Agreement between Mohegans and Colonists

Hartford, May 14, 1678

We, Uncas and Owaneco, sachems of the Mohegan Indians, having had a long friendship with the English, do hereby declare our fidelity to them for the future and do engage and firmly bind ourselves and promise and engage for and in the behalf of the Mohegans under our command that we will not plot or contrive any mischief against the English and that ourselves and those under our government shall behave themselves in a friendly, laudable, and peaceable manner towards the English,  not suffering any abuse to be offered to them in word or deed and that if we shall know of any conspiracy or complotments against them by any the Indians of this country, we will give speedy and timely notice to the authority of the Colony of Connecticut and that we will be ready upon all occasions to defend the interest, estates, and persons of the English when by them called thereunto to the utmost of our power.  And we, Major Robert Treat and Major John Talcott, do engage for ourselves and in behalf of the English of the Colony of Connecticut and do declare our friendship to Uncas, Owaneco, and the Mohegan with you, promising that we will not allow or suffer any wrong or damage to be done to you by the English, you keeping your promise with the English as above said, and if the authority of this Colony shall know of any danger approaching towards you by an enemy, timely notice shall be given to you and shall stand your friends as formerly, as witness our hands or marks interchangeably subscribed this 14th of May 1678.

Owaneco, his mark1

• 1. The original document appears to have been torn into two pieces and then repaired (hence the cataloguing numbers 41 and 41a).  Part 41a  contained just the signatures.  The “Sachems of the Mohegan Indians” and the date “ 1678’  were written in at a later point.  Part 41 retained the body of the treaty, but not the original signatures.