Mohegan

The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the eastern upper Thames River valley of south-central Connecticut.^[1] It is one of two federally recognized tribes in the state, the other being the Mashantucket Pequot, whose reservation is in Ledyard, Connecticut. There are also three state-recognized tribes: the Schaghticoke, Paugusett, and Eastern Pequot.

At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were a unified tribal entity living in the southeastern Connecticut region, but the Mohegan gradually became independent as the hegemonic Pequot lost control over their trading empire and tributary groups. The name Pequot was given to the Mohegan by other tribes throughout the northeast and was eventually adopted by themselves. In 1637, English Puritan colonists destroyed a principal fortified village at Mistick with the help of their sachem Uncas, the Christian convert and sagamore Wequash Cooke, and the Narragansetts during the Pequot War. This ended with the death of Uncas' cousin Sassacus near Albany, New York, where he had fled,^[2] at the hands of the Mohawk, an Iroquois Confederacy nation from west of the Hudson River. Thereafter, the Mohegan became a separate tribal nation under the leadership of Uncas.^[1][3] Uncas is a variant anglicized spelling of the Algonquian name Wonkus, which translates to "fox" in English. The word Mohegan (pronounced /ˈmoʊhiːɡæn/) translates in their respective Algonquin dialects (Mohegan-Pequot language) as "People of the Wolf".^[4][5]

Over time, the Mohegan gradually lost ownership of much of their tribal lands. In 1978, Chief Rolling Cloud Hamilton petitioned for federal recognition of the Mohegan. Descendants of his Mohegan band operate independently of the federally recognized nation.

In 1994, a majority group of Mohegan gained federal recognition as the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut (MTIC).^[6] They have been defined by the United States government as the "successor in interest to the aboriginal entity known as the Mohegan Indian Tribe."^[7] The United States took land into trust the same year, under an act of Congress to serve as a reservation for the tribe.

Most of the Mohegan people in Connecticut today live on the Mohegan Reservation at 41°28′42″N 72°04′55″W / 41.47833°N 72.08194°W / 41.47833; -72.08194 near Uncasville in the Town of Montville, New London County. The MTIC operate the Mohegan Sun Casino on their reservation in Uncasville and the Mohegan Pennsylvania racetrack and casino near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.