and the Lone Ranger. And this image of the
white man with the faithful Indian by his side continues on down through movies
and television right to the present day. It’s one of the most popular images in
the American imagination, even though beginning with Uncas himself it is a
false image.
NARRATOR: Fiction met
reality when publicity for the 1920 version of The Last of the Mohicans discovered “real Mohicans” in Connecticut.
The
Mohegan Tribe has lived in the area now encompassing Montville, Connecticut,
for centuries. In and around Montville and its village of Uncasville, the name
“Uncas” is ubiquitous, used by numerous public and private institutions,
businesses small and large, and even residences.
When Cooper
used the name of Uncas for his fictionalized character, he created an
unprecedented international literary phenomenon.
NARRATOR: More than
12 movie versions of The Last of the
Mohicans have left an enduring mark
on American culture.
Roberta
Cooney still recalls her hometown’s 1936 premiere.
ROBERTA
COONEY (Elder, Mohegan Tribe): I was a young girl when I went to see
this movie. And it was quite something to go to a movie because we didn’t go to
the movies that often. And before we went my mother told us that it was not all
true -- it was a movie. It did make a lasting impression on me.
NARRATOR: Carleton Eichelberg also went with his
famliy to see the 1936 version.
CARLTON
EICHELBERG (Elder, Mohegan Tribe): I remember going down on a Saturday
morning with my mother and my step-grandmother and you know, as a young boy at
that time, I think everybody was interested in cowboys and Indians so to speak.
it was basically fiction but it did take and put our most famous leader into a
national limelight and it made the Mohegan people more world renown.
RUSSELL
MEANS (Actor and Activist, Oglala Lakota): To me it was a fictional
story. It didn’t have any import to me other than James Fenimore Cooper was an
obvious racist.
NARRATOR:
American Indian activist and actor Russell Means played the fictional Uncas’s
father in the 1992 hit film version. Means first read Cooper’s story in the
second grade.
RUSSELL
MEANS: After three auditions I won the role. Dennis Banks and I were competing
for the role. I won, and did that awesome movie.
Well,
the characterization of Uncas was not developed. He was two-dimensional. He did fall in love, supposedly, but that
was the only humanity he was allowed to have in the movie. So to try to compare
him to the historical Uncas is impossible, you know, because the whole movie’s
concept, “the last of the Mohegans,” is an absolute fabrication. He wasn’t one
of the last, you know.
CHINGACHGOOK: Welcome him. Let him take his place at the council
fire. For he is Uncas, my son. Tell him to be patient, and ask death for
speed. For they are all there but one:
I, Chingachgook, last of the Mohicans.
FIRST OF THE MOHEGANS
NARRATOR:
Who are the real Mohegans? Who is the real Uncas? The historic Uncas is in fact
the first of the Mohegans.
GLADYS
TANTAQUIDGEON: I must confess I never read Cooper's Last of the Mohegans.
It's historical fiction of course. But the Mohican that Cooper wrote about were
the northern division of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Nation. Their homeland
was northern New York. And some of that Mohegan group wandered down into this
area that's now CT
REDMOON:
You have to remember, we came this way for survival, for seafood, clams,
oysters, abundance of food we have here.
So
on the way down we fought with other tribes. By the time we got in this area we
was one of the most powerful, vicious tribes around.
GLADYS
TANTAQUIDGEON (Medicine Woman, Mohegan Tribe): And there's one story
that was told to us that when they arrived in what's now Connecticut, they must
have disrupted some of the groups that were in the area because they called
them invaders – Pequotaug, and that's
where you get the name Pequot.
MELISSA TANTAQUIDGEON (Executive Director, Museum Authority, Mohegan
Tribe): Uncas claimed the name
“Mohegan” when he separated from the Pequot because that’s the original name of
our group, an ancient clan name of the Delaware meaning “Wolf people”.
This collar represents the only artifact of
wampum that has stayed n the hands of Indian people in all of New England.
The symbols on the collar are very
important. The two white triangles
signify the split between the Mohegan and the Pequot people. The purple in
between the two triangles signifies the trouble and the division between them.
NARRATOR: Uncas was born in 1598, just before
the arrival of the European colonists. As a boy, he learned tribal stories of
fierce change
FAITH DAVISON (Archivist, Mohegan Tribe):
My great, great grandmother, Mary Tracy Fielding Storey, told this tale that
her great, great grandmother told her to her. When the English came in their
ships the Indians saw those vessels and they thought that they were ani mals
with great white wings and that they spoke with thunder, ominous rumble, and
that they breathed smoke and fire. And one of the prophets said, this is the
animal that will come and eat all the Indians up. We’re here. They didn’t do
it.
CARLTON EICHELBERG: Cochegan Rock is the largest
freestanding boulder in New England left here by the glaciers. Uncas always
held counsel on the top of this rock.
The word sachem
as Uncas was called means “rock man”, and in Mohegan they would say
Ne-woe-me-suns-mo, which mean are you going to the rock, or are you coming to
the rock? And that was a phrase that probably would have been used when Uncas
decided to hold counsel and call all his captains to come to the rock.
Fort Shantok and Cochegan
Rock are probably the two places that are best known as Uncas’s stamping
grounds, if you will, because they would have to come all the way from Fort
Shantok over here to this rock to hold counsel and, of course, Fort Shantok is
the area where the ¾ our village actually was.
I used to come here as a young man. a lot of the kids, this was woods to
play because all the children wanted to
come and see Cochegan Rock and see where Uncas held counsel.
NARRATOR: Uncas
lived a long life, from 1598 to 1683. He was the Great Protector of his people
then and now. The places where Uncas lived have remained sacred to the Mohegan
Tribe for centuries. Jayne Fawcett is the tribal ambassador.
JAYNE FAWCETT (Tribal Ambassador, Mohegan Tribe): This is Uncas Spring and not far from here is the cabin of Uncas. This
is an important place to us, really a sacred place because the waters are said
to bring strength and to bring healing and it’s also a place where we
continually honor Uncas.
When I was a child I used to come here with my
uncle and I always thought of him as the keeper of the spring, and he would
come here every spring and clean all of the debris out and leave a cup because
he felt that it was important that whoever was thirsty and was passing through
should be able to get a drink from from this spot.
ERNEST
GILMAN (Pipe Carrier, Mohegan Tribe): We’re at Uncas’s cabin here on Mohegan
territory and according to the stories that were told to me, this was Uncas’s
site, where he lived and spent a lot of his time.
I was pretty well instilled
with a lot of the history of the tribe, you know, when I was young and what it
was to mean to me later on in life and to make sure that I did never forget
that, and I haven’t. I still get a good
feeling about being out here and any other of the sites that I visit during my
path in life and that hasn’t changed, it’s still there.
This
pipe is known as Uncas’s pipe. It was found in the vicinity of this cabin and
there were no other homes that we know of at the time in that area so they are
assuming that because of who was here this was Uncas’s pipe. I have been
authorized by the tribe to carry this and use it at very special occasions.
Tobacco,
we believe, is the greatest gift that you could give someone. Okay? And so with
that, I’m going to make a presentation. This is a gift to Uncas and I’ll just
sprinkle around the area of his home.
NARRATOR: The Pequot/Mohegan split in the
early 1630s evolved in part from a dynastic quarrel between Uncas and the
Pequot sachem Sassacus, who was his father-in-law. Uncas claimed to be the rightful Pequot sachem.
CARLTON
EICHELBERG: Uncas was married to one of Sassacus’s daughters and what happened
was that it got to the point where with the English coming stronger and
stronger, Sassacus wanted to fight the English, Uncas thought his wisdom was
better, that we were too few in numbers and that we should try to befriend the
English rather than fight them. Their philosophical differences forced a split
and Uncas took his family and his followers and came here to Mohegan.
ELLA SEKATAU (Ethno-Historian and Medicine Woman, Narragansett Tribe): Sassacus and Uncas had good relations until
the newcomers’ arrival and colonization. They were not mortal enemies, they
were relatives, and a new social strata was evolving with the newcomers,
something that was totally unfamiliar with the indigenous or the Indian people,
and that is the reason why they had their disagreements and parted company
several times.
NARRATOR: Uncas’s open rebellion against
Sassacus caused him to finally be banished from the Pequot tribe. And so it was
that Uncas traveled with his followers in 1636 across the Thames River to
settle on the ancestral land of his father.
SAM
DELORIA (Director, American Indian Law
Center, Standing Rock Sioux): In
strictly non-Indian historical terms not too many tribes can have a founder’s
day. This is our founder. Why not? You know exactly who it is and you can
practically pinpoint the date when the tribe was founded in the sense that we
look at it as a tribe. And because they can trace genealogies, they know who’s
descended from him and all of that, it makes it much more difficult for the
tribe to mythologize him; he becomes a very distinct historical figure for them
and he has to remain that because there’s too much of a tribal memory.
NARRATOR: In 1637, Uncas joined forces with the English in a plan to
attack the dominant Pequot Tribe. The English/Mohegan
alliance created friction with other local tribes with whom Uncas was connected
by royal bloodlines.
ELLA SEKATAU: The colonists’ goal was to
divide and to conquer. They did it through rumor; they did it through gossip.
JOHN BROWN (Tribal Historic Preservation
Officer Narragansett Tribe): The Indian people were just played. We did
not understand the nature of the beast that we were dealing with. They had
created the device that they wanted in that triad of power between the Mohegan,
the Narragansett and the Pequot and it worked.
The Pequot War was nothing more than feuding
factions of the Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut colonies opting and
vying for power and attempting to use the Indians as their pawns.
NARRATOR: The English colonists declared war on the Pequot in 1637.
Plans were made for an attack on the main Pequot village fort in Mystic under
the command of Captain John Mason. He
led about 90 colonists, joined by several hundred Narragansett Indians and
about 100 Mohegan and Connecticut River Indians under Uncas. The attack took place on May 26, 1637.
JOE BRUCHAC: During the days before that event
a number of the Indian allies were deserting. However, Uncas had no doubts. In
fact, his exact words are worth quoting. He said, “Though all the Narragansetts
leave, and I am certain most of them will, the Mohegans will remain faithful to
the end.”
When the battle began in the fort at Mystic
there were more Pequots than there were English. And the English discovered that
if they set fire to the buildings that they would even the odds.
A couple of things began to occur. One is that
fire spread very rapidly and the people would not come out of the fort because
they would be shot down. Because of the fire their bowstrings caught fire, they
could no longer use bows and arrows. They had no distance weapons and,
therefore, they had to fight with ax and knife, hand-to-hand, a very unequal
combat.
And I can imagine as that battle was going on,
as Pequot men were running out with their clothes on fire attacking the English
hand to hand I wonder what was going through Uncas’s mind. Because I think
Uncas felt, well, this would be a typical battle on a fortification, the
English will overcome them, they will surrender and maybe I’ll be able to take
these people into my group. But instead everyone, 400 to 700 people were wiped
out.
I cannot help but think that Uncas was
horrified when he saw what happened, when he saw the tremendous violence that
was unleashed by the English on the Pequot people and yet he does not turn
against the English because he knows there’s nothing else he can do right now.
It has begun. He has to follow it through to the end.
FRIEND OF THE ENGLISH
NARRATOR: In 17th Century Banbury, England,
at his manor house, Broughton Castle, the eighth Lord Saye & Sele, received
with great interest news of the British/Mohegan alliance. Lord Saye and a
partner, Lord Brooke, had helped finance the first English settlement on the
south shore of New England, known as Saybrook.
Today, the 21st Lord Saye, remembers his family’s
shared history with Connecticut’s Mohegan Tribe.
NATHANIEL
FIENNES (21st Lord Saye &
Sele): All nations and cultures do
produce outstanding men from time to time and I have a feeling that Chief Uncas
was in that category, don’t you? I think he was, if you like, head and
shoulders above anybody else, imaginative and determined, and perhaps the
British saw in him somebody who was outstanding, with whom they could, as it
were, do business.
NARRATOR: William Fiennes, the 8th
Lord Saye, organized opposition to King Charles I and supported the
Parliamentarians in the British Civil War of the 1630s.
NATHANIEL
FIENNES: It was a time of great turbulence here. You had a king, King Charles
I, who ruled without Parliament for 10 years. He had an archbishop who, if you
like, was something approaching a dictator. It was a very autocratic country
and if you were a liberal minded man or a puritan minded man you would have
been very uncomfortable.
The
fear of what was going on in this country was a motivational force as much as
trading. And I think that Lord Saye and Lord Brook put up the money to
establish this settlement not just to trade but as I say to have a place to
which they could retire
And then suddenly they met
these, whether it’s Pequots or Mohegans, that must have been very strange,
wasn’t it, because they appeared different, they spoke a different language,
they would have been totally opposed to all their thinkings. One wondered how
did the two lots get together? How as it that the Mohegans became friends with
the English settlers there, and indeed how did they communicate? Who learned
their language?
It
was a very different world wasn’t it?
And no doubt a very alarming one.
NARRATOR:
Uncas’s friendship and support ensured that the British would become the
dominant military power in the territory.
NATHANIEL
FIENNES: In point of fact I think history would show it was entirely due to the
Mohegans that they were able to survive there and eventually defeat and
overwhelm the Pequots altogether.
NARRATOR: In
gratitude to Uncas and the Mohegans, King Charles II gave Uncas a bible to show
him the path to Heaven and a sword to protect himself from his enemies. Tribal
legend has it that Uncas preferred the sword.
The success of Uncas and his tribe led to great change in the region’s
power structure. The English triumphed against the Dutch. The Mohegans became
the unrivalled native power. It was a controversial change that severed intertribal
connections and relations.
JAYNE FAWCETT: Uncas is a very controversial character. Many of the
things he did don’t bring a lot of pride to his people here in the present day,
but it’s the result of what he did that makes us feel that he was a great leader.
Some of his actions could be questioned particularly the things that he did
against other Indian tribes
RAY GEER (Medicine
Man, Paucatuck Eastern Pequot Nation): Uncas was a greedy individual that wanted power and he sold his soul to
the colonists to help enhance his position. Uncas saw a chance to get back at
the Pequots, get back at Sassacus, destroy the tribe with the help of the
colonists and some help from the Narragansetts and when he offered his support
to John Mason and then the Narragansetts joined in, there was quite a
devastation to the power that the Pequots had in the area.
NARRATOR: After the Pequot War, in 1638, Uncas
and 37 of his men made a ceremonial visit to Massachusetts Bay colony Gov. John
Winthrop in Boston. At least 6 of the men accompanying Uncas were former
Pequots, now Mohegans. The colonists accused Uncas of harboring the Pequot
enemy. Uncas angrily denied breaking faith.
JOE BRUCHAC: That was when he made his famous speech about loyalty. And
Uncas said these famous words. “If you do not trust me, you should kill me.”
And then placing his hand on his heart he looked straight in Governor
Winthrop’s eyes and said, “This heart is not mine, it is yours. I have no men.
They are yours. Command me to do any hard thing and I will do it. I will never
believe any Indian’s word against the English, and if any Indian shall kill an
Englishman I will put him to death were he never so dear to me”, so spoke
Uncas.
So you can see that Uncas was indeed both
allying himself with the English and protecting his people including those
former Pequots who now regarded themselves Mohegan.
KAREN COOPER (Smithsonian Center for Museum Studies, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma): I think to understand Uncas you need to
think of the time that he was born into. It was a very challenging time. There
were a lot of choices to make and they were critical choices, critical for the
survival of his people.
The Europeans had arrived. There were different factions of them. He had
to sort of figure out who was who and what were their agendas and it was very
confusing. And all of those groups were
trying to pit Indian groups against each other.
Seeing all that-- seeing the kind of power
that Europeans had with their large boats and with the populations that just
kept coming -- and the clothing that Europeans had that was so tailored. Native
people certainly had a richness to their own lives but seeing those kinds of
items had to cause them to wonder about this other people and what powers and
special gifts that they might have of their own. It could be very intimidating,
I think.
There were diseases that took out 90 percent
in some cases of the population so that you lost elders and experienced people
and children, which caused you to be concerned about the whole future of your
people.
My understanding of the way native people
fought was more to embarrass your enemies and to kind of do a blustery show to
dominate and intimidate them but usually not with the idea of wiping them out
entirely. But with European arrival then you had a very different people and
Europeans were experienced in wars that just totally decimated people and with
the weapons they had those weapons served them to that purpose. So for native
people contemplating warfare meant they really had to think about it in new
ways.
Uncas said if they’re to be here then how do
we make sure that we survive and the way to do that was to gain alliances, to
gain dominion as it were over certain native groups so that he could have power
and influence that then could be used with the Europeans to advantage. And
people might see his actions as somewhat of a weakness in that he didn’t fight
to the death but instead I think he had a great amount of bravery to meet the
situations head-on.
THE WINDS OF CHANGE
NARRATOR:
Seeing the world change around him, Uncas made difficult decisions to protect
his tribe’s future. Once powerful rivals, other tribes were now vanquished,
killed or enslaved.
RUSSELL MEANS: It’s amazing to me that a people
can be reduced to good and bad. So to racistly label Indians good or bad only
enhances your own ignorance. And Uncas was a survivor. A wise survivor.
In the latest demographics it’s estimated that
in the eastern United States, east of the Mississippi River, there are 12 to 14
million Indian people. Where’d they go? Where’d they go? So Uncas represents
someone who is smart enough to survive and he got his people to survive,
otherwise they’d be as extinct as the hundreds of Indian nations that were wiped
out in the holocaust of the settlement of the East,
SAM DELORIA: When the history of these times is
written they very often do not judge the behavior of Indians in the same terms
that they judge other people. White people do diplomacy; Indians do something
else. This guy was a diplomat and he had to make some alliance of some kind.
And he made a choice and interpreting his choice strictly along racial grounds,
I think, is a very limited way of looking at it.
He made some choices and they’re very easy to
second-guess 350 years later. He certainly had diplomatic skills in being able
to manipulate the system to enable himself to survive. This was an early
example of a much more subtle view of the power politics of the day than the
people who just stayed in one place and said, “we’re gonna fight to the end.”
And, in fact, they did fight to the end and it was over.
NARRATOR: Following the Pequot War,
hostilities continued between the Mohegans and the Narragansetts led by their
great sachem Miantinomo.
CARLTON EICHELBERG: During the 1630s and 40s
there was a lot of hostilities between the Narragansett and the Mohegan, and
this was due mainly to a conflict between the sachem of the Narragansetts,
Miantonomo, and the sachem of the Mohegans, Uncas. And this eventually led to
the battle known as the Battle of the Great Plains.
NARRATOR: The Mohegans were outnumbered by the
Narragansetts but Uncas had developed a surprise military strategy.
REDMOON (Elder, Mohegan Tribe): Uncas
knew he didn’t have enough warriors to battle Miantonomo but he was a brave
chief. For his people he would die. So he told his men the night before that he
would ask Miantonomo to fight one-on-one. He told his warriors if he refused,
he would drop to the ground and for them to fire. So that’s when he started to
win the war right there.
CARLTON EICHELBERG: During that battle
Miantonomo started to run north and he was chased by one of Uncas’s warriors by
the name of Tantaquidgeon.
NARRATOR:
The pursuit led to the great gorge at Yantic falls. It was here that Uncas
jumped the chasm to avoid capture. Many Narragansett men, in their haste to
retreat, fell to their death.
REDMOON: This is called Uncas’s Leap. The
gorge was much narrower than it is today because over the years it got washed out.
This is sacred land. This was our land and Uncas was protecting it from the
Narragansett.
NARRATOR: The
Battle of the Great Plains led to the capture of Uncas’s Narragansett rival,
Miantonomo.
CARLTON
EICHELBERG: And Tantaquidgeon ran Miantonomo down and captured him and brought
him back to Uncas.
NARRATOR: Uncas brought Miantonomo
to the Colonial Commissioners in Hartford. They later returned him to Uncas
with orders to execute him in Mohegan country. Subsequently, Miantonomo was slain by Uncas’s brother, Wawequa.
LASTING CONNECTIONS
NARRATOR:
In the old Colonial Cemetery in Norwich, Connecticut, many of the headstones
bear the names of early British settlers – Brewster, Rogers, Minor and
Leffingwell.
These
generations of Leffingwells were descendants of the first Leffingwell to
venture to the Saybrook settlement -- Thomas Leffingwell.
THOMAS
LEFFINGWELL (Descendant of Lt. Thomas
Leffingwell): When he came over from
England he was a very young man and he settled in the Saybrook section of
Connecticut. He was an Ensign in the British Militia and he befriended Chief
Uncas of the Mohegan Tribe and they became very close friends. And the reason
he befriended him was, evidently Lt. Thomas Leffingwell was an outdoorsman,
trapper and woodsman. And, therefore, he fit right in with the Indian culture.
NARRATOR: Shantok was the Mohegan’s primary
village in the 17th Century. It was here that the Narragansetts
sought revenge for their loss at Great Plains.
CARLTON EICHELBERG: Around 1645, the
Narragansett wished to get revenge for
the slaying of Miantonomo so they came here and they laid siege to Fort
Shantok. And it got to the point where the Narragansett had just about starved
the Mohegan out.
NARRATOR: A Mohegan
runner managed to slip through the Narragansett lines and set out to get help
from the colonists.
THOMAS
LEFFINGWELL: They got word to the
English settlement in Saybrook. And Lt. Thomas Leffingwell came up from
Saybrook with provisions and snuck into the fort and broke the siege.
CARLTON
EICHELBERG: They raised up a side of beef high enough so that the Narragansett
could see it to let the Narragansett know that, “we’ve got food and there’s no
way you’re gonna starve us out. So why don’t you go on home?” And they finally
did leave and that basically ended the Narragansett war.
THOMAS
LEFFINGWELL: Because Uncas was grateful he gave Lt. Thomas Leffingwell 9 square
miles of land which was later to be the settlement in Norwich.
WHIT DAVIS (Descendant
of Thomas Stanton): This house was
built prior to 1675 when both Uncas and Thomas Stanton were in their prime
NARRATOR: John Whitman Davis is the proprietor of
the old farm established in the middle 1600s by Thomas Stanton, in Pawcatuck,
Connecticut. Stanton, the interpreter general for the crown colonies of New
England, later established a trading post about a mile up the river in 1654.
WHIT DAVIS: And they visited back and forth and they
traded. And through his trading with them he had probably first came in contact
with Uncas. And Thomas, through being the interpreter, was the one that he did business with and allied himself with, because
Thomas had a lot of influence in the colonial legislature. He was powerful with
the Indians and very important to the white people because they had to get
along somehow.
Because Uncas allied himself with the English he and
Thomas became very close friends He
trusted Uncas and Uncas trusted Thomas Stanton, and they each kept their word
to each other which meant a lot.
NARRATOR: In 1999, Mohegan tribal counselor Jayne Fawcett visited the
Stanton Farm.
WHIT DAVIS: Well, Jayne, this is where our
ancestors no doubt walked and they probably sat right here, probably not in
these same chairs, but this table. That’s an old table, an old Stanton table,
kind of primitive made, but nevertheless that’s the best they had in those
days. And it was custom then to invite someone into their house to see it when
they had a new one
JAYNE FAWCETT: You were talking about some of
the things in the room, things that would have been traditional -- that
probably were here when Uncas was here. And these very floors: The floors most
certainly were floors that Uncas and Thomas walked on. And I can’t tell you how
extraordinary that is.
WHIT DAVIS: Well, I’m so happy and proud and
grateful that you feel that way.
JAYNE FAWCETT: So we can imagine Uncas and
Thomas sitting here in this space.
WHIT DAVIS: That’s right. And so he would have
his best friends come in and see his new house and I’m sure that when Thomas
went over to Montville, to your people, that Uncas probably had him into his
wigwam or his cabin. And I bet they did quite a lot of business together making
plans for settling and the wars.
JAYNE FAWCETT: That’s what this is about,
isn’t it – old-time connections.
WHIT DAVIS: Yes.
JAYNE FAWCETT: Getting together, friendships
that last through generations. Our families have had connections all these
years.
WHIT DAVIS: As I counted out as of now it’s
been 345 years. That’s quite a while.
JOE BRUCHAC: Well, Uncas truly did become the
friend of the English. I think that’s an interesting thing about the man that
he was able both to be friendly to the English on their terms and also on his own
terms. He was maintaining the sovereignty of his people. In some ways he is the
first native person to maintain sovereignty in the face of European pressures
on land and culture. He keeps his people as his people. But he also, I think,
really did like the English.
MELISSA
TANTAQUIDGEON: Uncas signed many of the documents that we see in the Colonial
era with his mark. His mark was a representation of not only himself but some
of his very most important beliefs
In the most prominent of these marks you’ll
notice that there’s a heart at the center with something piercing the heart.
Very frequently, when Uncas signed documents where he gave away tribal land,
you actually see a bloodletting from his heart as he gives away each parcel of
tribal land. You’ll also notice, though, that beneath that is a pipe. And the
pipe represents the fact that he has made a gesture of friendship and goodwill
toward the non-Indian people. And he will abide by that and commits to that.
YEARS OF PAIN, ACTS OF
FAITH
NARRATOR:
Although the Mohegans kept their faith with the English and later the
Americans, the tribe suffered from land loss and destitution after the American
Revolution and well into the 20th Century.
JOE BRUCHAC: I think one of the things that is
not understood or fully appreciated is that to give one’s word is regarded as a
sacred trust among native people to this day. The irony about it, of course, is
that European promises to Indians have almost all been broken. Yet the Indian
word was kept and Uncas is the first person that we see in that position: The
faithful Indian in the very best sense -- not a stereotype sense -- but a
person faithful to their word, and that faith being kept throughout the
generations.
DAVID LEFF (Connecticut
Dept. of Environmental Protection):
Over time people’s notions of what was due the tribe and what their
responsibilities were and the sense of mutual friendship disappeared. And in
the 19th Century, the system of overseers of Indians that the state
had was very cruel and resulted in the loss of property through deals that
could be described almost as shady if not worse. And so really, historically, a
great wrong has been done to these people.
MELISSA TANTAQUIDGEON: This burial ground is
particularly sacred and important to the Mohegan people because all who have been
buried here represent the lineage of Uncas. The tribe owned these lands
according to an original agreement that was made between Uncas and the City of
Norwich in 1659, when Uncas deeded the city to Norwich -- with the exception of
the 16 acres in the middle of Norwich, which he had agreed with the settlers
would always remain the Mohegan burial ground.
What remains at this burial ground is a scant
eighth of an acre, when originally it was a full 16 acres. Those 16 acres were
desecrated as houses were built in this area and more and more non-Indian
people came into the community.
In the mid-1840s, the best-recorded desecration of
this burial took place and was witnessed by our Medicine Woman Emma Baker. Emma
came here with her grandmother and watched while piles of bodies with pipe in
them were being burned and people were being excavated in order for all the
homes that are now in this area to be built.
NARRATOR: Uncas sold or gave away vast tracts of
land. But until 1790, the tribe held 2,700 acres in reservation. As desecrations and theft of tribal land by corrupt
state overseers continued through the 1800s, the tribe successfully petitioned
the state to disband the reservation in 1872. Once-tribal lands became
privately owned by tribal members and others. In the early 20th
Century, Uncas’s former village at Shantok was turned into a state park.
DAVID LEFF: Well, as part of the settlement of the
Mohegan land claims, we were to turn Fort Shantok back to the tribe. And I say,
“back to the tribe” because originally it belonged to them.
Shantok had been part of the state park system since
beginning in the 1920s and the actual getting the job done of making the
transfer fell to me. The business with the different kinds of legal maneuvers
and documents went back and forth and lasted to the very day of the transfer.
Shortly before the ceremony was to take place. I came down here in my old
yellow truck and with the document in hand. I drove in and handed off the deed
to Roland Harris. The ceremony that followed was a very emotional experience
and it’s something I’ll never forget as long as I live.
NARRATOR: Uncas was the first Mohegan sachem.
Through the centuries many others followed his path. Tribal Elder Roberta
Cooney has known many chiefs.
ROBERTA COONEY: The Mohegan chiefs that I have
known all have followed Uncas’s stance as far as being loyal to his people.
They all had the same feelings to do for their people, to do the right thing by
their people, to be honest with their people.
There was Occum, who was my grandfather’s
brother. He was a peace chief. Chief
Occum was Lemuel Occum Fielding. Lloyd Harris was Chief Pegee. My grandfather
was Chief Matagha, he was a war chief --
Burrill Hyde Fielding.
NARRATOR:
Loretta Roberge is also a granddaughter of Chief Matagha.
LORETTA ROBERGE: He was a great person because he
always tried to keep the tribe together. He was the one who tried to keep the
wigwams and the powwows going, which was a dying tradition.
And then I knew Cortland Fowler, who was the next
chief. He was absolutely wonderful. He had a very, very kind gentle way about
him.
And I forgot -- Harold Tantaquidgeon was there too
before Cortland. And he was, too, because he was so involved in all the
activities with children and making sure that nothing was ever lost.
So I have a great deal of respect for all of them,
for that they’ve done.
And then the last one we had, and we still have, is
Ralph Sturges. And he was one of the main forces for us getting federally
recognized. He worked extremely hard.
NARRATOR:
On March 7th, 1994, the Mohegan Tribe of Montville received official federal
recognition.
RALPH
STURGES (Lifetime Chief, Mohegan Tribe): When we got recognition, the one
thing I told the people in that tribe is there’s three words that they got to
remember: They’ve got to have perseverance, honor and integrity. They’ve gotta
have that. That’s three things that Uncas actually stood for. And those are
three words that it’s very simple for any human being to live by. But you’ve
got to do it. You can’t get carried away with money and crazy things. They
gotta remember what they stand for and what they should be trying to develop,
you know?
I’m
not saying that everybody does it but they should. They should remember what
their forefathers said.
LIVING ON MOHEGAN HILL
NARRATOR:
Many descendants of Uncas have continued to live in their hometown of Montville
and its village of Uncasville, coexisting for more than 350 years with their
non-Indian neighbors.
LORETTA ROBERGE: Everything around us, if you
notice, in this town is named after Uncas.
We call this the Village of Uncas, Uncasville. Our school is named after the Mohegans and if you look around and
drive through town you’ll see all our streets and so forth are named after him.
CARLTON
EICHELBERG: We didn’t have reservations then. And so, therefore, we weren’t
reservation Indians and we were able to meld with the people because we lived
in houses and lived on streets ordinarily just like everybody else.
ERNEST GILMAN: Everybody knew who we were. And
because of our reputation, particularly living on Mohegan Hill, we were well
thought of. I don’t ever remember hearing of any derogatory remark about
Indians from anyone. That was great.
NARRATOR: One reason for the continued
friendly relations between Mohegans and townspeople is the Tantaquidgeon
Museum, the country’s oldest Indian-owned-and-operated museum. Since it was built in 1931, thousands of Montville
schoolchildren have come to learn the Mohegan story.
GERTRUDE MINSON (Retired Teacher, Uncasville Resident): We met outdoors in a council ring with Chief Harold Tantaquidgeon.
Harold and his father, I think, built the museum. When we went out on a field
trip, we’d meet out under one of the trees there in the yard and Chief would
talk to us and they could ask some questions.
Then later we’d go into the museum itself and
Miss Gladys Tantaquidgeon. And she had her talking stick. And if the stick was
up, we were to be quiet. And she was very good and she told the children many
things about the objects in the museum. The boys and girls got an appreciation
as to what the Indian life was like way back.
NARRATOR: In Norwich, the Leffingwell Inn
Museum has been a part of town history since the start of English settlement.
ANN CANNON (Leffingwell Inn): It was owned
by Thomas Leffingwell in the late 1600s, the time of Uncas. He had a license
for a public house, which is what this building was used for originally. Public
meetings like town meetings were held here.
NARRATOR: In 1996 the owners of the
Leffingwell Inn decided to turn a treasured antique into a contemporary symbol
of friendship.
ANN CANNON: For many years, we displayed in
the tavern room Uncas’s succotash bowl, which was approximately
eight-inches-long oval and it had two carved wolves’ heads on the end. When we
gave the bowl to the tribe, it was completing a circle of friendship that had
begun with Thomas Leffingwell over 300 years ago.
NARRATOR:
Montville business owner Johnny London reflects the view of many area
residents.
JOHNNY
LONDON (Owner, Native American Traders, Norwich
Resident): He is very much a hero
to me -- very much. People will say to me, “ah, yeah, you like Uncas. Well, what
do you know about him?” And I love to take my wallet out and I have a picture I
carry all the time of Uncas. I have it laminated and then after a while they
go, “oh my God, are you ever gonna shut up?”
He
was a great leader for his people and it bears the same fruit today -- the
connection with the Mohegans and the community is just as strong. That’s
exactly what he wanted.
JAYNE FAWCETT: I think the big lesson that we
would derive from Uncas’s life is that new situations require new solutions. We
tend to have the prejudices and the same ideas that our parents had, and it
takes a huge intellectual and cultural leap to think of something in a unique
and totally different way.
JOE BRUCHAC: You could really say that Uncas set
the standard in many ways, both in terms of maintaining native sovereignty, in
terms of relationships between white and European, and a relationship that was
positive for native people. And also in terms of keeping his word, making a
promise and honoring that promise throughout the generations
DAVID LEFF: Uncas certainly deserves much honor. He
was a great leader. There is much to be learned from his cooperative approach
to dealing with problems. I think probably today we’re too confrontational. And
I think the lesson, the great lesson, for all of us that Uncas has is that much
can be accomplished by cooperation and working together in friendship.
A TIME FOR HEALING
NARRATOR: In 1999, the state of Connecticut
helped to negotiate the return to the Mohegan Tribe of their Royal Burial
Grounds, including a former Masonic Temple built over much of the site.