Common Unities: Possession, Dispossession, & Community in Tunxis Land Records, 1640-1841
Common Unities: Possession, Dispossession, & Community in Tunxis Land Records, 1640-1841
The Tunxis, or the People Living at the Bend of the River, were the Indigenous inhabitants, from time out of mind, of Tunxis Sepos, what is now Farmington, Connecticut. While their land base in the early 17th Century extended throughout central Connecticut, overlapping with related Native communities along the lower Connecticut River watershed, the advent of European settlement at Sukiaug (Hartford) soon changed the contours of the Tunxis landscape and its community.
A land treaty in 1640 laid the ground for relations with English colonists and established one of the earliest Indian reservations in America at Tunxis Sepos. Over time, three separate reservation common land areas developed with additional parcels privately owned by Tunxis individuals appearing nearby.
From then to the late 1700s, as colonial settlement encroached upon Connecticut Native space, the Tunxis actively assimilated displaced Indian neighbors in an e pluribus unum (out of many, one) strategy that expanded their numbers, strengthened their political influence in Central Connecticut Indian Country, and most likely, insured, at least temporarily, their continued presence on the land.
Living among English neighbors burdened the Tunxis with continuous anxiety over land loss and violence. Mobility of Tunxis individuals back and forth to neighboring Native communities either because of work, social, or religious opportunities or traditional customs certainly occurred. Some Tunxis could be found at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, for example, as early as 1748. By 1774, however, the tribal land base at Farmington became unsustainable when many of the Tunxis began to sell their property to remove with other New England Indian communities to a place called Eeyamquittoowauconnuck or Brothertown in Oneida Country, New York. Other families removed to Massachusetts or decided to remain in Connecticut. A second migration in the mid-19th Century brought some Tunxis as far west as Wisconsin. While the political organization of the Tunxis in Connecticut did not survive, descendants of the men and women who once occupied Tunxis Sepos surely have.
Recovering Indigenous Farmington
To more fully understand parts of Farmington as a distinctly Indigenous place from 1640 to 1826, the NEH grant theme of A More Perfect Union can be explored through the lens of land transfers by the Tunxis as individuals and as a communal entity for over 180 years. As Jean O'Brien has demonstrated, deeds have proved an effective method to counter the pervasive myth of the disappearing Indian and offer insights into the tribe’s land base, kinship, intermarriage with the local African-American community, and pressures from an individualized land market.
Digital Documentary Record
In Common Unities: Possession, Dispossession, and Community in Tunxis Land Records, 1640-1851, we have created a freely available collection of documents on the lifespan of the Tunxis reservations in Farmington, Connecticut and of the private landholdings of Tunxis individuals. These digital heritage items include an image, metadata, and annotated transcriptions with interactive biographical entries.
Community Scholar Commentaries and Community Archival Records
Since the Tunxis tribe is no longer in existence, the recovered historical record is explained by its descendant modern communities, the Brothertown Indian Nation and the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, both now located in the State of Wisconsin. Tribal representatives have reviewed all items for culturally sensitive information, worked collaboratively with NNRC editors, and added their own landing page, metadata, and cultural narratives. Thus, while the original deeds were recorded by agents of the Town of Farmington, community outsiders, the addition of tribal knowledge serves to balance or re-indigenize the materials and establish a measure of authority over the records. Through the commentaries, marginalized perspectives are brought to the center about Indigenous land possession, dispossession, community, assimilation, migration, sovereignty, and individual expressions of Locke's life, liberty, and estate through land ownership and tribal community.
- The Legacy of Land -- Faith Bowman (SMC)
- A Tunxis Conversation -- Craig Cottrell and Courtney Cottrell Gerzetich (BIN)
- Powwow Circle -- Walter "Skip" Blanc (BIN)
- Building Brothertown: From Farmington to Brothertown -- Brothertown Citizen (BIN)
- Loss of Tunxis Land: Getting to the Root of the Matter -- Renee Gralewicz (BIN)
- Sarah Towsey, Tunxis Woman, and Her People / Sarah's Visit -- Judy Hartley (SMC)
Community Scholars have also created tribal landing pages for an archival space where any Brothertown or Stockbridge-Munsee community member can respond to the historical documentary record and add new interpretations and stories for the public or for their community only.
Digital Humanities Tools
In addition to the digital heritage items, we provide interactive mechanisms to enhance learning and promote an awareness of an Indigenized landscape.
Interactive Resource Map
Using more than 100 digital heritage items, we have created an interactive resource map that spatially visualizes the Tunxis land record data over place and time. By clicking any particular area on the map, users can explore each parcel, track its tenure from Native to non-Native hands, and see when and where changes in Tunxis land ownership appear and disappear on and around the reservations and individual landholdings. Moreover, a link brings users to an annotated transcription of each land transaction and interactive biographies of individuals mentioned in the document. For instructions on using the Resource Map, click here.
Tunxis Document Chronology
To provide context to the land records produced during the NEH grant period, we have also created a timeline of the documentary history of the Tunxis people. Both the resource map and the timeline are works in progress.
Items in Collection:
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer of parts of 30th, 31st, 35th Lots and the whole of 32nd, 33rd, and 34th Lots in the Northwest Division, plus other acreage in Farmington belonging to Elijah Wampey for 100 pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by the Tunxis to a Farmington colonial of 13 acres, one rood, 28 rods in the 52nd Lot in Southeast Division for eight pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man to a Farmington man of 1.5 acres and a house and one other acre on west side of Pequabuck Meadow for 15 pounds, 10 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man to a Farmington colonist of land provided from his father's will and his own rights in the Tunxis reservation for 7 pounds, 12 shillings, and 6 pence
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & Sovereignty, Settlement, Migration, & ResettlementSummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man at Oneida to a Farmington colonist of five acres at Fort Hill for seven pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer from a Tunxis woman to a Farmington colonist of half of her father's house lot and all her rights to the reservation for three pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the EnvironmentSummary
Transfer of five acres west of the Pequabuck Meadow by a Tunxis man to a Farmington resident
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research CollaborativeCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man to a Farmington colonist of 1 acre, 3 roods, and 33 rods at Fort Hill for 3 pounds, 10 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & Sovereignty, Settlement, Migration, & ResettlementSummary
Transfer by two Tunxis women at Stockbridge to a Farmington colonist of 3 acres, 23 rods in the 5th Lot and 5.5 acres in the 6th Lot in the Tunxis reservation for seven pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis woman to a Farmington resident of three acres and three roods of land at Fort Hill for six pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & Sovereignty, Settlement, Migration, & ResettlementSummary
Transfer from a Tunxis man in Westfield, Massachusetts to a Tunxis man in Farmington of 5.5 acres and 35 rods of land in the Tunxis reservation
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research CollaborativeCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man of Wethersfield to a Farmington colonist of 5 acres and 60 rods in the 80th Lot in the Northwest Division for 3 pounds, 4 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the EnvironmentSummary
Transfer by a Tunxis woman of an acre of land at the 7th Lot in the Indian Neck allotment
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
UncategorizedSummary
Transfer by a Tunxis woman of an acre of land at the 7th Lot in the Indian Neck allotment
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer from a Tunxis man to a Farmington resident of 5 acres less 7 rods of land in the 10th Lot in the Tunxis reservation for 6 pounds, 10 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer from a Tunxis woman living in New London to her brother in Farmington of five acres in the Tunxis reservation
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Farmington resident to a Tunxis man of forty acres of land at the common field called Venrus's Meadow for six pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man of a little more than five acres of land in the First Lot in the Old Indian grant
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis couple to a Farmington resident of 2.5 acres in the 2nd Lot at Indian Neck for 2 pounds, 10 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & Sovereignty, Settlement, Migration, & ResettlementSummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man at Hancock County, Massachusetts to his son at Farmington of 5 acres where his house stands and 5 acres where his barn stands for 40 pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & Sovereignty, Settlement, Migration, & ResettlementSummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man of Hancock County, Massachusetts to his son at Farmington of 9 acres, 2 roods, and 8 perches in the 52nd Lot in the Southeast Division for 4 pounds, 15 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man to a Farmington resident of 40 acres in Ventrus's Meadow for 6 pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer from Tunxis man to Farmington resident of four acres on the 14th Lot in the Indian Grant
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Land transfer of 5 acres, 3 roods, and 14 rods, Lot 26 on the Indian lands west of Pequabuck meadow