The Mohican Tribe

The Mohican Tribe, also known as Mahican, is a band of American Indians currently based around Wisconsin. The tribe originally settled in the Hudson River Valley, spanning an area that today includesparts of Vermont, Connecticut, and upstate New York. Mohicans speak an American Indian language called Algonquin.
Before the arrival of white settlers, the Mohican tribe were hunter-gatherers. Theylived in a richly wooded and wild area populated with otters, deer, black bears, wild turkeys, pheasants, oysters, and fish. Men hunted for meat and fish, and women gathered wild rice, berries, andnuts. Women also smoked meat and fish to store and tended to gardens. During the long, cold winters, Mohicans told stories, made clay pots, and repaired their tools to prepare for spring.
The Mohicantribe first made contact with European settlers in 1609, when a Dutchman named Henry Hudson began exploring what would become known as the Hudson River. Hudson was intrigued by the Mohican's supply ofbeautiful furs. Word of the Mohican tribe's riches spread, and Dutch merchants established a trading post in the area in 1614. Thus began an infiltration of European culture that slowly eroded thetraditional practices of the Mohican tribe.
Mohicans sold their furs for beads, tools, and guns. They stopped making traditional crafts. English merchants replaced Dutch traders, and began buildingfences and demarcating property lines in what had been open wilderness. Europeans also brought devastating diseases; hundreds of thousands of Native Americans succumbed to smallpox, measles, and scarletfever.
In 1738, a missionary named John Sergeant started a village named Stockbridge in the Mohican lands. He converted many Mohicans to Christianity. Mohican beliefs and customs continued to bereplaced by European ones.
When the Revolutionary War broke out, the Mohicans agreed to fight for the colonists. The war brought them nothing but trouble, however, as fighting slowly encroached on their...