Category Archives: Current Events

Mark Baldwin Memorial Bench Fund Raiser

27 Thursday Jan 2022

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Calumet and Cross Heritage Society is raising funds to purchase and install a bench in Brothertown, Wisconsin’s Union Cemetery in honor of our friend and founding President, Mark Baldwin. Please go to https://gofund.me/663ae6f8 to learn more. All donations are appreciated.

https://gofund.me/663ae6f8.

Even a small donation could help us reach our fundraising goal. If you can’t make a donation, it would be great if you could share the fundraiser to help spread the word.

UPDATE: Thanks to all who donated, we reached our goal within two days. Thank you!

Peacemaker’s Meeting Saturday

09 Thursday Sep 2021

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This Saturday at 11 am CT is the monthly Peacemaker’s meeting via Zoom. Per head Peacemaker Elsen, ALL Brotherton, enrolled or not, are invited to attend.

The Peacemakers are the judiciary branch of our tribal government and have been an important part of Brothertown since at least September 4, 1797 (the first written record we have from them). Our current Peacemakers work hard to protect our people and to ensure that they, and the tribe, are operating according to our constitution. They are a welcoming group; always happy to speak to their constituents and to offer support and counsel.

Please contact me, or the Peacemakers via email, for login information.

The Brothertown Indian Nation’s Joseph Johnson Award

20 Sunday Jun 2021

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The Joseph Johnson award was instituted by our Tribal Council in 2008. This award has only been given out three times in our history. The first recipient was Bernard “Boots” Sampson, the 2nd was Caroline K. Andler and today, the 3rd recipient is Mark Baldwin. Mark’s award is unique in that he is the only member to whom this award was bestowed posthumously. Thank you to Tribal Council for honoring Mark’s dedication and outstanding service to the Brothertown Indian Nation.

For more information, please see the following blog post by Brothertown Forward: https://brothertownforward.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/joseph-johnson-award-bestowed-on-mark-alan-baldwin-june-20-2021/

July 14, 2020: The Brothertown Indian Nation Celebrates First Annual Samson Occom Day

13 Monday Jul 2020

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Today, July 14, 2020, is the first annual Samson Occom Day to be formally celebrated by the Brothertown Indians.  The Nation’s Council issued a decree establishing the holiday during their monthly meeting this past June.   The resolution, which passed unanimously, cites, in part, the Reverend Occom’s sizeable role in the organization and the propagation of the Brothertown tribe.  While festivities will certainly be muted with this year’s pandemic, the event will not go unnoticed.

To commemorate this special day, tribal citizens will be offering up prayers in gratitude to God for the gift of Samson Occom’s life; speaking with their family members “about [his] story and what he stood for”; reading portions of his journals, letters, and sermons; watching YouTube videos about him; and, in imitation of one of the ways in which Occom supported his family financially, one person is planning to carve a wooden spoon.

If you are interested in participating in Samson Occom discussions, you might like to join the Calumet and Cross book club for our Wednesday evening chapter chat. We are currently on chapter 12 of William DeLoss Love’s, “Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England” (available online at https://archive.org/details/samsonoccomchris00love). For book club login info please click “contact me” above. Everyone is welcome.

 

For more about Samson Occom, please visit these links:

**A Short Narrative of My Life, Occom’s autobiography, is available to read at Dartmouth https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Library_Bulletin/Nov1999/Hoefnagel_Close.html Occom originally wrote his autobiography in 1765.  He wrote this 2nd draft in 1768.

 

Samson Occom; a book by Harold Blodgett: https://archive.org/details/samsonoccom0000blod/page/n241

 

“SAMSON OCCOM”: A clipping from the Utica Morning Herald dated February 1894. Contains a lot of accurate (and some inaccurate) information on Samson Occom: Occom  

 

Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England by William DeLoss Love and published in 1899: Includes an index with all of the known Brothertown Indians. samsonoccomchris00love  

 

The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan by Joanna Brooks is available to preview on Google: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Collected_Writings_of_Samson_Occom_M.html?id=R9ELRhEdupMC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Occom’s 1774 hymn book, A Choice Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs: Intended for the Edification of Sincere Christians, of All Denominations, (published as words only; no musical notation) contains many reprinted songs and a few of Occom’s own: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N10659.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext).

 

Occom’s 1st publication, A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul in 1772.  https://archive.org/details/sermonatexecutio01occo

 

Dartmouth College hosts the Occom Circle site which contains both scans and transcripts of a significant number of Samson Occom letters and journals: https://www.dartmouth.edu/~occom/

 

Other original Occom documents are available through the Connecticut Historical Society at http://connecticuthistoryillustrated.org/islandora/search/occom?type=dismax

 

4 sermons recovered from Occom’s trip to England and not included in the Joanna Brooks book, The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan:  https://brothertowncitizen.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/recently-discovered-samson-occom-sermons/

 

“A Brief Narrative of the Indian Charity School in Lebanon in Connecticut, New England”briefnarrativeof00whit_bw  This is an interesting collection of letters, endorsements, and accounts from the early to mid-1760’s which, seemingly, were to be used by Reverends Occom and Whitaker on their mission trip to England.  Some highlights are a detailed account of Occom’s 1761 meeting with the Oneida and the wampum belt received, Wheelock’s very clear statement of intent as to what he planned to do with the money raised by the Rev.’s overseas, and an appendix added in this second edition which provides updates from 1766-‘67.

 

Occom programs:

 

Radio program on Occom with NPR’s Alex Nunes and Brothertown’s Kathleen Brown-Perez: https://thepublicsradio.org/episode/ep-4-the-betrayal-of-samson-occom

Joanna Brooks gave a Zoom video presentation to our citizens in 2017 which is available to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxDDcpbiSYw&t=2s.

Tim Eriksen sings a Samson Occom carol called “O Sight of Anguish”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhO34_w1yW4

Brad Dubos, Rutgers graduate student, who is, in part, researching Samson Occom and the importance of place for the Brothertown Indians talks with Brothertown Forward: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SOeEt28rby0

CNAIR Symposium at Rutgers 2019 (Brad Dubos is the 2nd speaker in this episode – episode 2): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4B7Ka5V5zxE&list=PLJl9Zsw3ptuJ9eCjyLr9XcUPufzyhxk9_&time_continue=727

 

 

Occom

Samson Occom

2020 Brothertown Calendar of Events

06 Thursday Feb 2020

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Tonight, February 7th at 8pm CT, the Peacemakers will be hosting their monthly meeting on Zoom. Everyone, enrolled or not, is invited to attend. https://zoom.us/j/272190735

Sunday February 16th at 10am CT will be the next Council/General Membership meeting. This event will also be attend-able via Zoom but only for enrolled citizens. If you have not already signed up for online Council meetings, please fill out this short form to do so: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffhwOkN5PAj8_mwyNk7v6ZFIidZZ48GCZY0oS6gAH46WDzgw/viewform

Calumet and Cross Heritage Society will be hosting an all day singing event at Union Cemetery in Brothertown, Wisconsin on June 27th with dinner coordinated at a nearby home.  Everyone is invited to attend and to sing (shape note style) to our ancestors and honor headman Thomas Commuck on this year’s 175th anniversary of the release of his Indian Melodies.

Here is a list of additional 2020 Brothertown events:

Peacemaker’s Procedural Guidelines

18 Saturday Jan 2020

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The Brothertown Indian Nation Peacemakers are working on updating their Procedural Guidelines and are looking for input from citizens.  Please see their note and click on the document link at the bottom:
Aquy fellow Citizens and relatives!
  Your Peacemakers are moving to update the GRIEVANCE PROCEDURAL GUIDELINES.  We want you to look over the procedures and offer comments. You have until March 31, 2020 to offer suggestions and comments. You can make your comments through this website or you may contact the Peacemakers directly by emailing us atpeacemakers@brothertownindians.org  We want to be sure that YOUR voice is heard!
Kôkicash!
Brothertown Indian Nation Peacemakers

 

A Reflection On National Days of Celebration

17 Friday May 2019

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All nations have their own unique anniversaries, holidays, and nationally-revered “heroes”. Annual dates of remembrance not only honor a nation and its ancestors but are an effective way of ensuring that these events and people remain perpetually in the individual and collective memory of a nation. Celebrating its people and anniversaries also helps to instill national pride and fosters a sense of community amongst citizens.

The Brothertown Council is currently considering resolutions to memorialize two important dates as annual Brothertown days of remembrance: July 14th, the anniversary of the death of Samson Occom (1792) and celebrated as his feast day in the Episcopal Church; and November 7th, the date in 1785 that Occom recorded in his journal as being the date “we proceeded to form into a Body Politick we Named our Town by the Name of Brotherton, in Indian Eeyawquittoowauconnuck (https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/diplomatic/785554-diplomatic.html).”

Brothertown Elections: A 233-Year-Old Tradition

07 Monday May 2018

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Brothertown held its first annual election on the 7th of November 1785.  On that day, as can be read in Occom’s journal, the names of the elected were as follows:  Jacob Fowler was chosen Town Clerk, Roger Waupieh, David Fowler, Elijah Wympy, John Tuhy, and Abraham Simon were chosen to be Trustees; and Andrew Acorrocomb and Thomas Putchauker were chosen as Fence Viewers.  This board of Trustees would have handled Tribal business and responsibilities very much like our current Council is tasked with.  The Fence Viewers, while not quite Peacemakers (a position which did not exist in Brothertown until 1796), did help to maintain the peace as far as livestock was concerned.  For example, it would’ve been their job to make sure that any fences were secure.  Even where there were no fences, it would have been their duty to ensure that one family’s horse was not eating another family’s corn.  If such a thing did happen, they would find a solution to keep it from happening again.

On May 19th, the Tribe will hold its next annual election.  I encourage all of you to participate in this 233-year-old Brothertown tradition and exercise your right to vote.  As of this writing (Monday May 7, 2018), there are still 11 more mailing days before absentee ballots have to be in Fond du Lac in order to be counted.  If you have not mailed your ballot and verification form back yet, please do so today.  If you haven’t decided who to vote for, you may find it helpful to watch Brothertown Forward’s recorded Meet-the-Candidates presentation (link available for the asking).

Carry on our 233-year-old Brothertown tradition and vote!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2018 Upcoming Brothertown Events

23 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by in Brothertown Founding Fathers, Brothertown History, Current Events, Joseph Johnson, Samson Occom

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Sunday, February 25th at 6:30pm CT/7:30 ET, Brothertown Forward will be hosting an online community discussion on the Thomas Commuck shape note singing event held at Yale on February 3rd.   This event is open to everyone; whether you attended and would like to discuss your experience there or would simply like to hear how it went.  To log in, please go to https://zoom.us/j/2529226987 or dial +1 646 876 9923 and enter the Meeting ID: 252 922 6987.

For a sneak peek of the day itself, please see https://youtu.be/h42vaBNZLUo.

Sunday March 4th at 6:00pm CT/7:00 ET, Ms. Laura Murray, author of To Do Good to My Indian Brethren, will be speaking to us about her research and book on Joseph Johnson, the youngest of our Brothertown founders.  The log in information for this discussion is the same as the one above.

Saturday June 2nd, we will be meeting in “Old Brothertown” New York to perform annual cleaning and maintenance at our Brothertown cemeteries.  In addition to overgrowth and the accumulation of trash, normal yearly rainfall causes dirt to run over onto the slabs where grass and weeds quickly begin to grow. Without yearly maintenance, the graves of our ancestors not only fall into ruin and decay but run the risk of being lost to us forever.  Please consider donating one weekend every year, or even every few years, to go to New York and fulfill your duties to those who have walked ahead.  We are working on putting carpools together as well as trying to obtain sponsorship to defray the cost of lodging, eating, and other travel-related expenses.  If you would like to donate your time but travel costs are prohibitive; if you are willing to drive or looking to carpool; if you can’t attend but would like to make a donation; or if you’d simply like to be put on a contact list for future trips, please contact me at brothertown citizen at aol.com.

For a calendar listing additional Brothertown-related dates, please see the Tribe’s website at BrothertownIndians.org.