speck] 



A MOHEGAN-PEQUOT DIARY 209 



tribe the Tantaquidgeon ^ family recognizes the same in part. Dia- 

 lectic or other influence from this source, however, maj" be regarded 

 as negligible. 



Among the minor tribes whose local culture and dialect were evi- 

 dently rather closely related to the Narragansett were the Western 

 Nehantic." They deserve particular notice. The location of this 

 small tribe has already been given. With the decline of this band 

 its descendants seemed to have turned toward Mohegan as a refuge. 

 Until recently there were several individuals of pure Nehantic blood 

 (see pis. 18, 19, 21) living there who had removed from their proper 

 habitat on Long Island Sound near East Lyme. Four of the present 

 inhabitants of Mohegan are therefore one-half Nehantic, and some of 

 these have children there. In 1861 there were six of this classifica- 

 tion. The culture contribution of this small group can, however, 

 have been very insignificant, even if it differed at all from that of the 

 Mohegan residents. The Nehantic have been regarded also as an 

 offshoot of the Narragansett.' 



Immigrants from the Tunxis tribe were at times accorded a haven 

 at Mohegan, as their declining numbers left them a prey to the en- 

 croachments of the whites. The Timxis, a small nation, occupied a 

 neighborhood on the Connecticut River near the site of Hartford. 

 Just what their dialectic peculiarities may have been we have no 

 record to show, beyond several assertions that they belonged to the 

 Mattabesec or Wappinger confederation, which extended from the 

 Hudson to the Connecticut south of the latitude of Poughkeepsie. 

 They are reputed to have been later subject to Uncas. After the 

 Revolution some of them joined the Stockbridge Mahican. One of 

 the Tunxis descendants persisted at Mohegan until within about 30 

 years ago. This was an old woman, Pually Mossuck, who died about 

 1895, leaving some scattered offspring, Caroline and Da\nd Jones and 

 Mary Taylor. The name Mossuck was noted by De Forest as 

 occurring in his time (1852), borne by an old man living in Litchfield.* 

 In 1804 some of them still held land in Farmington under the care of 

 an overseer. 



8 This n.ime is given as "Tantiquieson, a Mohe:igue captain," in Winthrop's Journal, ii, 380-381, quoted 

 by Drake, Biograpliy and History of the Indi.ans, etc. (1837), Book U, p. 69. De Forest (History of the 

 Indians of Connecticut, p. 191) also refers to one of Uncas's captains of this name. 



6 Since the account of Nehantic ethnological survivals was published in 1909 (Speck, ref. (h) and (i). p. 206 

 of this paper) two additional facts concerning the band have come to hand. One isthe word wakordjana'k, 

 remembered by Mrs. Skeesuck as an expression often used by her mother (Mercy Nonsuch), a (ull-blood 

 Nehantic woman who died in 1913. This means, " Oh my goodness!" and corresponds to Mrs. Fielding's 

 Mohegan exclamation wai'kodja'maqk', " Oh my!" Next we traced an old wooden corn mortar (pi. 16, c) 

 which had been taken from the Nehantic reservation at East Lyme and had fallen into the hands of white 

 people. It had presumably belonged to the Wawkeet family of Nehantic. In form, and in the peculiarity 

 of the scalloped carved base and handles at the sides, this interesting mortar is identical with those used at 

 Mohegan (pis. 16, a; 17, a). 



■ W. Hubbard, .\ Narrative of the Indian Wars in New England, etc., 1607-1677, p. 49. Stockbridge, 

 1803. 



' De Forest, History of the Indians of Connecticut, p. 375 



