[ OTHER INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE AWARENESS CHALLENGE POSTS]
I know it’s a year late, but I’m going to try to get back on track with the rest of my IYIL posts! Up this week is Mohiks uyôtowáwôk, known in English as Mohegan-Pequot.
Basic Information
The language was formerly spoken by Mohegan, Pequot, Montauk, (Western) Niantic, and Shinnecock peoples across what is now southern (mainly southeastern) New England, as well as on the eastern part of modern Long Island. It's also sometimes called the Algonquian Y-dialect, and multiple different varieties were spoken between all the different groups. Unfortunately, the language went dormant in 1908 with the death of Fidelia Fielding or Dji'ts Bud dnaca, so there is no population of speakers at the present time. The language is, like all the other languages of the region, an Eastern Algonquian language, and looks very similar to most of its neighbors (to the point where as far as I can tell there is some confusion over the number of distinct languages there are in southern New England).
Modern History
The Pequot Tribe and the Mohegan Tribe were at some point the same group, and the Pequot were a major regional power in the early 17th century. However, the Mohegans chose to ally themselves with the English in the Pequot War, which decimated the Pequots’ previous dominance. The Pequots who remained after the war were put under the authority of the Mohegans and the Narragansetts, and the ones who were ruled by the Mohegans became today’s Mashantucket Pequot. The two groups – Mohegan and Pequot – are at this point different but have a closely intertwined past.
The Pequot Tribe lost large tracts of land in the 19th century, as well as seeing many of its members move off tribal lands, but in the late 20th century it sought to get that land back and rebuild the local economy and culture. It managed to successfully sue for the recovery of land that had been sold illegally, with the support of the owners of that land and a delegation from the state of Connecticut, and has since managed to restore local agriculture, as well as building an incredible museum and research center (which I have been to and it’s definitely worth it to visit). The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation also gained federal recognition in 1983.
The Mohegans also kept some of their traditions alive and maintained a continuity of knowledge through the 20th century, much of which was thanks to Gladys Tantaquidgeon, who served as medicine woman for almost 90 years (1916-2005). She was born when there were still native speakers of Mohegan-Pequot and kept their teachings alive throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries. She also had a doctorate in anthropology and was key in documenting Mohegan history, something which was key for the tribe gaining federal recognition in 1994. Along with her brother Harold and father John, she founded the Tanatquidgeon Museum in 1931, which is still around today.
Other important historical figures include Uncas, who was sachem of the Mohegans and solidified their alliance with the English, bringing them to the status of a major regional power; his son Oneco, who brought an important case to court that concluded that the Mohegan sachem and the English monarch were peers and legal equals; William Apess, who wrote one of the earliest Native American autobiographies; Emma Baker, a medicine woman who helped to revive the tradition of the Green Corn Festival, key for maintaining culture in the 19th century; Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobal, current Mohegan Medicine Woman and an author and screenwriter; Madeline Sayet, an actor, writer, and director; and musician Willy DeVille.
Linguistic Revitalization
The language went dormant in 1908 following the death of its last fully fluent speaker, Fidelia Fielding, but her writings are now seen as key in revitalization efforts, with four diaries of hers being preserved and now being used in reconstructing the language. One of the linguists leading the project is Stephanie Fielding, a descendent of Fidelia, who has been attempting to build a vocabulary so that the language can be taught to people and eventually speakers can reach fluency again. The main resource is a website, with a dictionary and language lessons. I will say that it seems like the news of the revitalization project seems to have slowed down recently, but I’m not sure if there are more classes going on in-person (or were, before 2020 happened). Either way it seems like the groundwork has been laid for an educational revival like with Wampanoag, so hopefully the language comes back!
Support the project!
I can’t find any way to support the project, but both the Mohegan and Pequot Tribes have museums which you can visit, and businesses you can support.
Aaaaand that’s the post, please let me know if there’s anything I missed and I’ll be back next week with a post about Nipmuc!