Happy Eeyawquittoowauconnuck Day, family!

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brotherton, Brothertown, Brothertown Indians, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, New York Indians, Samson Occom

237 years ago today, on another Monday, November 7, 1785, Reverend Samson Occom recorded our public formation and naming.

But now we proceeded to form into a Body Politick,— We Named our Town by the Name of Brotherton, in Indian Eeyawquittoowauconnuck— J: Fowler was chosen clerk for this town Roger Waupieh, David Fowler, Elijah Wympy, John Tuhy, and Abraham Simon were Chosen a Committee or trustees for the Town, for a Year and for the future, the Committee is to be Chosen Annually,— and Andrew Acorrocomb, and Thomas Putchauker were chosen to be Fence Viewers to Continue a Year (https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/diplomatic/785554-diplomatic.html p15v-16r)

While Occom is always readily remembered, today, let’s also be mindful of Roger Wauby, Elijah Wampey, John Tuhi, Abraham Simon, Andrew Curricomb, Thomas Patchauker, their wives and families, and all of our many courageous ancestors who worked hard to make the Brotherton dream a reality.

Planning and building Brothertown was an arduous task (read Joseph Johnson’s diaries for more details—-To Do Good to my Indian Brethren by Laura Murray) and many many more people were involved in the years between the first multi-tribal planning meeting on March 13, 1773 and our official formation on November 7, 1785. Over 12 years, the Revolutionary War, and several lives came and went, including the spark who began it all—Joseph Johnson (see his letter to Governor Trumbull in Murray, p 234).

The original wave of settlers were burned out of the community in 1777. Many moved to Stockbridge to wait out the war. Between 1783-1785, when some semblance of safety and normalcy had returned, they again made the long, expensive journey back to our reservation land (thank you, Oneida!) where they started over for a 2nd time. These ancestors included, besides those already named, “old Uncle Cornelius”, Daniel Mossuck, John and Sarah Adams, Samuel and Hannah (Squamp) Adams, David Tousey family, James and Barbara (Poquiantup) Niles, and many others.

Today, let us also remember all of those, over the years, who have devoted themselves to our tribe and have passed on. This is but a small sample—Irene Shady and her daughter, Linda Shady (who passed only a couple weeks ago), Lani Bartelt, June Ezold, Will and Rudi Ottery, Joan and Frank Waldvogel, Mark Baldwin, and Dick Welch.

Finally, let us also remember those who continue to carry the Brothertown torch each and every day—our Peacemakers, Council, volunteers, and citizens all across the US and around the world. Taubotni!

Happy Eeyawquittoowauconnuck (Brothertown) Day!!

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Eeyawquittoowauconnuck Day

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brotherton, Brothertown, Brothertown Indians, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, november 7 1785

Wisconsin’s Governor Evers has declared this Saturday, November 7th, Eeyamquittoowauconnuck/Brothertown Day in the state of Wisconsin!  This coincides, of course, with the tribe’s annual celebration of this date which, according to the Reverend Samson Occom’s journal, is the day on which our Brothertown ancestors gathered into a “body politick” in New York and christened themselves “Brotherton, in Indian Eeyawquittoowauconnuck.” 

You (Brothertown descendant or not) are invited to join us in our virtual celebration this Saturday, November 7th.  We will begin at 6:30pm Central with a welcome from our Tribal Council and a reading of the proclamation followed by a presentation from Andrew Olson on the Brothertown Indians involved in Indiana’s St Mary’s Treaties.  Please contact me for login information.

Hope to see you there!

Happy Anniversary, Brothertown!

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Anniversary, brotherton, Brothertown, Brothertown Indians, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, Mohegan, New York Indians

245 years ago today, March 13, 1773, our ancestors gathered in Mohegan for the first planning meeting for the community that would eventually become Brothertown. Happy Anniversary, Brothertown!

Joseph Johnson Presentation This Sunday

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brotherton, Brothertown, Brothertown Indians, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, founding, Johnson, Joseph Johnson, Laura Murray, Native American, New York Indians

This Sunday, March 4th at 6:00pm CT/7:00 ET, Ms. Laura Murray, author of To Do Good to My Indian Brethren, will be speaking to us about her research and book on Joseph Johnson, the youngest of our Brothertown founding fathers. Not only is this a unique opportunity to gain insight and to speak with a knowledgeable researcher and author on Joseph Johnson, but it is also a great opportunity to connect with your Brothertown family no matter where you live. Don’t miss out!

To log in, please go to https://zoom.us/j/2529226987 or dial +1 646 876 9923 and enter the Meeting ID: 252 922 6987.

This is a family-friendly event and is open to the public. See you there!

2018 Upcoming Brothertown Events

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brotherton, Brothertown Indians, brothertown new york, cemetery project, donate, Joseph Johnson, Samson Occom

Sunday, February 25^th at 6:30pm CT/7:30 ET, Brothertown Forward will be hosting an online community discussion on the Thomas Commuck shape note singing event held at Yale on February 3rd.   This event is open to everyone; whether you attended and would like to discuss your experience there or would simply like to hear how it went.  To log in, please go to https://zoom.us/j/2529226987 or dial +1 646 876 9923 and enter the Meeting ID: 252 922 6987.

For a sneak peek of the day itself, please see https://youtu.be/h42vaBNZLUo.

Sunday March 4^th at 6:00pm CT/7:00 ET, Ms. Laura Murray, author of To Do Good to My Indian Brethren, will be speaking to us about her research and book on Joseph Johnson, the youngest of our Brothertown founders.  The log in information for this discussion is the same as the one above.

Saturday June 2^nd, we will be meeting in “Old Brothertown” New York to perform annual cleaning and maintenance at our Brothertown cemeteries.  In addition to overgrowth and the accumulation of trash, normal yearly rainfall causes dirt to run over onto the slabs where grass and weeds quickly begin to grow. Without yearly maintenance, the graves of our ancestors not only fall into ruin and decay but run the risk of being lost to us forever.  Please consider donating one weekend every year, or even every few years, to go to New York and fulfill your duties to those who have walked ahead.  We are working on putting carpools together as well as trying to obtain sponsorship to defray the cost of lodging, eating, and other travel-related expenses.  If you would like to donate your time but travel costs are prohibitive; if you are willing to drive or looking to carpool; if you can’t attend but would like to make a donation; or if you’d simply like to be put on a contact list for future trips, please contact me at brothertown citizen at aol.com.

For a calendar listing additional Brothertown-related dates, please see the Tribe’s website at BrothertownIndians.org.

“What’s In A Name?” Part V: Brotherton: Something Old, Something [They] Knew

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Brad Jarvis, brotherton, Brothertown, Brothertown Indians, brothertown new york, Craig Cipolla

Just as it is difficult to know with 100% certainty exactly how Occom and our ancestors pronounced and defined “Eeyawquittoowauconnuck”, so too, it is difficult to know exactly why they named their town “Brotherton” or precisely what that name reflected for them.   However, by looking at the writings of our founders and viewing other communities and documents from the same area and time period, modern day scholars have made some well-educated guesses as to where the name Brothertown came from, what it may have meant to our Tribal Founders, and how it was used throughout our time in New York.

On Dartmouth’s Occom Circle site, it states, “They named the land Brothertown to both reflect their intention to live with fellow tribes as brothers and also to pay tribute to Brotherton, a Delaware Indian reservation in New Jersey that served as an inspiration for the Christian Indian Settlement (1).”  That Occom knew about this community is likely.  That the Brotherton Indians of New Jersey moved to Oneida lands in New York in the early 1800’s is unquestionable(2).  However, any substantiation to the claim that Occom’s Brotherton was named in tribute to this community has proven elusive thus far.   Many scholars have looked elsewhere for explanations on the origins of the name “Brothertown”.

Author Brad Jarvis sees the choice of the name “Brothertown” as a reflection of how our founders viewed their new community.  “Symbolic of the proposed internal cohesion of the town’s new name, the residents, “concluded to live in peace, and in friendship and to go on in all [their] public concerns in harmony; both in religious and temporal concerns, and every one to bear his part of Public Charges in the Town (3).”  Jarvis offers another glimpse of how the early Brothertown people saw their community, as well as the boundaries and racism they experienced outside of it, through a 1795 interview conducted by some Quaker ministers.  An unidentified Brotherton man told them that he, “hoped the partition wall that divided nations would be broken down, bigotry and prejudice done away, and all mankind come to live more like brothers.”  “Such language,” Jarvis comments, “reflected the founding principles of Brothertown-a community defined by Christian brotherhood, kinship, and mutual partnership (p 149) (4).”

In his book, Becoming Brothertown:  Native American Ethnogenesis and Endurance in the Modern World, Craig Cipolla describes Occom’s view of Brothertown as being “a community linked by shared religious views and approaches to the politics of colonial North America (p 53).”  He points out that the name “Brothertown” accomplished two important things:  1) It was relatable both to Natives, where “brother” or “brethren” denoted Native kinship, and to Euro-Americans who saw it in terms of Christian brotherhood.  2) The name also gave our ancestors a commonality.  They were no longer, “Narragansett, Mohegan, Montauk, etc, but were now “Brotherton”(p64ff).   In this book, Cipolla also looks at usage of the term ‘Brothertown” in the 18^th and 19^th centuries and compares how it was viewed by Euro-Americans as opposed to the Brotherton themselves.  In short, Euro-Americans tended to place more emphasis on Brothertown being a location or a “town” while the Brotherton people used the name to “mark shared ethnic and racial identities (p63)”.

While there may be differing theories as to where the idea for the name of Brothertown originated and what exactly it may have meant to our founders, there is little doubt of the hopes that this new community held for its people.  As they themselves have said across multiple decades, Brothertown was meant to be a shining example of peace, friendship and harmony; a place where bigotry, prejudice and walls of division would no longer exist and where we all would live like brothers.

~to be continued.

(1) http://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/ctx/placeography/placeography.html?ographyID=place0023.ocp

(2) https://brothertowncitizen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/bartholomew-scott-calvin-article-by-caroline-k-andler.pdf)

(3)Jarvis, Brad. The Brothertown Nation of Indians, p 115.

(4) Ibid, p 119

Note: If you are interested in exploring how the name “Brothertown” has changed in usage and meaning over the years, please see Craig Cipolla’s book, Becoming Brothertown:  Native American Ethnogenesis and Endurance in the Modern World, chapter 4.

“What’s In A Name?” Part IV: Happy Eeyawquittoowauconnuck Day!

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brotherton, Brothertown, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, native american tribes of new york, native american tribes of wisconsin, New York Indians, november 7 1785, Samson Occom

Today, November 7, 2017, marks the 232^nd anniversary of the “incorporation” and naming of Brothertown.  On Monday November 7, 1785, Occom noted in his journal that, “we named our town by the name of Brotherton, in Indian Eeyawquittoowauconnuck.”  By virtue of the fact that Occom included this “Indian” name in his journal, we can make the assumption that this detail was important.  However, while we know that Eeyawquittoowauconnuck means “Brotherton”, ideas vary a bit on exactly how Eeyawquittoowauconnuck would be translated.

In his book, Becoming Brothertown:  Native American Ethnogenesis and Endurance in the Modern World, Craig Cipolla makes the claim that Eeyawquittowauconnuck means “town or plantation of equals or brothers,” or “many eat from one dish” (p95).  In The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan, Joanna Brooks quotes Stephanie Fielding (great great great niece of Mohegan linguist Fidelia Fielding*) who “believes that [it] translates as “he does so like someone looking in a certain direction or a certain way.”  Phrased differently, this meaning might indicate a group united by a distinctive shared perspective” (p 25, footnote).

While the proffered translations may not be exact and are each a little different, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck reflected the desire of its founders that it be a distinct place where inhabitants with a common vantage point were bonded to one another within a caring community.

…..to be continued.

* ling.yale.edu/news/Stephanie-fielding-interviewed-wnpr

What’s In A Name Part III: “The E-Word”

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BIN, brotherton, Brothertown, Brothertown Indians, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, New York Indians, Samson Occom

“The E-word”

Daunted by its 22 letters and 7 syllables, some people simply refer to it as “the E-word”.   However, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck is not just a word; it is a name.  It is our name; one that holds meaning and value for us as a People.  For those who are not already comfortable using it, it is well worth taking a few minutes to become more familiar with “Eeyawquittoowauconnuck”*.

For the sake of ease, let’s start by dividing Eeyawquittoowauconnuck into 7 manageable syllables.  They look like this:

• Ee
• Yaw
• quit
• too
• wau
• con
• nuck

Now, lets pronounce them*.  Try saying these out loud:

“Ee” (pronounced just like it looks…like the long sound of the letter “e” as in “me”)–Ee

“Yaw” (rhyme it with “paw”)–Yaw

Next, put those 2 together:  “Ee”+“Yaw”= “Eeyaw”.

Say it out loud so your tongue and ears get used to it.

Next, is

“quit”(pronounce it with a long “ee” sound in the middle so it rhymes with “tweet”)—quit

“too”(also like the English word too)—too

Now put them together and say them out loud.  “quit”+”too”=“quittoo”.

Let’s go back and pick up the first part and pair it with this:  “Eeyaw” + “quittoo”=“Eeyawquittoo”

Good job, we’re almost done!

The next 3 syllables are:

“wau” (rhyme it with “la”)—wau

“con” (like the English word con)—con

“nuck” (rhymes with truck)—nuck

Now, put those 3 together:  “wau”+”con”+”nuck”=“wauconnuck”.  Say it again, “wauconnuck”.

Finally, lets put the entire word back together: “Eeyawquittoo”+”wauconnuck”=”Eeyawquittoowauconnuck”. 

Congratulations, you did it!  Now keep using it.  Try it out at the next Brothertown gathering, teach it to your kids, greet one another with it.  Eeyawquittoowauconnuck is who we are.  Say it often and say it proudly: Eeyawquittoowauconnuck!

UPDATE WITH AUDIO:

*It should be noted that the above pronunciation of “Eeyawquittoowauconnuck” is based on the author’s personal estimation of Occom’s spelling of the word as found in his journal entry of November 7, 1785.  Occom had a strong grasp of the phonetic sounds of English letters and wrote the name accordingly.  The author acknowledges that there is, however, some room for variation.  For example, the double o’s in the 4^th syllable, “too,” suggest that Occom heard it as either the “oo” sound as in “too”(as presented here) or possibly, the “Uh” sound as in “book”.   Mohegan linquist, Stephanie Fielding, suggests that Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, in Mohegan orthography today, might be spelled “Iyáhqituwôkanuk”(1).  Using the Mohegan pronunciation guide(2), as found in Fielding’s work at http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/collections/MoheganDictionary.pdf, the pronunciation of this 4th syllable (“too”/”tu”), might change the sound into “uh” as in “pup”.

• Brooks, Joanna. The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan. p25, Footnote 28.
• Fielding, Stephanie. A Modern Mohegan Dictionary, 2006, pp 9-10.

On This Date in Brothertown History: October 4th, 1774

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brotherton, Brothertown, Brothertown Historical Documents, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, Guy Johnson, Native American, New York Indians, Oneida land, Sir William Johnson

243 years ago, on October 4^th, 1774, the land contract between the Oneida and the “New England Indians” was drawn up and signed.  Officiating was Guy Johnson, who had recently succeeded his late uncle, Sir William Johnson, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern portion of North America.  A copy of this document is transcribed below.  To see the copy this was taken from, as well as many other Brothertown-related New York documents, please visit the “Brothertown, New York” section of the Digital Historical Library on this site*.

By Guy Johnson Esquire, Superintendant of Indian affairs for the Northern Department of North America, &c, &c.

Whereas the Indians of Mohegan Narragansett, Montock Pequots of Groton and Stoneington, Nahantic, Farmington, inhabiting within the New England Governments, did last year represent that they were very much straightened and reduced to such small pittances of land that they could no longer remain there and did through the channel of Sir William Johnson Bar & late superintendent apply to the Six Nations for some lands to live on which was at length agreed to in my presence at the last Treaty and a Tract allowed them by the Oneidas and whereas some of them have since in company with the Oneida chiefs, viewed the said lands and determined on its boundaries as follows desireing a certificate of the same as that it might be entered on the records of Indian affairs Viz.  Beginning at the west end of the scaniadaries or the long lakes which is at the head of one of the branches of Orisca Creek from thence about twelve miles northerly or so far that an easterly course from a certain point on the first mentioned course shall intersect the road or pathway leading crom old Oneida to the German flats, where the said path crosses Scanindowa Creek the line settled as the limits between the province of New York and the Indian at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, thence Southerly along the said line about thirteen miles or so far that a westerly line from thence keeping one line south of the most Southerly bend of Orisca Creek shall reach the place of beginning do as to comprehend(??) the lake first mentioned. 

 I do therefore in compliance with the joint request of the said Oneida and the  said New England Indians declare that the said Oneidas do grant to the said New England Indians and their posterity forever, without power of alienation to any subject the afore described tract with this appernenancies in the amplest manner-also full liberty of hunting all sorts of game throughout the whole country of Oneidas beaver hunting only excepted, with this particular clause or reservation that the same shall not be possessed by any persons deemed of the said Tribes, who are decended from or intermixed with Negroes or Mulattoes**.

Even under my hand and seal at Arms at Guy Park- October the 4^th 1774

                                (Signed) Guy Johnson (and his seal)           

We the chiefs in testimony of the foregoing affix the character of our Tribes unto the day and year above mentioned,

 The Mark of Longhqish(turtle)  The mark of Ughmyonge (wolf)  The mark of Canadegona (bear)

 

*A special thank you to the Hamilton College Library staff for their assistance in providing this, and numerous other Brothertown-related digital documents.

** The exclusion of “Negroes and Mulattoes” from Indian lands was a legal requirement implemented by the Colonies in an effort to quell the possibility of concentrated slave uprisings (1).

(1) Stone, Gaynell.  The History & Archaeology of the Montauk Volume III 2nd Edition, 1993, p. 520

“What’s In A Name?”

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brotherton, Brothertown, brothertown new york, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, occom, Otto heller

 

Part II:  Eeyawquittoowauconnuck

Because of its length and the challenge of reading the original script, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck is commonly spelled several different ways.  For example, on page 536 of The History & Archaeology of the Montauk Volume III, 2^nd edition, contributor Russell T Blackwood (a Professor at Hamilton College near old Brothertown in New York) quotes the famous Occom journal entry of November 7, 1785 thus: “…we named our town by the name of Brotherton, in Indian Eeyamguittoowauconnuck.”  Here, an “m” and a “g” are used.  However, it is most common to see the following two spellings:  “Eeyawquittoowauconnuck” or “Eeyamquittoowauconnuck”.

 

Figure 1*: Otto Heller Folder

Otto Heller, the man responsible for gathering the items now found in “The Brothertown Collection”, preferred the latter spelling.  Heller spent a lot of time and money researching and collecting Brothertown knowledge, books, and artifacts.  It is not known for certain, but is very probable that he visited Dartmouth College and read Samson Occom’s journal for himself.  According to Heller, the Indian name of Brotherton appeared to be “Eeyamquittoowauconnuck”(see Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 2*: Otto Heller’s handwritten copy of Occom’s November 7, 1785 journal entry

 

Another person who used an “m” in the name, and perhaps where others have gotten their spelling, is William DeLoss Love in his 1899 book, Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England (https://archive.org/details/samsonoccomchris00love).

Eeyamquittoowauconnuck is probably the most commonly seen spelling of the name although there are plenty who use a “w” instead of an “m”.  For example, in the Joanna Brooks book, The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan, and in Craig Cipolla’s writings, “Eeyawquittoowauconnuck” is used.  This is also how it is transcribed at Dartmouth’s Occom Circle site (https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/diplomatic/785554-diplomatic.html).

Thanks to the Circle site, we are able to see a high quality scan of Occom’s journal for ourselves.  Let’s take a closer look.

 

Figure 3: Closeup of Occom’s November 7, 1785 journal entry

In Figure 3 above, beneath the underlined “Brotherton”, you can see the first 13 letters of the Indian name.  The 5^th one could appear to be an “m” or  it may look like a “w”.  Let’s zoom out and look again.

 

Figure 4

Find the name in Figure 4 and look at the “w” after the double o’s midway into “Eeyawquittoowauconnuck”(directly beneath the “n” in “Brotherton”).  Notice that it ends in an upswing which points a bit back toward the left.  Now, look at the letter in question, the 5th letter.  It also hooks back to the left in exactly the same way.

Next, look at the ending letter “m” in the word “form” (middle of the 2^nd line from the top) and, at the very bottom of the page, the name “Abraham”.  Both “m’s” end with a rightward slant.  Occom’s “m’s” slant right while his “w’s” hook back to the left.   Judging by the formation of the “m’s” and “w’s” in this sample alone, it seems pretty certain that the original Indian name for Brotherton does not include any “m’s”.  It appears that Occom wrote it as “Eeyawquittoowauconnuck”.

…..to be continued

*The photos in Figures 1 & 2 were taken by Gabriel Kastelle.

Figures 3 & 4 came from the Dartmouth College Occom Circle site.