Who
Were The Wangunk?
by Doris
Sherrow, November 1999
The land
where you live was probably farmed or fished or hunted by the Wangunk
Indians three hundred years ago.
The picture of the Wangunk that emerges
from the scraps of historical sources shows a strong, enterprising people,
fully the intellectual equal of the invading English. Probably they lived
much like the Mashantucket Pequot Museum's Pequot Village, in harmony
with nature, constructively occupied with the many tasks necessary to
their survival. They fished when the fish ran, hunted when the deer came,
and harvested plants for myriad uses as food, medicine, clothing, or artifacts.
By the later 1600s, they were using the
English calendar, and often signing deeds with an initial or symbol. At
least three could write their names. In addition, their deeds are genuinely
chatty with historical and genealogical detail: "I have been Lawfully
Seized thereof Ever Since ye old Indian warr…" "until it
comes to the Indian Corner tree by the Meeting House…" "from
said Robbins it descended to my grandmother who was sd Robbins daughter
and from her to my uncle James …"
Their reservation consisted of two pieces.
The smaller piece was about 30 acres, flanking Indian Hill Avenue, and
running down to the Connecticut River. The larger piece, about 250 acres,
ran east from the rear property lines of the houses along Main Street
between Summer and William streets, as far as where Center Cemetery is
now. Tom Robbin, a Wangunk, described the two pieces in 1741 as
"Indian land in the Woods" and "Indian Hill by the River."
On the northwest side of the Indian Hill piece was the "Hot House
Lot." The "Hot House" was a hollow on the bank of the Connecticut
River, near the end of Indian Hill Avenue. It would have been covered
by animal skins, then heated by stones from the fire, in sauna fashion,
perhaps for the cure of various diseases, perhaps for ritual, or even
simple enjoyment. After sweating a while, the Indian would rush into the
cold waters of the Connecticut to drive away the evil spirits, or maybe
just to cool off.
Indian Hill was also a burial ground. As
late as the 1870s, a tombstone stood there which read, "Here lies
the body of John Onekous who died August the 30th 1722, aged 26 years."
Skeletons were discovered there throughout the 1800s. One house, built
in the mid-1800s, did not have a cellar for a century, because the builder
encountered so many bones! A less-superstitious 20th century owner finally
dug out the cellar and reinterred the bones elsewhere.
In 1728, Bartlett Street was extended east
into the Wangunk reservation. The customary way to lay out a highway was
to appoint a team of three farmers familiar with both surveying and with
the land. The team of surveyors for this project were William Cornwell,
who lived in the meadow on Glastonbury Turnpike, Nathaniel Savage who
lived in a house which stood at or near 609 Main Street, and "Cuschoy
in behalf of ye other Indians." The fact that an official from the
Wangunks would be included strongly suggests that the Wangunks were considered
quite capable by their neighbors.
They were probably involved in many community
activities. A diary entry from 1702 notes an Indian named Sacient delivering
a tombstone for Rebecca Minor to her family in Stonington-Portland's stone
carver James Stanclift had hired him for that job.
More tales of the Wangunks come from the
story of Rev. Richard Treat, who attempted to establish a school
for Indian children in 1734. He got a dozen or so pupils in the four months
of the school's existence, stopping after that time for lack of money
or help. Deploring their ignorance of Scripture, Christian morality, and
the English language, he noted with chagrin that he had to "appeal
to their principles of morality and natural religion" in order to
win his arguments. He failed to see the cultural strength implicit in
that statement-obviously they had a system of morality which could be
used to explain Judaeo-Christian principles!
Probably the Indians tolerated Treat and
his stories as they would a child. On one occasion, as he was telling
them of resurrection, one savage pointed jestingly to a dead pig waiting
by the fire to be roasted, and inquired if it would rise from the dead.
After much debate, Treat finally felt that he had verbally vanquished
the Indian.
The summer after the attempted school, a
tribal leader died, and there was a loud funeral ceremony for several
days which Treat felt it was his duty to stop. He interfered persistently
but the Indians fended him off until they had finished the ceremony. Then
he was allowed to preach for a while and they went quietly home, leaving
Treat thinking that he had shown them the error of their ways.
In 1747, a Job Bates and his new
wife, Faith, moved to Portland from Ware, Massachusetts. Bates
was a blacksmith, which made him useful to the boat building industry
on Indian Hill, but also probably intrigued the Indians, as well. The
white man's metal objects were among his nicest attributes! From all appearances,
the Wangunks allowed Bates to take up residence on the northwest corner
of Main Street and Indian Hill Avenue. Eventually he came to own a still
and a "cyder press," which also no doubt served to endear him
to the Wangunks. When the English petitioned finally in the late 1750s
to buy the reservation, Bates added his own line: "through mistake
I have set my house on it." This 1 ½ story Cape Cod style
"mistake" was over a decade old by that time.
Ebenezer White, who lived at 582
Main Street, charged Benoni Brown for 36 feet of board in April
of 1755. Brown had used it to build coffins for three members of the Wangunk
tribe, all of whom were still quite alive! Tom Cuschoy, his wife,
and fellow tribesman Jo Simon apparently purchased the great wooden
boxes which the whites were so anxious to use for burials. It wasn't a
bad idea, to provide a little wooden house for the body on its long trip,
and they probably made handy storage chests in the meantime!
In 1765, the Wangunk sold what remained
of their reservation. Only a few older members of the tribe were still
living in Portland. The younger people had gone off to Farmington, to
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, or even further west. But the tribe members
visited town yearly until the 1830s, gathering at the home of Old Betty,
probably on Penny Corner Road.
