The Stockbridge–Munsee members are descendants of tribes historically located in the Hudson River valley, New England and the mid-Atlantic areas, respectively, at the time of European encounter. The Stockbridge were
Mohicans from the upper east Hudson area who migrated into western Massachusetts in and near
Stockbridge before the
American Revolutionary War. They became Christianized Indians. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they migrated west to central New York. The Oneida people allowed them to share a 22,000-acre portion of the
Oneida Reservation south of
Syracuse, New York.
17th–19th centuries The Munsee were
Lenape who occupied the northern part of their total territory. As they spoke the Munsee dialect, one of the major three branches of the language, they were sometimes referred to by colonists and settlers by that term. They occupied coastal areas around present-day
New York City, the western part of
Long Island, and northern New Jersey. Lenape to the South spoke two other dialect variations. After the 1778
Stockbridge Massacre of
Stockbridge Militia during the
American Revolutionary War, what was left of a combined
Mohican and
Wappinger community in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts left for
Oneida County in western New York to join the
Oneida people there. Many
Munsee-speaking Lenape also migrated from New Jersey to there by 1802. They were joined there by
Brothertown Indians of New Jersey (from a reservation in
Indian Mills, New Jersey), as well as by the
Stockbridge Indians, which included remnants of the once large
Wappinger people and some
Mohican. Although the Oneida allowed them to share some of their reservation, eventually the two groups agreed to
removal together to present-day Wisconsin. Historically each of these tribes had spoken a distinct Algonquian language. The Stockbridge–Munsee share a 22,000-acre reservation in
Shawano County, Wisconsin. This land was initially assigned to the
Menominee, whose homelands these were. Since the late twentieth century, the Stockbridge–Munsee Community has developed the successful North Star Mohican Resort and Casino to generate revenues for welfare and economic development of the tribe. The Brotherton Indians have a separate reservation.
Indian termination As part of the
Indian termination policy that was followed by the US government from the 1940s to the 1960s, several former New York tribes were targeted for termination. A 21 January 1954 memo by the Department of the Interior advised that a bill for termination was being prepared including "about 3,600 members of the Oneida Tribe residing in Wisconsin." Another memo of the Department of the Interior memo entitled
Indian Claims Commission Awards Over $38.5 Million to Indian Tribes in 1964, states that the
Emigrant Indians of New York are "(now known as the
Oneidas, Stockbridge–Munsee, and
Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin)". In an effort to fight termination and force the government into recognizing their outstanding land claims from New York, the three tribes began filing litigation in the 1950s. As a result of a claim filed with the Indian Claims Commission, the group was awarded a settlement of $1,313,472.65 on August 11, 1964. ==Reservation==