The Stockbridge-Munsee Community & their Removal History

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community , the People of the Waters that Are Never Still, were forced to move many times after they first encountered Europeans. In 1609, Dutch trader Henry Hudson sailed up the Mahicannituck, the River that Flows Both Ways, into Mohican land. By 1614 there was a Dutch trading post established on a nearby island to take advantage of the beaver and otter availability. The arrival of the Europeans changed the economic pattern of the Mohicans, and brought both disease and religion into their land. The Mohican people, part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, originally occupied large areas of land in what is now New England and the Hudson River Valley, including parts of what is now Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and were neighbors to the Lenape, to whom they are related. Over time, the Mohican people and the Munsees, who were also Lenape, and whose language and lifestyles were similar, affiliated with each other. After the arrival of the Europeans, the Mohicans were driven out of their land, into what would become Massachusetts and Connecticut, where they were introduced to Christianity and became known as t…