This portion of our American Indian web guide features the Mohican people, who inhabited the upper Hudson River Valley, including the confluence of the Mohawk River, as far as the Atlantic Coast.

The extinct Mohican language was in the Algonquian family of languages.

The Mohican homelands bordered those of the Mohawk tribe, with whom they were in frequent conflict. The Mohawks were part of the Iroquois Confederacy, while the Mohicans were the principal part of the Mohican Confederacy, which included five tribes and about forty villages. The Mohican proper (Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw) lived in the area of what is currently Albany, west towards the Mohawk River and northwest to Lake Champlain and Lake George. The Mechkentowoon inhabited the west shore of the Hudson River above Catskill Creek. The Wawyachtonoc lived in Dutchess and Columbia counties, east to the Housatonic River in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The Westenhuck were also known as the Housatonic people, as they lived in the Housatonic Valley in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and in the vicinity of Great Barrington. The Wiekagjoc lived east of the Hudson River near what is now Hudson, in Columbia County, New York.

The Mohawks and the Mohicans were from opposing cultures, and with the balance of power favoring the Mohawks due to its strong alliance with five other sizable tribes, the Mohicans often came out on the losing side.

In the 1600s, the Mohicans made contact with Dutch colonists and other Europeans, establishing a lucrative trade. Unfortunately, this brought exposure to European diseases, and the increasing demands of the Dutch led to a series of conflicts with the Dutch and other colonists, leading to deaths.

The mid-1640s brought a series of conflicts with the Dutch and a weakening of American Indian tribes throughout New England. This brought a split between the five Mohican tribes but an increase in their numbers as they absorbed other tribes.

During the latter part of the 17th century, the Dutch moved against the Mohicans, supported by the British. Although the Mohicans offered refuge for American Indians running from King Philip's War in the 1670s, they lacked the resources to support the larger numbers. Their population dwindled as members sought refuge in other tribes.

By the late 1700s, there were fewer than four hundred Mohicans left in their homeland. By the 1800s, the tribe was almost gone. It wasn't until the early 1900s that descendants of the remaining Mohicans began reorganizing and regaining portions of their land through federal actions.

Forced from their homelands due to conflict with white settlers and other American Indian tribes, the bulk of the remaining Mohicans had settled in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where they became known as the Stockbridge Indians. With Protestant missionaries living among them, many of them converted to Christianity, while maintaining some of their traditions. Forced to move several times, they settled in Wisconsin.

Currently, the largest number of Mohicans can be found in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, where they reside with registered members of the Munsee people. The 22,000-acre reservation was originally the land of the Menominee Nation.

In the late 20th century, the Stockbridge-Munsee were among other tribes filing land claims against New York, seeking to reacquire their traditional lands. In 2011, they regained ownership of 156 acres along the Hudson River, a tract known as the Papscanee Island Nature Preserve, when it was donated to them by the Open Space Initiative, although it is managed by Rensselaer County.

Smaller numbers of Mohicans are in Wisconsin with the Brothertown Community, and in Oklahoma as part of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe. Members of the Wawyachtonoc subtribe are enrolled with the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation in Connecticut.

Many people today are familiar with the Mohicans due to James Fenimore Cooper's novel, "The Last of the Mohicans," or through movies based on the novel. However, while Cooper attempted to portray American Indian society objectively, discussing its virtues at a time when most literature did not do so, the novel is a work of fiction incorporating some historical truths. Published in 1826, the novel is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War. However, the author confuses the Mohicans with the Mohegans, draws from various chronologies, and does not accurately represent the Mohicans or any other American Indian tribe.

Online resources for the Stockbridge-Munsee Community or any other Mohican group, recognized or unrecognized, are appropriate for this category, as are any businesses, industries, schools, medical programs, organizations, or other entities owned by the tribe or by any individual Mohican.

Recommended Resources

Search for Mohican on Google or Bing