The Mohicans of Stockbridge

Rating:
Summary: A tribute to a great but little-known group of Americans
Review: The story of the Muh-he-kan-nuk, or the Mahicans (but better known as Mohicans), is a story of triumph through hardship. Now in Wisconsin, this native American people migrated from their home in the Berkshires of Western Massachussetts via a brief stay in New York state. This is their story, how they lived when the European immigrant population began to grow and encroach on their lands, and how they openly embraced Christianity, in spite of how they were often treated by "the white man" -- who were mostly protestant Christians. More fascinating is how the Stockbridge Indians, in spite of their treatment by the white settlers, have been very supportive of the American experience and have a long history of fighting patriotically in wars for the United States' cause from the very beginning.

After a brief ancient history of the amazing people called the Muh-he-kan-nuk, Frazier tells the story of the early 18th-century Chief Konkapot and his delegation to the Massachussetts Bay Colony requesting that a missionary be sent to teach them about the Christian religion. A teacher, Mr. Timothy Woodbridge, and the missionary Rev. John Sergeant, were commissioned to go and live among the Mahicans to teach them the Christian faith and English civilization. The story is fascinating, and Frazier reports very realistic and deals honestly with both the good and the bad that were both a result and a backlash of the missionary endeavors. Most people know the popular history that the Rev. Jonathan Edwards spent part of his time as a missionary to the Stockbridge Indians before his fatal presidency at Princeton. But very few realise that he was not the first to work among them. John and Abigail Sergeant were my 6th- or 7th- generation grandparents through my paternal grandmother, so this story is of particular interest to me. The occasion for Edwards' arrival in Stockbridge was two-fold: firstly, he had been oustered by his congregation at Northampton, Connecticut, and secondly, the pastor of the Mahicans John Sergeant had died of tuberculosis.

Many modern historians blame missionaries for proselytizing native Americans, but this story shows that the Stockbridge Indians, through Chief Konkapot, requested the assistance of the Christian European American settlers in an effort to preserve their culture. Likely, if it was not for the missionary and educational work among the Mahicans, the white settlers may well have taken far more advantage of the Indians than they already had, as unfortunately history all-to-often reveals. For the times, Woodbridge and Sergeant showed great interest in preserving the native culture, while introducing Western European Christianity to them. Also, Edwards, quite the remarkable intellectual genius, composed a grammar of the Mahican language (a reprint is available here at Amazon). While often patronizing to a fault, perhaps their efforts to "anglicize" the Indians in the long run helped this tribe to learn to survive amidst encroachment, as well as served to preserve their indigenous culture. Frazier seems to present this argument well, thoroughly dealing with the downside of the white man's influences of the times.

I highly recommend this book to all who have an interest in Colonial American history, the development and history of American Religion, and especially the history and plight of our Native American citizens, who are equal under the law, but who in sad reality have been snubbed throughout the history of our imperfect nation. Rather than aggrandizing my great-grandfather or the other missionaries and educators who tried to help this people in a less-than-perfect and infantile American civilization, Frazier's book is an overdue tribute to the legacy and national courage of the Mahicans of Stockbridge, to whom a great debt of gratitude is owed.

-Andrew Kercher