Tribe, Race, History: Native Americans in Southern New England, 1780–1880

Essay on Sources

Essay on Sources The richest sources of documents on Indians in southern New England are the three state archives. Indian individuals, factions, and tribes sent many letters and petitions to state, county, and local officials. These contain descriptions of their communities, economic and social condition, and relations with neighboring whites. Occasionally, other individuals and groups within the community and white neighbors, including selectmen and justices of the peace, would write with dissenting views. Sometimes the legislature or governor would respond by appointing committees that reported on what they found, as well as what they recommended; a few, but not the majority, of these reports were published. Many of these documents were generated in the hope of achieving or opposing government actions, and (particularly in Massachusetts) notes by committee chairs and drafts of bills—many not passed—provide an intimate view of legislative opinion. Guardian accounts and reports vary in detail and regularity but generally provide bits of information that illuminate conditions of Indian groups and individuals. As Indians “not taxed” were rarely counted in the federal census, these records are the only sources of demographic data on Native tribes and communities. Manuscript collections in the CSA include letters and petitions to the general assembly from various tribes before 1820 in CAr2. Those after 1820 are in General Assembly, Special Papers, Indians, box 1 and box 2—Rejected Bills. The annual reports by each tribe’s guardian after 1820, as well as some petitions by or about Indians, were made to the county courts. This material dated 1820 to 1854 from the Eastern Pequots, Mashantucket Pequots, Mohegans, and Niantics is in NLCC, and material from 1855 to the 1900s is in NLCSC. In both collections, box 1 contains petitions from and reports on the Eastern Pequots, box 2 concerns the Mashantucket Pequots, box 3 concerns the Mohegans, box 4 concerns the Niantics, and box 5 contains assorted documents. Finding aids are available online at the State Library web site. State laws and resolves were published in CPA, CPL, CPR, and CPRA, various volumes, all from the state printers in Hartford. There were far fewer reports on Indians by state commissions because county courts were given administrative oversight of Indians beginning in 1822. The Massachusetts Archives is a particularly rich lode. Particularly fruitful are manuscripts filed in shoestring-tied packets in MPL, MUHL, and MUSL. Many of these packets had not been opened since their original filing, and all three sets have excellent indices by subject. The governor and his council were also involved on various levels with Indians in the state, and the MGCF is a collection of manuscripts very much like the legislature’s but without an index. Finally, MIGA contains letters and the reports and accounts submitted by the guardians for Chappaquiddick, Christiantown, Dudley Nipmucs, Gay Head, Herring Pond, Mashpee, Natick, and Watuppa-Troy. The Mashpee collection includes nearly all of the significant documents on that tribe’s revolt in 1833–34. Many of the guardians’ accounts and some of the most important legislative committee reports were published by the state in MHR and MSR. Particularly significant are Child 1827, Bird 1849, and Earle 1861. Other notable reports on specific tribes, most commonly Mashpee and Gay Head, include “Legislative Commissioners’ Report on Mashpee Meetinghouse ,” MHR 72 (Boston, 1839); “An Act to Prohibit the Sale of Ardent Spirits to the Gay Head Indians,” MHR 48 (Boston, 1838); the transcript of the 3 June 1869 Mashpee hearings is in MHR 502 (Boston, 1869); and “Census of the Inhabitants of Gay Head Indians,” MSR 14 (Boston, 1871). In 1992, during an Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) research fellowship , I put together an index to all of the published reports dealing with Indian tribes; that index is available at OSV, the Massachusetts State House Library, and the Massachusetts Archives. Also significant were acts and resolves published in Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, from November 28, 1780 . . . to February 28, 1807, 3 vols. (Boston, 1807); and Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, 1782–1870 (Boston, 1784–1922). The decisions of the Massachusetts Superior Court were published in Massachusetts Reports; several involved Indians, including Medway v. Natick, 7, Mass. Reports 88; Dighton v. Freetown, 4, Mass Reports 539; and Andover v. Canton, 13, Mass. Reports 547. Almost all of the manuscripts connected with Rhode Island’s only recognized tribe, the Narragansetts, are in NRIA, assembled during the battle over federal recognition of the tribe. This collection...