вЂњWhen you see the vast death by disease of many Indians through history, and the vast death by warfare, he seems to have had tremendous foresight,' she adds. Fawcett-Sayet feels he helped the tribe fend off assimilation and aggression at the hands of the whites. вЂњHe wanted to be sure there was a future for his heirs.вЂќ Because he decided to cooperate with the burgeoning dominant culture. вЂњHe was an absolute and total believer in his posterity,вЂќ Fawcett-Sayet says. Uncas- an unruly undersachem to Sassacus-defected from the Pequots and established a new tribe under the PequotsвЂ™ original name, Mohegan (for вЂњwolf peopleвЂќ), in the town of Montville.ДЄt the outset, Uncas saw great advantages in taking a risk other Native American tribes avoided-forging an alliance with the British Colonists. But with the arrival of English Colonists in the 1630s. Their territory encompassed what are now the towns of New London, Waterford, Groton, Ledyard and Stonington. Ultimately, the Pequots settled on the east and west sides of whatвЂ™s now known as the Thames River, under the dominion of the sachem Sassacus. Their aggressive behavior toward other Indian tribes earned them the nickname вЂњPequotaug,вЂќ for destroyer. The Mohegan story begins in the early 17th century, when a splinter group left the northern New York state tribe, the Mohicans (themselves an offshoot of the Lenm Lenape, or Delaware Indians of Oklahoma), and began to push their way across Connecticut. To fully understand Gladys Tantaquidgeon's contribution to Mohegan culture, one needs a brief history lesson. It has inspired a lot of revivals of our customs and cultures.вЂќ ThatвЂ™s been extremely rejuvenative for Native American peoples. вЂњPartly in response to all the hullabaloo over the Columbus Quincentenary,' Fawcett-Sayet says, вЂњCongress has declared this the year of the American Indian. What took so long? Well, according to GladysвЂ™ grand-niece and Mohegan tribal historian Melissa Fawcett-Sayet, who lives in Norwich, in recent decades it hasnвЂ™t been socially acceptable-particularly in the eyes of the non-Indian world-to be designated as вЂњmedicine woman.' But the cultural tide is turning, and Native American traditions are better respected nowadays. 22, in a public ceremony at Fort Shantok Stale Park in Montville, Gladys Tantaquidgeon will finally be installed as the Mohegan NationвЂ™s de facto medicine woman. ItвЂ™s even harder to believe that, despite a lifetime spent as cultural guardian and spiritual guide to her tribe, she has yet to be officially recognized. It's hard to believe this droll, diminutive, intellectually curious Mohegan Indian woman is 93 years old.

вЂњBut when she came back, she wouldnвЂ™t tell us what they talked about.вЂќ вЂњI remember one family Thanksgiving dinner-I might have been 6 or 7 years old at the time- when she said to my mother, вЂ™I want to step outside for a while and talk to the little people,вЂ™вЂќ Gladys recalls. One such fortunate soul was GladysвЂ™ grand-aunt Fidelia Fielding. Some Mohegans have enjoyed a better rapport with the makiawisug than others. Legend has it that if you donвЂ™t leave gifts for the little people- preferably snacks of cornbread and meat- from time to time, they may play pranks on you. It seems that, in Mohegan Indian culture, baskets like this were used to put food out for the makiawisug, or вЂњlittle people'-magical, mischievous beings (much like leprechauns or fairies) believed to live in underground burrows in the woodlands. Stopping at one exhibit, she pulls out a tiny woven basket from 1860 and tells yet another story.

Her surname means вЂњfast runner,' but Gladys TantaquidgeonвЂ™s gait is more deliberate these days as she moves through her family's repository of Native American history and culture, MontvilleвЂ™s Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum. This article is being posted to the web in July 2021 as part of Connecticut Magazine 's 50th anniversary celebration.ДЄt 93, Gladys Tantaquidgeon is the cultural guardian and spiritual leader of the Mohegan Nation.

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