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…
Where We Belong: Madeline Sayet — Photo: Jon Burklund/Zanni Productions 
