Brothertown Indians

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I finished the biography of Samson Occum by Love yesterday and will have a bunch of quotes over the next few days. I was looking for the location of the first Brothertown in New York state and came across a great site of someone else's research into Brothertown from the final home of the Brothertown Indians in Wisconsin. His summary of their history is helpful. He writes,
Brothertown was officially founded on November 7, 1785. “We now proceeded to from into a Body Politick-We named our town by the name of Brotherton, in Indian—Eeyamquittoowauconnuck” (Occom 1785). Unfortunately, the Brothertown Indians did not escape some the land issues that they had moved west to avoid. Euroamerican land speculators and settlers placed constant pressure on them to sell or lease their new lands (Love 1899). In an effort to protect the Brothertown Indians from losing their lands, the New York state government appointed commissioners to advise the tribe and passed laws that forbade the sale/lease of Brothertown lands to Euroamerican settlers (Love 1899). Due to these land conflicts, New York officials divided the Brothertown lands, allowing Brothertown peoples to remain on one part with the other portion to be sold to Euroamerican settlers.
My interest in Occum is due to living near his birthplace, his Christianity, and the remarkable success he found among whites.

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