The Brothertown Nation of Indians

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The Brothertown Nation of Indians

Land Ownership and Nationalism in Early America, 1740-1840

Brad D. E. Jarvis

358 pages
8 illustrations, 3 maps, 3 tables

Hardcover

July 2010

978-0-8032-2633-3

$55.00 Add to Cart

About the Book

A group of educated Christian Natives from a variety of New England tribes came together in central New York in 1785 to form a community of their own, Brothertown, a proprietary “Body Politick” modeled after a New England town with an elected leadership. In an effort to retain their land rights and remain self-sufficient, the Natives of Brothertown sought accommodation rather than resistance to Anglo-American ideas about religion, land use, and gender relations by embracing the notion of “civilization” while retaining their identity as Natives. Brothertown residents encouraged women to adopt spinning and weaving and men to become farmers on individual assigned lots, rather than working in the Anglo-American community isolated from traditional ties.
 
The Brothertown Natives had to negotiate continuously with local, state, and national authorities to retain the rights to their land and their own sovereignty. They eventually bought a tract of land from Natives in Wisconsin and relocated their community to escape land encroachment in New York. Facing the threat of the Removal Act and forced relocation, the Brothertown Natives used their status as “civilized Christians” to become American citizens in order to retain their land and keep their community intact, thereby establishing both their external identity and their self-understanding as Americans and as the “Brothertown Nation of Indians.” Brad D. E. Jarvis examines the origins and experiences of a unique Native community as it negotiated to preserve community identity, sovereignty, and cultural stability in the midst of land loss, weakened political authority, and economic marginalization.

Author Bio

Brad D. E. Jarvis is an assistant professor of history at Saginaw Valley State University.

Praise

"[The Brothertown Nation of Indians] provides a unique perspective on an important and fascinating community that, incidentally, has not yet received federal recognition."—Linford D. Fisher, Journal of American History

"In this well-written book, Brad D. E. Jarvis reveals the critical connections that bind land, communal identity, and sovereignty in the minds and history of the Brothertown Nation from the 1700s to 1840."—John P. Bowes, Ethnohistory

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. "Crowding in upon Their Said Lands": The Consequences of Land Encroachment upon Native Communities in Southern New England, 1675<EN>1775

2. "Endeavouring to Use It for the Good of My Fellow Indians": Wheelock's Indians and the Gospel of Community Revitalization, 1742<EN>72 

3. "Endeavour to Do All Things as Becometh Brothers": Kinship and Community in the Formation of Brothertown, 1771<EN>95

4. "Your People" and "Our People": Maintaining Boundaries and Preserving Brothertown, 1785<EN>1812

5. "No Great Friend of Indians": Politicians, Speculators, Entrepreneurs, and the Failed Brothertown Migration to the White River, 1809<EN>25

6. "A Tedious, Perplexing, and Harassing Dispute": Contesting and Defining Land Ownership in the Michigan Territory, 1820<EN>32

7. "A New State of Things": Citizenship and Land Ownership as Means to Sovereignty, 1832<EN>40

Conclusion

Notes

Index

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