“What’s In A Name?”

Tags

brotherton, Brothertown, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, Farmington, founding, Johnson, New York Indians, occom, Oneida, Sir William Johnson, Wimpey

 

Part I: An Introduction to Brothertown

While it may be tempting to believe that our Brothertown ancestors, with their agricultural lifestyle, European clothing, Colonial homes, and English speech, were doing everything they could to leave their “Indianness” behind them, that would be an erroneous notion.  On the contrary, preserving their race and heritage was extremely important to the Brothertown founders.  There are a number of examples one could offer as proofs of this but none so starkly evident as that line from Occom’s journal entry of November 7, 1785, which reads, “We named our town by the name of Brotherton; in Indian Eeyawquittoowauconnuck (emphasis added)(1).”

The formation of this town was not undertaken lightly.  Plans began at least as far back as March 13, 1773, when members of seven Native communities met in Mohegan (2).  Long trips were taken on foot through the snow(3), letters were written(4), Oneida headmen and local leaders like William Johnson(5), the area’s British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, were consulted.  A “Colony Law Book” was obtained (6), a layout of the new town was drawn up, and agreements were made on how the town would be run and who would oversee certain positions (7).  Primarily due to the American Revolution, nearly 15 years passed between that first meeting in Mohegan and the day they finally “formed into a body politick” on their new land.  This was a well-planned and long-sought-after venture.  The name they gave to their town could not have been bestowed lightly either; it too was well considered.

…..to be continued

 

(1)Occom, Samson. Journal entry November 7, 1785.

(2)Murray, Linda. To Do Good to My Indian Brethren: The Writings of Joseph Johnson, 1751-1776, p 207.

(3) Hutchins Report, https://www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/motf/brothertownone%5B1%5D.pdf,p.24.

(4) Ibid p23ff.

(5) Ibid

(6)Wimpey, Elijah. Letter to the House of Representatives of the Colony of Connecticut, May 25, 1774. Available online through the Yale Indian Papers Project.

(7)Occom, Samson. Journal entry of November 7, 1785

 

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Updates

Photo credit: Thank you to Gabriel Kastelle for taking this picture in August at the Mohegan museum.

 

~Peacemaker Renee Gralewicz gave a Zoom presentation on The Brothertown Collection on the 27^th of August.  Among other things, the talk included background information on how the Collection was obtained, an index of some of the contents, and several scans of letters written by Brothertons who served during the Civil War.  A recording of this presentation should be available soon.  Please contact BrothertownForward@gmail.com for further information.

~Also via Zoom AND in person at the BINCC, Craig Cottrell will be doing a talk on our Brothertown Constitution September 16^th immediately following the Council meeting that day (approximately 1:30pm CT).  All Brothertons are welcome to attend.  Please contact Brothertown Forward (BrothertownForward@gmail.com) for login information.

~The deadline for submitting articles or member news for the next quarterly report is October 10^th.  Please have everything in to Seth Elsen (SethElsen@gmail.com) by that date.  If you did not receive the summer edition this past July, please contact the office to update your email address.  If you normally receive your newsletter via the US Post Office, you did not receive the summer issue.  The editor very recently learned that there was a problem in the relay to the printer and the last edition was never printed.   He hopes to avoid similar problems and delays by working more directly with the printer in the future.

~Mark your calendars for Brothertown Homecoming October 21^st.

~The next trip to “old Brothertown” in New York for cemetery clean up is scheduled for the first weekend in November (Nov. 3-5).  Current plans are to arrive at the local hotel Friday evening, go out to the cemeteries Saturday morning and then spend some portion of the afternoon with local historical society members and do some sightseeing.  A trip to nearby Hamilton College may also be in the works.  If you’d like to participate, please contact me at BrothertownCitizen@aol.com.

~Finally, I am pleased to report that a number of the Samson Occom doll display sets have found homes.  If you’d like to visit one, they can be found at the Mohegan Tribal museum in CT, Amherst College in Massachusetts, Marshall Historical Society in New York, and soon, in Wisconsin at the Brothertown Museum and at the Wisconsin Historical Society.   Additionally, an Occom travel set will be auctioned off at the Tribal Homecoming on October 21^st.   I still have a few doll sets available for sale.  If you are interested in one of them, please let me know.