Brothertown Indians
The Reverend Samson Occom, founder
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (4000 enrolled (as of 2013)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States Wisconsin
|
|
| Languages | |
| English, formerly Mohegan and Pequot | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mohegan, Pequot, Narragansett, Montauk |
The Brothertown Indians (also Brotherton), located in Wisconsin, are a Native American tribe formed in the late eighteenth century from communities so-called "praying Indians" (or Moravian Indians), descended from Christianized Pequot and Mohegan (Algonquian-speaking) tribes of southern New England and eastern Long Island, New York. In the 1780s after the American Revolutionary War, they migrated from New England into New York state, where they accepted land from the Iroquois Oneida Nation in Oneida County.
Under pressure from the United States government, the Brothertown Indians, together with the and some Oneida, removed to Wisconsin in the 1830s, taking ships through the Great Lakes. In 1839 they were the first tribe of Native Americans in the United States to accept United States citizenship and allotment of their communal land to individual households, in order to prevent another removal further west. Most of the neighboring Oneida and many of the Lenape (Delaware) were removed to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) in this period.
Seeking to regain federal recognition, the Brothertown Indians filed a documented petition in 2005. The Bureau of Indian Affairs notified the tribe in 2009 in a preliminary finding that they had not satisfied all seven criteria. In addition, the BIA said that the 1839 act granting the Brothertown United States citizenship and dissolving their communal reservation land, had effectively terminated the people as a sovereign tribe. In September 2012, in the final determination on the Brothertown petition, the acting Assistant Secretary determined that the group previously had a relationship with the United States, but had its tribal status was terminated by the 1839 act and could only be restored by a new act of Congress. Because Brothertown could not satisfy one of the seven mandatory criteria for federal acknowledgment, the Department did not look to the other criteria in making its final determination. The Brothertown Indians are continuing to pursue federal recognition.
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Wikipedia