The Legacy of the Western Mohegan Tribe and Nation

Thanks to author James Fennimore Cooper, many Americans don’t know the Mohegan Indians, instead confusing them with the fictional tribe from Cooper’s 19th century novel The Last of the Mohicans.

However, the real tribe, known interchangeably as Mohegan, Mahican or historically, Muh-hea-kun-nuk – meaning “People of the Waters That Are Never Still” – has a history rich with stories that are just as fascinating as the pages of any fictional Indian tale.

The Outside World
The navigator Henry Hudson made the first European contact with the Muh-hea-kun-nuk in September 1609 with a visit to the tribal chief at what was then the capital of the Tribe near present-day Albany, New York.

The first treaty ever negotiated between Native Americans and Europeans was with the Muh-hea-kun-nuk in 1614, allowing the Dutch to establish a trading post near Castle Island, New York. That early contact with the Dutch helped the Tribe to dominate the regional fur trade, but by the early 1700s, it also brought about epidemic diseases introduced by the Europeans. The result: a decline in tribal population from approximately 4,000 to 500.

Parts of the Tribe soon scattered, mostly along the East Coast, looking for separation from both the Europeans and the continual war with the Mohawks over pelts. Nevertheless, the Mohegan tribe continued its presence in the Hudson Valley, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and its members were part of our growing nation.