Mohicans

The Mohicans , still called Mahican with the Mahikan are a tribe of Indian of North America.

They lived close to the low valley of the Hudson at the time of their meeting with Europeans, about 1609. During decades, competitions with the Mowaks and Europeans pushed them towards the east of the Massachussets and the Connecticut, on the Hudson river. A certain number settled in Stockbridge, in Massachussets, creating the community of the Indians of Stockbridge. Those made it possible to the Protestants to settle in Stockbridge, and converted during the 18th century.

Although they were with the American colonists at the time of the war against the French, the Indian wars and the war of Independence, they were expelled of their territory and had to be installed more in the West, initially in Stockbridge, in the state of New York, towards 1780, then on the county of Shawano, in the Wisconsin, the Années 1820 - 1830. In Wisconsin, they were in a reserve with the Munsee, giving rise to a named Indian community Stockbridge-Munsee. This reserve is known today as the reserve of the Mohicans Indians of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe.

The first Indian Christian community in America was established by the church moravienne in the village mohican of Shekomeko in 1740. The missionaries moraviens wanted to convert and integrate the Indians in the American community. They there succeeded so well, and defended the Indians against their exploitation by the White with as well of energy, as the government stopped their action.

The language Mohican, died, belongs to the Eastern branch of the Langues algonquiennes.

The news of James Fenimore Cooper the Last of Mohicans speaks about a Mohican tribe but includes certain cultural aspects of the Mohegans, another tribe algonquienne of the east of Connecticut. The news is in the valley of Hudson, country mohican, but of the patronyms like Uncas, are mohegans.

See too

the film: the Last of Mohicans
a site on Mohicans

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