Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/440

 The Indian Remnant in New England. three pounds, ten shillings. One of them had given him a skin of beaver of two pounds' weight, besides many days' work in planting corn. Moreover, they said they would be willing to do more, if he would govern them justly, by the Word of God." "But the sachem," says the reporter, "swelling with indignation at this unman nerly discourse of his vassals, turned his back upon the company, and went away in theu^reatest rage imaginable; though upon better consideration, himself turned Chris tian not long after." The most noted member of this tribe, after the chief sachem, Uncas, was Samson Occum, born in 1723. He was educated by Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, who was settled in 1735 over the Second church in Lebanon, Connecticut. Occum became an enthusiastic Christian, and the establishment of the Indian school in the town was largely be cause of the encouragement he gave and the aid he afforded. The funds for its endow ment were obtained by Rev. Mr. Wheelock in England, where lie was accompanied by his brilliant pupil. This school was removed to New Hampshire in 1771, and wae there incorporated as Dartmouth College. Occum accompanied the Mohegans of the Housatonic from Stockbridge to the Oneida's ter ritory, as their pastor; in which capacity he remained until his death in 1792. in 1659 Major John Mason, said to have acted as the agent of the Connecticut Colony, obtained a new conveyance to himself, from Uncas and his subordinate sachems, of all

403

the tribal lands not actually planted and improved by the tribe; and the next year, when he had been chosen deputy governor, he made an informal surrender to the colony of certain of the rights he had acquired. It appears in the record of the General Court at Hartford, in 1660, that it was the "Juris diction Power" that was surrendered; and the record further shows that Major Mason reserved the right of laying out these lands in plantations and farms. But this division of involved rights and powers entailed upon the colony, the Indians, and upon many white families and whole communities, disturbance, bitterness, litiga tion, and large property losses; and these affairs remained unsettled until 1790; when also the lands which had been reserved to the Mohegans in common were sold by authority down to less than three thousand acres, and these divided among the families by an act of the Legislature; the State con tinuing its guardianship by looking after the rents of the unoccupied land, the moneys from which were distributed to those Indians who were entitled to them. The numbers of the tribe had become greatly reduced, and even in 1735 they scarcely exceeded one hun dred heads of families. A large proportion of the males had served with the English in the French and Indian war, and there were many widows in consequence. The numbers of Mohegans at the period of the Revolution were too small to form a town in any of their several locations.