Montville

MONTVILLE This area was long the home of the Mohegan Indians, by settlement before the Colonial period, and by reservation until more recent years. Prominent Indian sachems were Owaneco and his father Uncas, who defeated the chief Miantonomoh, a Narragansett, destroying that tribe's will to fight and opening the land to occupation by the whites. Uncas aided the English in King Philip's War of 1675-76, their most difficult and widespread conflict with the Indians. John Mason, about 1723, erected a school to educate and teach Indians the Christian religion. Samson Occum, a student trained at the Reverend Eleazer Wheelock's school in present-day Columbia, taught in New London and became the first ordained Indian minister. He was a missionary to the Indians of New York colony. Visiting England, he raised a sum of $50,000, which was used to found Dartmouth College. (Continued on other side) MONTVILLE (Continued from other side) Uncas donated lands to English friends in 1658, urging them to settle. Samuel Rogers, the first settler, built a home in 1670 and reared six children, the first white persons born in Montville. Connecticut divided lands to each Indian family in 1790, extending equal rights to all Indians as to whites in 1872. Sarah Huntington and Sarah Breed established a school on Fort Hill about 1827. They raised funds to build the present Mohegan Indian Church in 1831. Nearby are Fort Shantok State Park and Mohegan Indian Burial Ground, the Church, and the Tantaquidgeon Museum, preserving much Indian culture.