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562 Samson Occom (1723–1791) Samson Occom has become one of the best-known early Native American writers. For a long time he was most famous for his work (and eventual conflicts) with Eleazar Wheelock, who educated him at Moor’s Charity School and then sent him to England to raise funds for the school that later became Dartmouth College . Occom documented his disenchantment with Wheelock, and the poverty he experienced as an itinerant Presbyterian minister, in “A Short Narrative of My Life” (1768), a piece that has been widely reprinted and anthologized. Recently, however, historians have deepened the image of Occom as a Christianized, exploited Indian, revealing him as someone who fought hard for tribal self-determination. With his colleague Joseph Johnson, also included in this volume, he helped found the Brothertown community. The petitions below reflect Occom’s deep commitments to the Montauk people on Long Island (having preached among them for many years and married one of their members, Mary Fowler), as well as to his home community at Mohegan. The following excerpts appear in Joanna Brooks’s The Collected Writings of Samson Occom. Montaukett Tribe to the State of New York To the Great and Most Excellent Governor, and to all the Great Men Ruling in the State of New York in North America.— We who are known by the Name, Mmeeyautanheewuck or Montauk Indians, Humbly Send Greeting We are very Glad and Rejoice with you that you have at last got your Freedom Liberty and Independence, from under the heavy and Gauling Yoke of Your Late King, who has tryed very hard to make you Slaves, and have kill’d great many of You, but by Your Steadiness, Boldness, and Great Courage, you have broke the Yoke and the Chain of Slavery;—Now, God Bless You, and Make you very great and good forever We Montauk Indians, have Sot Still and have not Intermedled in this Family Contention of Yours, because we had no Business with it, and we have kept our Young men quiet as we Coud, and the People on both Sides have Usd us well in general Samson Occom 563 Now, great and good Gentlemen, we humbly Intreat your Condescention and Patience to hear us a little Concerning ourselves.— The Great and good Spirit above, Saw fit in his good pleasure, to plant our Fore-Fathers in this great Wilderness but when and how, none knows but himself,—and he that works all things Acording to his own Mind, Saw it good to give us this great Continent & he fill’d this Indian World, with variety, and a Prodigous Number of four footed Beasts, Fowl without number and Fish of all kinds great and Small, fill’d our Seas, Rivers, Brooks, and Ponds every where,—And it was the Pleasure of him, Who orders all things acording to his good Will, he that maketh Rich, and maketh poor, he that kills, and that maketh alive, he that raiseth up whom he will, and pulleth down whom he will; Saw fit, to keep us in Poverty, Only to live upon the Provisions he hath made already at our Hands—Thus we livd, till it pleased the great and good Governor of the World, to send your Fathers into these goings down of the Sun, and found us Naked and very poor Destitute of every thing, that your Fathers injoyd, only this that we had good and a Large Country to live in, and well furnished with Natural Provisions, and there was not a Letter known amongst them all in this Boundless Continent.—But your Fore Fathers Came with all the Learning , Knowledge, and Understanding, that was Necessary for Mankind to make them Happy, and they knew the goodness of our Land, and they Soon began to Settle and Cultivate the land, Some they bought almost for nothing, and we suppose they took a great deal without Purchace. And our Fathers were very Ignorant and knew not the value of Land, and they Cared nothing about it, they Imagin’d, they Shoud allways live by Hunting Fishing and Fowling, and gathering Wild Fruits—But alas at this age of the World, we find and plainly see by Sad experience, that by our Fore Fathers Ignorance and Your Fathers great Knowledge, we are undone for this Life—Now only See the agreeament, your Fathers and our Fathers made,—We hope you wont be angry with us in telling The agreed that we Shoud have only two...

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