On this day 250 years ago in Concord, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in recognition that a company “of indians, natives of the town of Stockbridge, have enlisted as minute men,” gives this address
To Johoiakin Mothksin, and the rest of our brethren, the indians, natives of Stockbridge:
Good Brothers — It affords us great pleasure and satisfaction, to hear . . . that our brothers, the natives of Stockbridge, are ready and willing to take up the hatchet in the cause of liberty and their country. We find you have not been inattentive to the unhappy controversy we are engaged in with our mother country, by reason of sundry acts the British parliament have passed, by which, our rights and privileges have been invaded, and our property taken from us without our consent. We have frequently petitioned the king for redress of our grievances, and the restoration of our rights; but, instead of granting us relief, the king’s ministers have sent a large fleet, and posted a great army in the town of Boston, who are daily abusing and insulting the inhabitants, in order to enforce obedience to these acts. The whole continent, from Nova Scotia to Georgia, by their delegates, have lately presented a petition to the king, praying for relief, to which we hope we shall receive a gracious answer. We wish the fire of friendship may be again kindled between both countries; but in case our petition should not be attended to, and the ministry should determine to deprive us of our rights and property by a military force, we hold ourselves obliged to defend them at the point of the sword. This is a common cause; a cause you are equally engaged in with ourselves; we are all brothers, and if the parliament of Great Britain takes from us our property, and our lands, without our consent, they will do the same by you; your property, your lands will be insecure; in short, we shall not any of us have any thing we can call our own. Your engaging in this cause, discovers not only your attachment to your liberties, but furnishes us with an evidence of your gratitude to this province for their past favors. . . . We . . . shall depend upon your firm and steady attachment to the cause you have engaged in.
In response to the Massachusetts Congress on April 11, 1775, Solomon Wa-haun-wan-wau-meet would declare
Brothers: You remember when you first came over the great waters, I was great and you was very little … I then took you in for a friend, and kept you under my arms, so that no one might injure you. . . . [O]ur conditions are changed. You are become great and tall … and I am become small … Now you take care of me, and I look to you for protection. Wherever you go, we will be by your sides. Our bones shall die with yours. We are determined never to be at peace with the red coats, while they are at variance with you.
The Stockbridge Indians were primarily Mohicans long native to Western Massachusetts, but had converted to Christianity and had been augmented by other Christian Munsees, as well as Wappingers, Niantics, Brothertons, Tunxis, Pequot, Iroquois and Narragansetts. The Stockbridge Indians would prove true to their pledge. The company of Stockbridge Indians would join the Massachusetts Militia in the siege of Boston after Lexington and Concord and the Continental Army after its formation and serve heroically, fearlessly and faithfully until August 1778 when the company was decimated in an ambush by British, Hessian and Loyalist troops at Kingsbridge outside of New York, with as much as 80% of the company lost as casualties.
However, Massachusetts and the United States did not keep faith with the Stockbridge Indians. By the end of the Revolution, the Stockbridge Indians had lost all their land in Massachusetts in fraudulent deeds to whites, and had relocated to New York. They were subsequently pushed out of New York to a reservation in Wisconsin where the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians resides today, although some members of the Band are reestablishing a presence in Massachusetts. The people of Massachusetts and the United States still owe a debt to the Stockbridge Indians for their sacrifices and service in achieving American Independence.
Sources: https://archive.org/details/journalsofeachprma00mass/page/114/mode/2up?view=theater; https://www.mohican.com/brief-history/; https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/02/the-stockbridge-mohican-community-1775-1783/#_ednref41; https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-elite-of-the-continental-army-investigating-the-stockbridge-munsee-infantry-company-and-mohican-service-at-the-battle-of-kingsbridge.htm; https://www.bidwellhousemuseum.org/blog/2022/06/28/bidwell-lore-captain-william-goodrich-part-iv/
Also on this day 250 years ago at the Taylor House (now called Wright Tavern) in Concord, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety resolved that “the stores at Concord, and elsewhere, shall not be removed without written orders from the committee of safety.” The “stores” at Concord included cannon, gunpowder for making cartridges, and “a ton of musket balls”.
And on this day 250 years ago, Daniel Boone and his men crossed the Kentucky River and began construction of Boonesborough, Kentucky’s second oldest European-American settlement.
On This Day In The Revolution 