Admittedly, that is a complicated question, going back to a time before either of those amalgamated tribes was formed, but it seems that the biggest difference came to me in a flash while I was at the Calumet County courthouse yesterday.
Stockbridge, Wisconsin and Brothertown, Wisconsin are Calumet County villages that were once populated by the "civilized" New York Indian tribes bearing those names. Today the Stockbridges (also known as "Mohicans" or the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians), have a federally recognized tribal government and reservation in Shawano County, Wisconsin. But the Brothertowns are just doing their best to stay organized. They aren't recognized by the federal government, but, thanks to their efforts, they have a relationship with Calumet County (see Darren Kroenke's comment below).
The Calumet County Courthouse holds two record books. One for the Brothertowns from 1839 and one for the Stockbridge Mohicans from 1843. Each record book does the same thing for its respective Native nation: it allots their reservation, that is, each record book documents the dividing up of what had been a reservation into individually-owned plots of land. With these record books, each tribe was giving up their tribal government and becoming citizens of the United States.
The two record books, of course, establish that both tribes went through the process of allotment at roughly the same time.
So what was different?
The whole time the allotment process was happening, the Stockbridges had an "Indian Party," made up of some of their leading men: John W. Quinney, Austin E. Quinney, and John Metoxen. Although the Stockbridge record book of 1843 makes no mention of any objections to what the elected commissioners (members of the Stockbridge "Citizen Party") were doing, John W. Quinney had contacts in Washington D.C. and that is where he took his fight - and won. In 1846 new legislation was enacted that re-created the Stockbridge nation and reservation.
There would be more challenges ahead for the Stockbridge Mohicans, but they dodged an awfully big bullet in the 1840's.
In my opinion, Congress' Act of 1846 - and the Stockbridge Indian Party's ability to make it happen - is, more than anything else, the big difference between the Stockbridge Indians and the Brothertown Indians.
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't look like my last post made it through, so I'll try again...
As always, thank you for the scholarly presentation of Stockbridge and Brothertown history. I consistently enjoy your posts and the information you share. I did however like your old blog title better as it better represented the combined history of both communities of Christian Indians. That being said, I'd like to offer two observations on this recent post, if I may. One, I would argue that the Brothertown Indian Nation is in fact recognized by Calumet County. In its Year 2025 Smart Growth Plan ( see link http://www.co.calumet.wi.us/documentcenter/view/14 ), the County recognizes the cultural resources associated with the Tribe including the several burial sites of tribal members and other archeological sites in Brothertown Township. The County also discusses a goal of further intergovernmental cooperation and communication with the Tribe. Two, the Brothertown Indian Nation did have an Indian Party, though not well documented. Disaffected members of the community joined their Stockbridge relatives in Morgan Siding and Gresham in proximity to the newly created Stockbridge reservation during and shortly after its establishment. Modern historians of the Stockbridge community would easily be able to identify those families. Still others left Wisconsin territory and moved to the lands promised in Indian Territory (Kansas) by the Treaty of Buffalo Creek. Many of those families ended up intermarrying with the tribes already residing there and ultimately ended up in Oklahoma. I would say these were an intertribal "Indian Party" of Brothertown and Stockbridge tribal members. It's unfortunate that the Stockbridge "Citizen Party" or "Chicks Party" doesn't get written about as much. There is a rich history of Stockbridgers "down below" that gets forgotten after the move to the Menominee reservation. One of my favorite parts of that history is the "Quinney Mongrels", of which I am a descendant through the Welch family.
The efforts of Brothertown tribal leadership to avoid a forced relocation of the Tribe from the Brothertown reservation on Lake Winnebago resulted in the 1839 Act of Congress which extended citizenship to each tribal member and allotted the Federal reservation into fee-simple individual title. Unfortunately, the Tribe was not able to retain control of the newly formed township due to the sale of land by impoverished individual tribal members and their families. This dispossession of the land base post-allotment is similar to the forces which created the patchwork quilt patterns of most contemporary reservations following the General Allotment Act of 1887. You will often see Indian law experts and historians, including the late Vine Deloria, reference the 1839 Act for the relief of the Brothertown Indians as a failed experiment in early reservation allotment policy. The contemporary diaspora of the Brothertown Indian Nation is not too unlike the Ho-Chunk settlements we have in Wisconsin today. There are Brothertown "settlements" in Fond du Lac, Gresham, and DePere, WI as well as Long Prairie, MN. Each of these small communities includes several nuclear families that frequently communicated and collaborated with tribal members in the other settlement areas. This pattern of interaction happened all throughout the 20th century and continues today.
Best,
Darren Kroenke (enrolled Brothertown Indian)
Darren, Thanks so much for adding to my post.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that Algonkian Church History included a wider subject area, but most of my expertise is with the Stockbridge Mohicans - besides, the main reason I migrated to this site is to promote the book I wrote about the Stockbridges.
Thanks for the info about Calumet County's relationship with the Brothertown Indians. The statement about it that I had made in the post came from something that a Manitowoc County constable said to me, and I think that your comment is more accurate than his. I'll do a little editing.
In terms of subject matter for a second book, I'd love to get into more detail with the Chicks family, the Gardners, "Mongrel" Quinneys, or others from Down Below. My trip to the Calumet County courthouse was a [mostly failed] attempt at digging something up about them. If you know where I can access any relevant records or other data, please contact me.
Since I live in Fond du Lac, I'm aware that the New York Indians still have a presence in some of the places you mentioned. Thanks again for being part of the discussion.
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