Description
The Schaghticoke are a Native American tribe of the Eastern Woodlands who historically consisted of Mahican, Potatuck, Weantinock, Tunxis, Podunk, and their descendants, peoples indigenous to what is now New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The remnant tribes amalgamated in the area near the Connecticut-New York border after many losses, including the sale of some Schaghticoke and members of neighboring tribes into slavery in the Caribbean in the 1600s. In 1986, the tribe split. One group maintained the name Schaghticoke Indian Tribe, and the other identifies as the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation. The Schaghticoke people have a long history of political relationships with both the former colony of Connecticut and the state. Most of the members live off the reservation in and near Kent.
Language
Algonquin
Culture
The 18th century Tribe followed a traditional seasonal round of group movements involving a winter-spring village, a summer village, and numerous smaller camps at which economic activities occurred, such as fishing, hunting, tin crafting, and collecting materials for basket and broom-making. The community supported itself through a mixed economy of maize agriculture, home gardens, hunting and fishing, and small livestock farming. Tribal members added to these subsistence activities by selling woodsplint baskets, brooms, canoes, tin products, and other wood objects to white farmers and shopkeepers. In 1736, the Connecticut General Assembly established the borders of the tribe’s reservation.