Table of Contents
The Mohican people, through the oral traditions preserved by their descendants in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, maintain stories about their origins and the world around them. These traditions were passed down by storytellers for generations and later recorded in writing.
Around 11,500 years ago, the elder explains, the Mohican people divided into four groups after a series of cataclysmic events. These groups became known as the Aztecs, Mayans, Anasazi, and Hopi. Each of these tribes had unique access to ancient wisdom through telepathic means, receiving guidance from their extraterrestrial ancestors.
Channeling from Pamela Aaralyn
The most direct account of their ancestral origins is a migration story known as The Long Journey. According to this tradition, the ancestors once lived far to the west. They saw an island to the east across a body of water, crossed to it by canoe, and found it rich in plants, animals, and space. Some settled there. Over time, they discovered better lands further east.
Earlier islands sank behind them.
After many generations of movement, they reached the North American mainland. Their numbers grew, and they spread across the region.
This story aligns with an earlier written record from the late 1700s. It describes a great people who traveled from the northwest, crossed salt waters, and after long journeys established themselves along the Atlantic coast from the Delaware River area northward. One group moved to the Hudson River Valley and became the Muh-he-con-ne-ok, or Mohican.
A related tradition describes the world after creation. When the Creator finished making the earth, four powerful beings were assigned to the four directions. These beings, sometimes called Grandfather of the East, Grandmother of the South, Grandfather of the West, and Grandfather of the North, control the winds and seasons. People traditionally offered tobacco and prayers to them, especially when gathering medicines.
The Long Journey
Long, long ago, the ancestors of the Stockbridge Indians lived far to the west of their present home. One day, as they looked across the water to the east, they saw an island in the sea. With their canoes, they traveled to this island. It was large, with many plants and animals which they could use for food, and a small number of people moved to the island and built their homes there. Living there, their population increased.
After living on the island for many years, they saw another island to the east in the water. They visited this island, and found it better than the island which they called home. They abandoned the first island for the second and moved there. Some time later, the first island sank beneath the waters and disappeared.
Having established themselves on the second island, they later saw other islands farther beyond, and over the course of time moved their villages to these other islands. Whenever they moved to the new islands, the ones they had inhabited previously sank out of sight. Moving continually for many centuries, they established themselves on the North American mainland.
By this time, the ancestors of the Stockbridge were quite numerous, and they spread further throughout the land. Other tribes lived near them, including one which built villages fortified with stockades of poles and banks of earth. These people also built mounds to bury their dead. The relationship between the Stockbridge and these moundbuilding people was friendly. As they lived in peace, another group of people attacked and fought them, destroying the villages of the moundbuilders and killing their people. The Stockbridge continued to live in peace, and remained where they had long dwelled until the Whites came.
(Adapted from a story told by John W. Quinney to William Kribs, published in 1928, “Indian Folktales,” Wisconsin Archeologist 7[1]:223-31.)
John W. Quinney (also known as Waunnacon Quinney) was a respected sachem, diplomat, and advocate for the Stockbridge-Munsee people during a period of repeated forced removals. He played a key role in documenting and defending his nation’s history and rights.
This migration story is the main recorded origin legend associated with the Mohican/Stockbridge people. It describes a long westward-to-eastward movement across a series of islands (with earlier ones sinking), eventual settlement on the North American mainland, peaceful relations with mound-building neighbors, conflict involving those neighbors, and the later arrival of Europeans. It offers a traditional explanation for how the ancestors reached the Hudson River Valley region.
