Wawyachtonoc

Wawyachtonoc (also rendered Wyachtonok, Wawayachtonoc, and Wyaghtonok) were an Algonquian-speaking Native American people indigenous to east central New York and northwest Connecticut.

A map of the traditional territory of Mahican affiliated tribes. The Wawyachtonoc are shown in dark green in the bottom right.

In 1687, the Wyachtonok,originally subgroup of Paugussett, joined the Mohican Confederacy.

The majority of the Wawyachtonoc were converted to Christianity, beginning in 1740, by Moravian missionaries.^[1] During this period Wawyachtonoc populations became concentrated at the Moravian missions at Shekomeko and Schaghticoke.^[2]

In the 1830s the some Wawyachtonoc were displaced to Wisconsin. These Wawyachtonoc descendants are now part of the Stockbridge–Munsee Community and Brothertown Indians of Wisconsin, while those that remained in Connecticut are part of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, a state-recognized tribe.

Name

The ethnonym Wawyachtonoc is often translated as "eddy people" or "people of the curved channel."^[3]

Territory

The traditional territory of the Wawyachtonoc extended throughout what is now Columbia and Duchess County New York, and Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Villages

• Weantinock, the tribe's primary village, situated along the Housatonic River near present New Milford^[4]
• Wechquadnach, meaning "wrapped around by the mountain," on the Eastern side of Indian Lake, Litchfield County^[5][6]
• Shekomeko, meaning "great village," 2 miles south of present Pine Plains, NY^[7]
• Pachgatgoch (present day Schaghticoke Indian Reservation - Kent, CT) "Where the river forks" at the mouth of the Housatonic R. and Ten Mile R.
• Weataug, meaning "wigwam place," likely on the Housatonic River between Washining Lake and Canaan, CT, near present Salisbury^[8][9]
• Bantam
• Pomperaug

References

1. Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast. Smithsonian Institution. 1978.
2. Ricky, Donald (1998-01-01). Encyclopedia of New Jersey Indians: Encyclopedia of Native Peoples. Somerset Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0-403-09331-1.
3. Ricky, Donald (1999-01-01). Indians of Maryland. Somerset Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0-403-09877-4.
4. Hodge, Frederick Webb (1912). Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. U.S. Government Printing Office.
5. Starna, William A. (2020-03-09). From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-1-4962-1058-6.
6. Lavin, Lucianne. "Archaeology and Ethnohistory in Connecticut's Northwest Corner: The Mohican Connection" (PDF). The Institute for American Indian Studies.
7. Hodge, Frederick Webb (1912). Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: N-Z. U.S. Government Printing Office.
8. Douglas-Lithgow, R. A. (2001). Native American Place Names of Connecticut. Applewood Books. ISBN 978-1-55709-540-4.
9. Starna, William A. (2020-03-09). From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-1-4962-1058-6.