Happy Eeyawquittoowauconnuck Day!
07 Sunday Nov 2021
Posted in Brothertown History, Current Events
Category Archives: Current Events
Peacemaker’s Meeting Saturday
09 Thursday Sep 2021
Posted in Current Events
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.
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The Brothertown Indian Nation’s Joseph Johnson Award
20 Sunday Jun 2021
Posted in Brothertown History, Current Events
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/
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July 14, 2020: The Brothertown Indian Nation Celebrates First Annual Samson Occom Day
13 Monday Jul 2020
Posted in Brothertown History, Current Events, Samson Occom
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
Samson Occom
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2020 Brothertown Calendar of Events
06 Thursday Feb 2020
Posted in Current Events
≈ Comments Off on 2020 Brothertown Calendar of Events
Tags
2020 calendar of events, Brothertown, Brothertown homecoming, Brothertown Indians, Brothertown picnic, Council, Eeyawquittoowauconnuck, peacemakers
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:
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Peacemaker’s Procedural Guidelines
18 Saturday Jan 2020
Posted in Current Events
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
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A Reflection On National Days of Celebration
17 Friday May 2019
Posted in Brothertown History, Current Events
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).”
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Brothertown Elections: A 233-Year-Old Tradition
07 Monday May 2018
Posted in Brothertown History, Current Events
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!
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2018 Upcoming Brothertown Events
23 Friday Feb 2018
Tags
brotherton, Brothertown Indians, brothertown new york, cemetery project, donate, Joseph Johnson, Samson Occom
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.
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“What’s In a Name?” Final Installment: There’s a “Brother” in Brothertown
16 Friday Feb 2018
Tags
BINCC, Brothertown, Brothertown Indians, Family, Fond du Lac, Founders, Name, Recognition, Tribe, Volunteers
When “Brotherton” was founded in New York in the 1700’s and Brothertown, Wisconsin in the 1800’s, the Brothertown Indians weren’t just forming a town but a familial community. The difference between a “town” and a Tribal “family” is clearly visible not only in their community gatherings (as discussed in the previous post) but also in Brothertown’s migration patterns and current-day interactions with one another. When you ask a Brotherton today, “what does Brothertown mean to you?” , most will tell you that “Brothertown means family”.
When they were squeezed out of their lands in upstate New York, the Brothertown Indians moved to Wisconsin Territory–together. Over the course of 10 years, virtually the entire community picked up and relocated to Wisconsin. While it is true that problems with the whites made it difficult for them to remain in New York, the government did not force them out; they each had a choice. Nor did anyone force them to move to Wisconsin Territory with the rest of the group. Indeed, there were a few who moved back to the parent communities, or to other states, but the majority of the Tribe moved to the east side of Lake Winnebago. Why? Because, they didn’t just see themselves as a people who happened to populate the same town, they saw each other as family. This familial-based connection of the Brothertown Indians is not only evident in their historical communal-relocation practices, but it is also visible in their interactions and practices today.
In a family, people share their time and talents with each other; they do things for the common good of the family without recompense. This includes paying bills and taking care of paperwork, answering phones, making appointments and repairs, cleaning, doing dishes, and so on. These are the same things that the Brothertown people do for their Nation. Every one of the Peacemakers; Council people; Enrollment, Election and all other Committee members; museum, office, and Tribal store workers is a volunteer who has given freely of their time and talents, often for years on end. Most of them hold down more than one position at a time. Among other duties, Tribal Council members answer phones, make ID cards, run the museum and stock our Tribal store. Peacemakers do double duty by helping to keep track of donations and sending thank you letters. Other volunteers write grants, mail ballots, count ballots, run bingo, cook and/or clean at the BINCC. In one case, a man moved his family out of state to Wisconsin for 2 years solely to help work on enrollment files in the Tribal office. Many other volunteers have spent tedious years and uncountable hours researching, documenting & writing our recognition petition to OFA. Every single one of them is a volunteer; they’re not paid, they do it because this is their family.
Recently, a short informal survey was posted on Facebook. The question posed to everyone was, “What is Brothertown? Stated differently, what does Brothertown mean to you?” Here were the answers:
Raven De: Brothertown, to me, is extended family, of sorts. It’s a connection and closeness that’s unspoken, but you can feel it at tribal gatherings.
Katrina Joyner: cousins
Raymond Brooks:… to me Brothertown is my Circle of life….NATIVE PEOPLE OF TURTLE ISLAND BONDING TOGETHER AS ONE IN THE SPIRIT OF LOVE as a FAMILY, under the Blessings of the Creator The head of our Family
Greg Wilson: I view the tribe as our touchstone – connecting us to each other through the past, present and future.
Lani Bartelt: I view the Tribe As A Window For My Grandchildren To See Their Ancestors, their customs and beliefs!
Tom Schuh: I view it as knowledge and remembrance.
Not only did the majority of respondents seem to clearly view the Tribe as a “family”, but they see this family as a continuum; comprised of the people alive today as well as those who have walked ahead and those who will come after.
“Brothertown”, today, means the same thing that it did to our founders in the 1700’s and the same thing that it meant to those who moved to Wisconsin Territory in the 1800’s; Brothertown means family.
The Life of the Brothertown Indians 