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8. A Century of Mahican History
- University of Nebraska Press
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119 Eight A Century of Mahican History In the beginning of this year [1628], war broke out between the Maikans near Fort Orange and the Makuaes, but these beat and captured the Maikans and drove off the remainder who have settled towards the north by the Fresh [Connecticut] River, so called; where they begin again to cultivate the soil. —nicolaes van wassenaer, Historisch Verhael, in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609–1654 (nnn) This excerpt from Van Wassenaer’s Historisch Verhael offers the only hint as to where an unknown number of the Mahicans might have withdrawn two years after some of their warriors, aided by Daniel van Crieckenbeeck and his men, had been routed by a party of Mohawks, and in their turn the Mohawks had been forced by marauding Mahicans to abandon their easternmost village.1 It remains, however, that there is nothing to establish that such a retreat took place. If the Mahicans along the Hudson River, most likely those nearest Fort Orange, did remove themselves, it is impossible to securely identify the location or locations where they may have taken up residence. The single claim or account to suggest their whereabouts—that they had moved into the upper Connecticut River Valley at about Newbury , Vermont—turns out to be “legend.”2 This is not to deny a general drawback of Mahicans east from the Hudson, perhaps to seek temporary refuge among their countrymen on the upper Housatonic or with their allies the Sokokis, Penacooks, or 120 A Century of Mahican History other Western Abenaki groups farther inland. After all, it had been the refusal of the Mahicans around Fort Orange to permit the Mohawks to cross the river and launch an attack on the Sokokis that had precipitated the conflict in the first place. Whatever the case, not all of the Mahicans left the Hudson Valley. A number remained about the Schodack Islands, their presence there confirmed by land sales made to the Dutch.3 Moreover, there is no evidence to suggest that the other known Mahican communities at Catskill and on the upper Housatonic had been emptied of their inhabitants.4 Widely acknowledged is the close and longstanding relationship that existed between the Mahicans and the Western Abenaki groups to their east, especially those in the mid- and upper Connecticut Valley, one that may predate the arrival of Europeans . It endured through the turmoil and displacement of Native groups following King Philip’s War (1676) and beyond, in spite of the differing accords that had been reached with European powers: the Mahicans, first with the Dutch, and after the takeover in 1664, with the English; the Western Abenakis with New France and later, if only nominally, with the English. Their common enemy and the impetus behind their often joint ventures were the Iroquois, most notably the Mohawks. What muddles the history of this relationship, however, is the precarious position the Mahicans held, located, as they were, next door to the Mohawks. Further complicating matters was an amicable trade that the Mahicans, by necessity, had to maintain at Fort Orange and the town of Beverwijck, renamed Albany with the takeover. For the Dutch and, after the takeover, the English, the Mohawks were absolutely key to keeping the fur trade on track and as profitable as possible. Without their cooperation and the furs that they funneled into Fort Orange, in addition to their engagement and influence with interior groups of other Iroquoians and the Algonquians on the St. Lawrence and about the eastern Great Lakes—military, economic, and political—the trade [3.91.43.22] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:19 GMT) A Century of Mahican History 121 would undoubtedly have foundered.5 The Mahicans were of lesser concern, certainly to the Dutch, who seem to have accepted the everyday presence of these Indians while maintaining a robust trade with them and, more important, acquiring their lands. For their part, there is no reason to doubt that most Mahicans , as did other Natives who packed their furs to Fort Orange , saw gain to be had as participants in the trade and, for a number of enterprising individuals, in the sale of lands over which they ostensibly held control. With the exception of the now and again theft, assault, and, rarely, a killing at the hands of either a Mahican or Dutchman, the relations between these two peoples were short on violence. The Dutch, it seems, never figured the Mahicans to...