48 James D. Folts
CHAPTER 4 THE MOHICAN PRESENCE ON THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER IN NEW YORK Shirley W. Dunn (2001) In the eighteenth century, attracted by promises of land for new homes and by opportunities to be paid for fighting in wars against Canada, some <strong>Mohican</strong>s settled along the Susquehanna River in <strong>New</strong> <strong>York</strong> within the territory of their former enemies, the Iroquois. This chapter explores some of these locations and the willingness of the former enemies to associate with each other. MOHICANS AND MOHAWKS ONCE ENEMIES Before the arrival of Europeans, the <strong>Mohican</strong>s and their Iroquois neighbors to the west would not tolerate each other. When Henry Hudson came into <strong>Mohican</strong> territory in the Hudson Valley in 1609, the <strong>Mohican</strong>s and the Mohawks, the easternmost of the Iroquois, were at a standoff. <strong>The</strong> enmity between the <strong>Mohican</strong>s and the Mohawks was noted by early Dutch traders and news-gatherers. Many years later, eighteenth-century <strong>Mohican</strong>s told Moravian missionaries about the old ill-will between the two nations. In addition, Hendrick Aupaumut, a literate <strong>Mohican</strong>, in the 1790s recalled how at a time “near 200 years ago” the <strong>Mohican</strong>s rescued the Shawanese, fellow Algonquian-speaking Indians, from the Five Nations (Heckewelder 1876:60; Aupaumut 1827:77; Dunn 2000:290). After the arrival of the Dutch, the hostility continued. However, an agreement was made between the <strong>Mohican</strong>s, the Dutch traders, and the Mohawks that the Mohawks could come across <strong>Mohican</strong> territory to trade with the Dutch. When the Mohawks took liberties with the permission to come for trade, war broke out between the two nations. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Mohican</strong>s erected a fort opposite Fort Orange. In 1626 <strong>Mohican</strong>s enlisted the Dutch commander of Fort Orange in a foray against the Mohawks, thinking Dutch guns were invincible, but the Mohawks overwhelmed the little force (Jameson 1967:84-85). After another defeat in 1628, the <strong>Mohican</strong>s capitulated in 1629. <strong>The</strong>y lost some of their land to the Mohawks, were forced to pay annual tribute to them, and were called to fight beside them (Dunn 1994:79-82, 96-112). <strong>The</strong>se defeats may have been, at least in part, a consequence of a dramatic reduction in the <strong>Mohican</strong> population, due not only to the wars with the Mohawks but also to diseases brought by Europeans. <strong>The</strong> suppressed <strong>Mohican</strong> anger towards the Mohawks surfaced during a major Indian war of the 1660s, when the <strong>Mohican</strong>s joined <strong>New</strong> England Indians in attacks against Mohawk villages. After this war ended in 1671, the two sides remained wary, each <strong>Mohican</strong> <strong>Seminar</strong> 2, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Challenge</strong>–An Algonquian Peoples <strong>Seminar</strong>, edited by Shirley W. Dunn. <strong>New</strong> <strong>York</strong> <strong>State</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> Bulletin 506. © 2005 by the University of the <strong>State</strong> of <strong>New</strong> <strong>York</strong>, <strong>New</strong> <strong>York</strong> <strong>State</strong> Education Department, Albany, <strong>New</strong> <strong>York</strong>. All rights reserved. Chapter 4 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Mohican</strong> Presence on the Susquehanna River in <strong>New</strong> <strong>York</strong> 49
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Mohican Seminar 2
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Mohican Seminar 2 The Challenge—A
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© The New York State Education Dep
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CHAPTER 8 NEW YORK STATE’S MOHICA
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along the upper Susquehanna River.
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oth located in sight of Diamond Roc
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ning and bloodthirsty, a man who le
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ists of the period, producing eight
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their former white neighbors. Excep
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is a “legendary” Mohican prince
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Figure 8.6. The Prospering is a car
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Figure 8.7. Song of the Mohicans (1
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and other Indian nations is also de
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CONTRIBUTORS Timothy Binzen: An arc