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Native American tribe
A map of the traditional territory of Mahican affiliated tribes. The Wawyachtonoc are is shown in dark green in the bottom left.
Wawyachtonoc (also rendered Wyachtonok, Wawayachtonoc, and Wyaghtonok) were an
Algonquian -speaking Native American people indigenous to east central
New York and northwest
Connecticut .
In 1687, the Wyachtonok,originally subgroup of
Paugussett , joined the
Mohican Confederacy .
The majority of the Wawyachtonoc were converted to Christianity, beginning in 1740, by
Moravian missionaries.
[1] During this period Wawyachtonoc populations became concentrated at the
Moravian missions at Shekomeko and
Schaghticoke .
[2]
In the 1830s the some Wawyachtonoc were displaced to
Wisconsin . These Wawyachtonoc descendants are now part of the
Stockbridge–Munsee Community and
Brothertown Indians of
Wisconsin , while those that remained in Connecticut are part of the
Schaghticoke Tribal Nation , a
state-recognized tribe .
Name
The
ethnonym Wawyachtonoc is often translated as "eddy people" or "people of the curved channel."
[3]
Territory
The traditional territory of the Wawyachtonoc extended throughout what is now
Columbia and
Duchess County New York, and
Litchfield County , Connecticut.
Villages
Weantinock, the tribe's primary village, situated along the
Housatonic River near present
New Milford
[4]
Wechquadnach, meaning "wrapped around by the mountain," on the Eastern side of Indian Lake, Litchfield County
[5]
[6]
Shekomeko , meaning "great village," 2 miles south of present
Pine Plains, NY
[7]
Pachgatgoch (present day
Schaghticoke Indian Reservation - Kent, CT) "Where the river forks" at the mouth of the Housatonic R. and Ten Mile R.
Weataug, meaning "
wigwam place," likely on the Housatonic River between Washining Lake and
Canaan, CT , near present
Salisbury
[8]
[9]
Bantam
Pomperaug
References
^
Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast . Smithsonian Institution. 1978.
^ Ricky, Donald (1998-01-01).
Encyclopedia of New Jersey Indians: Encyclopedia of Native Peoples . Somerset Publishers, Inc.
ISBN
978-0-403-09331-1 .
^ Ricky, Donald (1999-01-01).
Indians of Maryland . Somerset Publishers, Inc.
ISBN
978-0-403-09877-4 .
^ Hodge, Frederick Webb (1912).
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico . U.S. Government Printing Office.
^ Starna, William A. (2020-03-09).
From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830 . U of Nebraska Press.
ISBN
978-1-4962-1058-6 .
^ Lavin, Lucianne.
"Archaeology and Ethnohistory in Connecticut's Northwest Corner: The Mohican Connection" (PDF) . The Institute for American Indian Studies .
^ Hodge, Frederick Webb (1912).
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: N-Z . U.S. Government Printing Office.
^ Douglas-Lithgow, R. A. (2001).
Native American Place Names of Connecticut . Applewood Books.
ISBN
978-1-55709-540-4 .
^ Starna, William A. (2020-03-09).
From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830 . U of Nebraska Press.
ISBN
978-1-4962-1058-6 .