Petition of John Fitch Overseer of the Mohegan Indians Praying for School Money

To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Connecticut to Be Held at New Haven in and for said State on the First Wednesday of May 18381

The Petition of John G. Fitch of the Town of Montville in New London County, as he is overseer of the Mohegan Tribe of Indians in said Town of Montville and New London County, humbly sheweth that the “Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Mohegan Indians,” has established a school among said tribe for the instruction and education of the members of said tribe.2  That said school has been and is now taught by the Reverend Mr. Gleason, who preaches to said tribe in the meeting house built by said Society, that said school is kept up the whole of the year and is supported by said Society and donations.  That said Tribe spread over the local limits of the greater part of two school districts, and the children belonging to said Tribe between the ages of four and sixteen years are enumerated by the district within the local limits of which they reside and such district has the benefit of the public money drawn by the Indian children living within its limits, to be used exclusively for the instruction of white children, that the children belonging to said Mohegan Tribe do not attend the district schools to which they belong by local limits, but attend the school established by said Society.  The petitioner would further state that the children of the teacher of said Indian school, attend the said Indian school and no other, that the number of the children belonging to said tribe who draw public school money is about twenty-six and the children of the teacher of said Indian school who draw public money are four at the time, and that the means of supporting said Indian school are very small and said school at this time is supported and kept up with great difficulty, and would be much assisted by the public money drawn by the Indian children of said tribe and by the children of the family of the teacher of the school.  The petitioner, therefore, prays the General Assembly to enquire into the facts aforesaid and on finding them true, to order and decree that the children belonging to and residing in said Mohegan Tribe of Indians and the children of the family of the teacher of said Indian school, shall be enumerated by the overseer of said tribe or by the teacher of said school, in the manner now provided by law for the enumeration of children in school districts and that the said Indian children residing in said tribe and the children of the family of the teacher of said Indian school, shall not be enumerated by the districts within which they reside, and that the public school money drawn by the Indian children and children of the family of the teacher of said Indian school be by the school society treasurer paid over to the overseer of said tribe of Indians, in the manner of paying over money to school district committees, to be by him applied to the support of said Indian school established by said Society.

And he as in duty bound will pray,

• 1. The first Wednesday in May 1838 was May 2, 1838.
• 2. Sarah L. Huntington of Norwich, Connecticut opened a Sabbath school at the family house of Samson Occom on Mohegan land with Sarah Breed and then Elizabeth Raymond as teachers. Later a daily school opened at Deacon William B. Dolbeare's house on Fort Hill. Huntington next obtained funding from the Federal Government to construct a schoolhouse for the tribe and annually support a teacher. Reverend Anson Gleason, a Connecticut missionary to the Choctaw, was hired for the position. Duane Hamilton Hurd, History of New London County, Connecticut (Philadelphia, PA: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1882), 581.
• 3. It is unclear of this person's identity. He might be the Honorable Sherwood Raymond, senator for the Ninth District in 1838.