Early indigenous history The area currently known as Germantown was originally occupied by the
Mohican people. In the early eighteenth century,
Hendrick Aupaumut recorded the movement of his people who had settled along the rivers that would later be named the
Delaware and
Hudson. Those who had continued north settled in the valley of the river they named the Mahicannituck (today's Hudson River), meaning 'the Waters That Are Never Still'. They named themselves the 'Muh-he-con-neok' after the river, a name that eventually evolved to the present day Mohican or Mahican. The Mohicans settled in the valley, building
wigwams and
longhouses. The river and woodlands were abundant with life and food, which they supplemented with the
corn, beans, and squash they grew. Mohican women were usually in charge of this
agriculture, along with the homes and children, while men traveled to fish, hunt, or serve as warriors.
Colonization and European-Mohican relations In September 1609,
Henry Hudson, a trader for the
Dutch, sailed up the Mahicannituck. The valley was rich with
beavers and otters, whose fur the Dutch coveted, and in 1614 a
trading post was established. As the
fur trade expanded, making desired furs harder to find, tensions arose between the Mohicans and the
Mohawk, who each sought to maintain their share in the fur trade and relations with European allies. Wars and their effects contributed to the loss of Mohican land to the point where territory in the Hudson Valley dwindled almost completely by the end of the seventeenth century. Mohicans were especially affected by European wars such as
King Philip’s War where soldiers from
Massachusetts and
Connecticut attacked Mohicans. In general after war, Mohicans sold land to the Dutch in exchange for needed resources lost in the destruction of indigenous farming and preserved resources. As more and more Europeans arrived and settled on the land, the Mohicans’ self-reliance and reliance on the land was eroded by increased dependency on the settlers and their provisions. Settlers began dividing the land, establishing fences and boundary lines. Eventually, the Mohicans were driven from their territory west of the Mahicannituck and continued to move further east in the early 1700s. Abraham of Shekomeko (formerly known as Maumauntissekun or Shabash) protested the claims but was still willing to sell some land. His grievance was based on Mohican tradition which provides that land that was not used is open for his people to continue hunting and fishing in the area. The Dutchess County territory being surveyed was unoccupied by white settlers for over four decades, making European claims
de jure. The Mohicans, on the other hand, had been hunting and farming on the land for over two decades. According to a missionary memorandum recorded in 1743, Abraham went to New York City in 1724 where the governor promised to pay for Mohican land and leave them with a square mile for Mohican settlement. In September 1743 that square mile was divided by white settlers. In response, Abraham wrote to the governor disputing the unlawful claims. He tried to prove Mohican ownership by producing witnesses to the Little Nine Partners and even sent a petition around Shekomeko. In the end, the land was divided, and Abraham moved from the village site while Shekomeko was claimed by a proprietor. Some 1,200 persons were settled at work camps to manufacture
naval stores and pay off their passage as
indentured labor. Known as "East Camp", the colony had four villages: Hunterstown, Queensbury, Annsbury, and Haysbury. The area was later renamed "Germantown". In 1775 Germantown was formed as a "district". Germantown was one of the seven original towns of Columbia County established by an act passed March 7, 1788, alongside Kinderhook, Canaan, Claverack, Hillsdale, Clermont, and Livingston. In March 1845, a boat-load of people from East Camp, who had been to Hudson to make purchases, was run over first by a
scow, and then by the steamboat
South America. All nine individuals were lost.
Removal , Housatonic,
Wappinger, and
Wawyachtonoc territory at one point within the area currently known as the
Hudson River Valley During the
American Revolution, the
Mohicans supported the colonists. After the war concluded, however, they were not welcomed in the area's villages. The
Oneida offered them a portion of land and in the mid-1780s they began to move to the
prayer town of
New Stockbridge. Although the community thrived and the population grew steadily, land companies, hoping to make a profit from the land inhabited by Indigenous communities, proposed that New York State remove all
Native Americans from within its borders. In 1822 agents from New York, missionaries, and commissioners from the
War Department negotiated with the
Menominee and
Ho-Chunk communities of
Wisconsin for a tract of land on which to relocate the indigenous tribes of New York. In the following years, members of the community were relocated to
Shawano County, Wisconsin, and settled on the reservation land. The modern
Stockbridge-Munsee Community comprises the descendants of these and other bands and tribes relocated people. ==Geography==