Mawehu, Sarah (Chuse Squa)

Sarah, also known as Chuse Squaw, was one of the East Haven Quinnipiacs that immigrated to Farmington, Connecticut.  She later married Joseph Mawehu (Chuse), a Paugussett living in Derby, Connecticut.  Around 1731, they later removed to Naugatuck (Seymour) and settled near the Great Falls on the Indian Field, and raised a family of eight or ten children.  Joseph Mawehu, Jr. was a Revolutionary War soldier.  Elihu Mawehu was noted for his intellect, and Eunice Mawehu, who died in 1860, became a noted elder and culture keeper for the Schaghticoke community.

While Sarah's name appears on a 1759 allotment map as Chuse Squaw, the Connecticut General Assembly provided her with 4 acres on Lot 5 there in 1777.  By 1787, she and her family began removing to Schaghticoke in Kent.  In that same year, she provided Ezra Stiles with several vocabulary words in her native language.

Sharpe, History of Seymour, 33. Orcutt, 67. Additional sources for this biography come from the Related Digital Heritage Items listed below.