Christianity: The Ingredient that Changed the Mohicans into the Stockbridge Mohicans

In my last post I defined ethnogenesis as the creation of an ethnic group.

I expected to get some objection from my Indian audience for stating that I believe the Mohican Indians underwent an ethnogenesis as their Massachusetts mission town took shape. Although you see no comments posted here, I did get some argument on Facebook, especially from Shawn Stevens. And let me tell you that Shawn is one of a small number of people whose support is part of what makes my research and writing worthwhile. Shawn's response to my last post was long (for facebook) and it included some exclamation marks.

Since I make it a point to keep my blogposts relatively brief, I didn't have enough space to make my argument completely clear in my previous post so I will fill it out here. The essence of my argument is that the Stockbridge Mohicans are different from the pre-Christian-era Mohicans because of religion. The American Heritage Dictionary defines ethnic as "of or relating to a specific group of people sharing a common and distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural heritage." So one's ethnic group can be defined by race or "blood quantum," but it can also be defined by religion and culture.

In my previous post I stated that John Sergeant baptized 182 Indians "at a time when baptism was a rather exclusive rite among Calvinists." I noted that many of the converts were not "Mohicans" and, for that reason, it is understandable that some people (Shawn Stevens included) thought that I was making a "blood quantum" argument. Instead, I was arguing that being a Stockbridge Mohican was different from being any other kind of Mohican because they [the Stockbridges] had taken on a different religion and culture.

Those "other kinds" of Mohicans didn't survive as distinct ethnic groups. But the Stockbridge Mohicans are with us today. That is a paraphrase of something that Captain Hendrick Aupaumut said in a speech to the White River Delawares in 1803. The Stockbridge chief was encouraging the Delawares to accept a Christian mission and the things that went with it, primarily learning to farm and learning to read.

Please don't misunderstand me. I myself have documented the hard times of the Stockbridge Mohicans. And I would guess that they are among only a small minority of tribes who (for the most part) had good relations with white church bodies and white ministers.

So again I make the argument that there was an ethnogenesis at the Massachusetts mission. The new ethnic group was different to some extent because some (or many) came from non-Mohican tribes, but mostly, the Stockbridge Mohicans were different from the pre-Christian Mohicans because they adopted a new religion. And don't forget: back then religion wasn't separated from almost everything else - it was your culture.


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