The Mohegan Petition of 1789: One Dish and One Fire Will Not Do
/by Elizabeth J. Norman for Connecticut Explored
The petition by the Mohegan to the Connecticut General Assembly in May 1789 describes, in poignant and poetic language, the environmental impact of British colonial settlement on Native American communities. It was submitted a little more than a year after Connecticut became the fifth state to join the United States of America, and it reveals the 150-year struggle of Native Americans to survive and resist the ongoing pressures of British—now American—colonization. In asking the legislature for help, the petition states that through the actions of white people, “the times have turned everything upside down.”
In crafting a piece of persuasive writing, the Mohegan petitioners, represented by tribal leaders Henry Quaquaquid and Robert Ashpo (or Ashbow), begin with flattery and by calling upon the long alliance of the Mohegan with the Connecticut Colony. [See “Exploring and Uncovering the Pequot War,” Fall 2013.] They go on to describe an Edenic past and invoke their communal way of life through the metaphor of the dish and the fire.
“In 1704 the Mohegan brought a lawsuit against the Connecticut Colony to force it to honor its reservation law. Queen Anne sided with the Mohegan…”
In 1671 the Connecticut Colony agreed that 20,000 acres of land between Norwich and New London was permanently Mohegan, and in 1680 it passed a formal reservation law. But encroachment by British settlers was constant and largely ignored or justified by the colony. In 1704 the Mohegan brought a lawsuit against the colony to force it to honor its reservation law. Queen Anne sided with the Mohegan, but the colony ignored the royal decree, and the Mohegan reservation was reduced to 5,000 acres in 1725, and to 2,700 acres at the time of this petition.
The suffering endured by the Mohegan from the impact of British settlement was becoming acute. Important animal populations had all but disappeared due to loss of habitat, overhunting, and overfishing. Harvey Smith and Tim Clark, in Voices of the New Republic: Connecticut Towns, 1800 – 1832, Vol. II (The Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2003), estimate that by the time of this petition only about 35 percent of Connecticut was forested. Black bear, white-tailed deer, beaver, and wild turkey were nearly extirpated—beaver and wild turkey by the late 1600s, bear sometime after that. Connecticut passed one of the first conservation laws—to protect deer populations—in May 1667, but deer, too, were scarce in the state by the time of this petition.
Elizabeth J. Norman is publisher of Connecticut Explored. This article first appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Connecticut Explored, the magazine and podcast of Connecticut history, and appears here with permission. Note: Spelling has been standardized to modern English. Photo: Yale Indian Papers Project, Yale University Library.
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