A Selection From The Thursday, December 17, 1772 Diary Of Joseph Johnson (Mohegan/Brothertown)

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Brothertown Historical Documents, Brothertown Indians, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, Founders, Johnson, Joseph Johnson, Journal, Laura Murray, Mohegan

Taken from the Laura Murray book, To Do Good To My Indian Brethren

Some punctuation and spacing added

Well I remember home
O Mohegan O Mohegan
The time is long before I shall be walking
my wonted places which are on thee
Once there I was
but perhaps never again
but still I remember thee

In you is lodged my father and mother dear
and my beloved sisters and brothers
Keep them in thy womb Mohegan
til thou dost hear the voice of God
“O Mohegan give up thy dead”
then no longer prisoners
shall they be unto thee

The joyful hour is approaching
My soul, come meditate the day
and think how near it stands
when you must leave this house of clay
and fly to unknown lands
Hast my beloved fetch my soul up to thy Blest abode
fly for my spirit longs to see my Savior and my God

Mohegan is a lonesome place
oft have I sighed but sighed in vain
desired but desired in vain
cast down but no one to comfort me
in distress no one to relieve me
No friend to open my heart and vent my sorrows
I opened my mouth to the open air and told the stones my sorrow

Thus, O Mohegan have you treated me
and thinkest thou I can forget thee
or thy inhabitants
Thinkest thou or thine inhabiters
that I am desiring to be on thee
or with them?
Far far from me be such a thought

But still there is a precious few in thee
which causes my mind often to meditate of thee
Perhaps in due time
I may once more come on thy borders
But first I have to go, to distant lands; and far country
and different nations I have to walk through
before I see thee.

Thus, O Mohegan
I must bid you farewell
and shut the door of my heart
against thee
for I have a truer friend
to entertain in my heart
so good night

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brotherton, Brothertown, Brothertown Historical Documents, eeyamquittoowauconnuck, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, Guy Johnson, Native American, New York Indians, Oneida land, Sir William Johnson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