Month: July 2021

STOCKBRIDGE — For descendants of the town’s original settlers, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians, a return to their ancestral homelands always packs a powerful, emotional punch.

That was especially evident last week, as several tribal members dedicated a new public exhibit at the Trustees of Reservations’ Mission House at 19 Main St. Artifacts from the Mohican Nation’s archives went on display, curated from their museum in Bowler, Wis., in the area where the descendants have resided since the 1850s, after their forced exile from Stockbridge and a long westward journey, enduring tremendous hardship.

In the 1730s, after the 125-member tribe arrived from New York’s Upper Hudson Valley, Stockbridge — it originally was named Indian Town — was settled as a missionary community for the Mohicans and English to coexist and co-govern. The Rev. John Sergeant, an English settler, created a mission house in the town to promote Christianity.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community now has a five-year agreement with the Trustees to tell its story through the Mission House exhibit, said Bonney Hartley, historic preservation manager for the tribe. “The whole exhibit is told in our own voice so we have a footprint on Main Street again,” she explained.

Stockbridge native Trudy Fadding, a rising junior at Williams College, worked with the tribe’s historical preservation office in Williamstown to help develop the exhibit.

Through a college internship with Hartley last winter, Fadding researched and prepared the content and text for the “Mohican Miles” exhibit panels.

Timeline

1734: The 125-member Mohican tribe arrives at Indian Town (later named Stockbridge) from its ancestral homelands in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley.

1736: John Sergeant, a European settler, creates a mission house to promote Christianity.

1737: A land grant signed by Massachusetts Bay Colony “Governour” Jonathan Belcher, on behalf of King George II, gave 1/60th of the territory each to…

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History is written by the victors — except in the rare instance when it is not.

In 1939, authors Christina Marquand and Sarah Sedgwick wrote, “The Stockbridge of today, swept clean of its original owners, the Indians, is what the Williams and the English families up on the hill built for us.”

In March 1736, the General Court in Boston granted six square miles (23,040 acres) on the Housatonic River north of Sheffield to the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation. In addition, six white families, “the English” — missionary John Sergeant, brothers Timothy and Joseph Woodbridge, Ephraim Williams, Ephraim Brown, and Josiah Jones — were granted 400 acres each. The Mohicans retained 90 percent, the English 10 percent of the settlement called Indian Town. Later, it would be renamed Stockbridge.

Highway robbery

Col. John Stoddard, the surveyor, laid out 32 meadow lots along either side of the river for the Mohicans. The six “settling lots” for the English were on the hill. The Mohicans expressed concerns, even fear, but were assured by Stoddard that the law would protect them and their property.

In “The Red Man Dispossessed” (New England Quarterly, March 1994), Lion Miles traces the dispossession and ousting of the Mohicans from their land: “The Indians found the English were not content with [the land grants]. The Indians charged that the English claimed lands amounting to 4800 acres, twice the 2400 originally allocated.”

The methods of theft were various. With Williams in the lead and others following, many questionable practices were employed.

The whites purchased land from the Mohicans for outrageously low prices without first securing the approval of the General Court. The approval was required precisely to ensure fair prices.

To avoid involvement of the General Court, the English swapped land. The Mohicans did not understand relative land values and were duped. To…

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Earlier this week, Xbox made the unexpected announcement that their console would be the “official console” of Battlefield 2042. This appeared to be the next step of a major partnership between EA, DICE and Microsoft. However, Xbox has now confirmed that this announcement does not mean that Battlefield 2042 will be exclusive to their console.

Is Xbox Really the “Official Console” of Battlefield 2042?

When Battlefield 2042 was first unveiled, during the Microsoft reveal event at E3, it was apparent that EA had partnered with Microsoft to some extent to market their upcoming release. Earlier this week, this partnership became clearer, when a new press release stated that the Xbox Series S and Series X consoles would be the; “official consoles of Battlefield 2042.”

The press release was somewhat vague, stating simply that this partnership would; “ensure that the next entry in the Battlefield franchise is the best one yet”. The statement did not offer any details as to how the game might utilise Xbox hardware in particular, receive extra support from Microsoft, etc. However, it appears to be one of five major partnerships which EA and DICE have entered into for Battlefield 2042. The other four partners are NVIDIA, Logitech, Polaris, and WD_BLACK. Once more, no firm details are yet available regarding what these partnerships will actually mean in practice.

Because of the vagueness of the press release, there was some confusion among fans, who took it to mean that Battlefield 2042 would now be Xbox exclusive. However, Xbox’s Senior Marketing Manager John Munsee has now said on Twitter that this will not be the case. Munsee clarified that the partnership is about; “marketing, branding, gameplay capture, etc.” rather than exclusivity….

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