Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/71

SECT. II.] ALGONKIN-LENAPE AND IROQUOIS NATIONS. 35 The Stockbridge Indians, were originally a part of the Hou- satannuck Tribe, to whom the Legislature of Massachusetts granted or secured a township in the year 1736.* Their num- ber was increased by Wappingers and Mohikanders, and per- haps also by Indians belonging to several other tribes, both of New England and New York. Since their removal to New Stockbridge and Brotherton, in the western parts of New York, they have been joined by Mohegans and other Indians from East Connecticut and even from Rhode Island and Long Is- land ; and the residue of the Seven Tribes of Connecticut is also mentioned, as being settled in the year 1791 at Brotherton. f They are called Mohicans, or Mohekanoks and appear to speak but one dialect. All our information respecting that language is derived from Old or New Stockbridge, or from Canada, where some Indians of that family have also migrated. Jonathan Edwards, a divine and a scholar, was brought up at Old Stockbridge, and, whilst a child, acquired the knowledge of the language of the Indians of that place. " It had become more familiar to him than his mother tongue, and he had in a great measure retained his skill," in that respect, when he published, in 1788, his valuable observations on the language of the " Muhhekanew Indians." He states that " the language which is the subject of his observations is that of the Muhhekanew or Stockbridge Indians. They, as well as the tribe in New London (the an- cient Pequods or Mohegans), are by the Anglo-Americans called Mohegans, which is a corruption of Muhhekanew. " This language is spoken by all the Indians throughout New England. Every tribe, as that of Stockbridge, that of Far- mington, that of New London, has a different dialect ; but the language is radically the same. Mr. Eliot's translation of the Bible is in a particular dialect of this language. The dia- lect followed in these observations is that of Stockbridge." Mr. Edwards's vocabulary is unfortunately very short. The defect is partly supplied by two others ; one obtained in 1804, by the Rev. William Jenks, from John Konkaput, a New Stockbridge Indian ; the other in M. Duponceau's collection taken by Mr. Heckewelder in Canada from a Mohican chief. The appended vocabulary of that language has been extracted f 1 Mass. Hist. Coll. Vol. IX. p. 90, and Vol. V. pp. 12-32.