STOCKBRIDGE — The Tribal Council of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians is sounding an alarm about unaffiliated groups — including one based in the Berkshires — that may be seeking to exploit the Wisconsin-based tribe for financial gain.
Sherry White, liaison to the Tribal Council, cited two groups — the Alliance for a Viable Future, sponsor of annual Indigenous Peoples Day Weekend events in Great Barrington, and another that has organized an upcoming powwow in Ohio.
“Those have nothing to do with the Mohican tribe, and the tribe has not authorized this,” White said in a phone interview Monday from her home in Keshena, Wis. “Groups are using the Mohican name, probably either to help raise money or to draw attention to their events. The Tribal Council is getting very concerned that people think they’re donating to the tribe or working with it, and they’re not.”
The local group has agreed to clarify that its events, attended by tribal members on their own, do not represent the tribal government.
The federally recognized tribe of about 1,500 Munsee and Mohican Indians, based on a reservation in Shawano County, Wis., includes descendants of the original settlers of Stockbridge and other ancestral homelands in Berkshire County and adjacent New York state, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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In a letter to The Eagle, White pointed to a three-day event in September in Loudonville, Ohio, dubbed the 38th annual “Great Mohican Pow-Wow” on a “Mohican Reservation.” The website, mohicanpowwow.com, charged admission for individuals and groups and also listed sponsors and offers applications for vendors. It includes a disclaimer that it…
