Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/437

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The Green Bag.

great losses, retired more or less directly to the St. Francis river, in Canada, north of the present State of New Hampshire. Farther and farther northward, toward the same region, followed the main portion of the Sokokis and Pequakets, from the Saco and Piscataqua rivers, and the eastern slopes of the White Mountains. The Pennacooks, also, from the Merrimack river, mostly went northward; though some, prob ably, went westward with the northern Nipmucks,—being territorially intermingled with that tribe. The latter occupied the central portion of Massachusetts. Some joined the Wampanoags, their neighbors and allies at the south east. The Mohegans occupied most of the region west of the Connecticut river toward the Hudson, and northward to the sources of the Housatonic. The Indians dwelling on the latter river embraced Christianity, and more and more flocked by themselves. Between the years of 1735 and 1737 their missionaries (of the Puritan church) induced them to remove from their former villages, on the lower part of the river, to the fertile meadows in the present town of Stockbridge, in Berkshire county. Both Dutch and Eng lish had already taken up lands in the local ity; but the Bay colony purchased their rights, so as to have a clear field for the Christianized red men. What cause of dissatisfaction subsequently arose is not now apparent; but shortly before our Revolutionary War the Oneidas, who possessed the territory about Oneida lake, in New York, offered the Stockbridge In dians a large tract of their land free, if they would remove there. The Oneidas were prompted to this offer by their gratitude for assistance given by the Mohegans, in a war with some western Indians. Because of the war between England and the colonies, the removal was only partial until 1785. In 1792 these emigrants, together with the Oneidas and others of the "Six Nations," who had adhered to the American cause, were invited by General Washington to visit

Congress. In due time the delegates ap peared in Philadelphia, when Congress voted the tribes represented an annuity of fifteen hundred dollars. Several years after the few early skir mishes of the Plymouth colonists with the neighboring Indians, there occurred the greater and more sanguinary conflict with the Pequots, whose principal seat was on the Thames river, in eastern Connecticut. The offence of these Indians against the English was chiefly the robbery and murder of traders. The tribe was almost annihilated by the united forces of the English and Mo hegans. The remnant, by agreement of the latter tribe and the Narragansetts with the Colony government at Hartford, in 1638, were distributed between these two tribes; and by these parties in convention it was pronounced that this condemned tribe should "nevermore inhabit their native country," nor "be called Pequots." While the Narragansetts occupied the ter ritory of Rhode Island west of Narragansett bay and Providence river, the Wampanoags possessed all the country eastward of the bay to the sea on the east and south, and as far northwestward as the Massachusetts and Nipmucks. This was the powerful nation over which ruled the wise and able Massasoit, always friendly to the English, and between whom and Governor John Winthrop existed a strong friendship. When this chieftain died, and his son, Alexander—who first succeeded him—re signed his authority to his brother Philip, the tribe fell under evil influences. The result was the destructive conflict that ex tended not only about the Plymouth and Bay colonies, but endangered the New Haven colony; and, involving the tribes in Maine, brought destruction upon most of the English plantations there. The Narragan setts became so entangled with their tribal neighbor that they, too, were drawn into the war; the result being the breaking of the power of both. From this time, these tribes with all others in the three southern States