Great Leader: Uncas of the Mohegan

Forever immortalized in James Fenimore Cooper's story, Last of the Mohicans, this Mohegan leader in fact lived a century earlier.  And his people, far from being extinct, are still alive and well today.

Uncas (c 1588- c 1683) was born near the Thames River in modern-day Connecticut.  He was the son of a Mohegan Sachem known as Owaneco.  Uncas comes from a Mohegan word meaning fox.  Otherwise, little else is known about Uncas' personal life.  The Mohegan were closely allied with the Pequots.  However, as Uncas became Sachem and began to exert his own authority, he aligned his tribe with the Narragansett and later, the English.  He developed a friendship with an early Connecticut settler, John Mason, and later sent word to Connecticut leader Jonathan Brewster that the Pequot were planning an attack on the English.  Throughout the Pequot War, 1637-38, Uncas led war parties of Mohegan warriors as auxiliaries of the English.  The Treaty of Hartford of 1638 divided the lands of the defeated Pequot between the English, the Mohegans and the Narragansett, causing further occasions for future conflict.

Though the Mohegan and Narragansett had been allies, disputes about the Pequot land drove them apart.  In 1643, war broke out between the two tribes.  Uncas' Mohegans defeated a much larger force of Narragansetts.  Uncas captured their Sachem, Miantonomo, and several of their leading warriors.  After executing Miantonomo's men in front of him, Uncas turned him over to the English.  Uncas requested the right of executing Miantonomo after his trial by the English, to prevent further fighting between the Narragansett and the English.  Miantonomo escaped before Uncas could kill him.  During the escape, Miantonomo leaped over the Yantic falls to get away from the Mohegans.  Later, Uncas' brother caught up with Miantonomo and killed him.  The leap was immortalized in the Cooper novel by Uncas leaping over a similar waterfall.  Uncas and the Mohegan allied with the English to escany reprisals by the Narragansett. 

A neighboring tribe, the Wampanoag under King Phillip/Metacomet, began a war against the Settlers in 1675.  During that War, the Mohegan remained allies with the English and often served as auxiliaries during the initial fighting.  However, Uncas later withdrew his people and chose to remain neutral as the conflict played itself out.  He died in 1683, near what is now Norwich, Connecticut.  A monument to his memory was erected in Norwich, with the foundation being laid by Andrew Jackson, of all people!  In 1907, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody laid a wreath on the monument in Uncas' memory.  Three U.S. Navy ships have born the name USS Uncas, as does the town of Uncasville, in Connecticut.  But the ultimate tribute was the role of the main Native character in Cooper's novel, as played by Eric Schweig, an Inuit/Ojibwe Native in the 1992 film, Last of the Mohicans.