Common Unities: Possession, Dispossession, & Community in Tunxis Land Records, 1640-1841
Common Unities: Possession, Dispossession, & Community in Tunxis Land Records, 1640-1841
The Tunxis, or the People Living at the Bend of the River, were the Indigenous inhabitants, from time out of mind, of Tunxis Sepos, what is now Farmington, Connecticut. While their land base in the early 17th Century extended throughout central Connecticut, overlapping with related Native communities along the lower Connecticut River watershed, the advent of European settlement at Sukiaug (Hartford) soon changed the contours of the Tunxis landscape and its community.
A land treaty in 1640 laid the ground for relations with English colonists and established one of the earliest Indian reservations in America at Tunxis Sepos. Over time, three separate reservation common land areas developed with additional parcels privately owned by Tunxis individuals appearing nearby.
From then to the late 1700s, as colonial settlement encroached upon Connecticut Native space, the Tunxis actively assimilated displaced Indian neighbors in an e pluribus unum (out of many, one) strategy that expanded their numbers, strengthened their political influence in Central Connecticut Indian Country, and most likely, insured, at least temporarily, their continued presence on the land.
Living among English neighbors burdened the Tunxis with continuous anxiety over land loss and violence. Mobility of Tunxis individuals back and forth to neighboring Native communities either because of work, social, or religious opportunities or traditional customs certainly occurred. Some Tunxis could be found at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, for example, as early as 1748. By 1774, however, the tribal land base at Farmington became unsustainable when many of the Tunxis began to sell their property to remove with other New England Indian communities to a place called Eeyamquittoowauconnuck or Brothertown in Oneida Country, New York. Other families removed to Massachusetts or decided to remain in Connecticut. A second migration in the mid-19th Century brought some Tunxis as far west as Wisconsin. While the political organization of the Tunxis in Connecticut did not survive, descendants of the men and women who once occupied Tunxis Sepos surely have.
Recovering Indigenous Farmington
To more fully understand parts of Farmington as a distinctly Indigenous place from 1640 to 1826, the NEH grant theme of A More Perfect Union can be explored through the lens of land transfers by the Tunxis as individuals and as a communal entity for over 180 years. As Jean O'Brien has demonstrated, deeds have proved an effective method to counter the pervasive myth of the disappearing Indian and offer insights into the tribe’s land base, kinship, intermarriage with the local African-American community, and pressures from an individualized land market.
Digital Documentary Record
In Common Unities: Possession, Dispossession, and Community in Tunxis Land Records, 1640-1851, we have created a freely available collection of documents on the lifespan of the Tunxis reservations in Farmington, Connecticut and of the private landholdings of Tunxis individuals. These digital heritage items include an image, metadata, and annotated transcriptions with interactive biographical entries.
Community Scholar Commentaries and Community Archival Records
Since the Tunxis tribe is no longer in existence, the recovered historical record is explained by its descendant modern communities, the Brothertown Indian Nation and the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, both now located in the State of Wisconsin. Tribal representatives have reviewed all items for culturally sensitive information, worked collaboratively with NNRC editors, and added their own landing page, metadata, and cultural narratives. Thus, while the original deeds were recorded by agents of the Town of Farmington, community outsiders, the addition of tribal knowledge serves to balance or re-indigenize the materials and establish a measure of authority over the records. Through the commentaries, marginalized perspectives are brought to the center about Indigenous land possession, dispossession, community, assimilation, migration, sovereignty, and individual expressions of Locke's life, liberty, and estate through land ownership and tribal community.
- The Legacy of Land -- Faith Bowman (SMC)
- A Tunxis Conversation -- Craig Cottrell and Courtney Cottrell Gerzetich (BIN)
- Powwow Circle -- Walter "Skip" Blanc (BIN)
- Building Brothertown: From Farmington to Brothertown -- Brothertown Citizen (BIN)
- Loss of Tunxis Land: Getting to the Root of the Matter -- Renee Gralewicz (BIN)
- Sarah Towsey, Tunxis Woman, and Her People / Sarah's Visit -- Judy Hartley (SMC)
Community Scholars have also created tribal landing pages for an archival space where any Brothertown or Stockbridge-Munsee community member can respond to the historical documentary record and add new interpretations and stories for the public or for their community only.
Digital Humanities Tools
In addition to the digital heritage items, we provide interactive mechanisms to enhance learning and promote an awareness of an Indigenized landscape.
Interactive Resource Map
Using more than 100 digital heritage items, we have created an interactive resource map that spatially visualizes the Tunxis land record data over place and time. By clicking any particular area on the map, users can explore each parcel, track its tenure from Native to non-Native hands, and see when and where changes in Tunxis land ownership appear and disappear on and around the reservations and individual landholdings. Moreover, a link brings users to an annotated transcription of each land transaction and interactive biographies of individuals mentioned in the document. For instructions on using the Resource Map, click here.
Tunxis Document Chronology
To provide context to the land records produced during the NEH grant period, we have also created a timeline of the documentary history of the Tunxis people. Both the resource map and the timeline are works in progress.
Items in Collection:
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
In order to satisfy a debt to Solomon Cowles, two pieces of Samuel Adams' land in the "East Haven right" were sold.
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & Sovereignty
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Land transfer of two and a half acres at Indian Neck (part of First Lot there)
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer of five and a half acres in the Indian grant from a Tunxis couple to a Farmington resident
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man to a Farmington resident of 3 and 3/4 acres and 20 rods of land in the 33rd Lot in the Tunxis Reservation for 20 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer of property at Indian Neck from a Tunxis man to a Farmington resident.
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Farmington resident to another of 4 acres and 32 rods of land in the 1st Lot in the East Haven for 3 pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis woman to a Farmington resident of 4 acres, 1 rood, and 11 rods of land in the 16th Lot in the Tunxis Reservation for 4 pounds, 10 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis woman to a Farmington resident of 2 acres, 1 rood, and 3 rods of land in the 6th Lot at Indian Neck for 37 shillings
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by the estate of a Tunxis man to his widow of 5.5 acres, 35 rods of land and a dwelling house in the 5th Lot for 24 pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Land transfer of two parcels, part of Lot 4 in the Indian grant and Lot 14 in the Indian Neck allotments.
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis widow to a Farmington resident of her dower rights in the property of her late husband for 15 pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the EnvironmentSummary
Transfer by a Tunxis man of land in 10th, 11th, and 15th Lots in the Indian grant
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & Sovereignty, Settlement, Migration, & ResettlementSummary
Land transfer of Lot 12 in the Indian Neck allotments containing 2 acres, 3 roods, and 3 perches
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Land transfer of Lot 12 in the Indian Neck allottments containing 2 acres, 3 roods, and 3 perches
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Land transfer of approximately 3 acres and, separately, the west half of a dwelling house
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer of seven acres of a Tunxis woman's land to satisfy a debt
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
The transfer of the land of the late Ruth Adams, which is five acres in the Indian Grant, for five pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis couple to a Farmington resident of 5 acres and 3 roods, being the 13th Lot in the Tunxis reservation for 5 pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by a Tunxis woman to two Farmington doctors of 7 acres, being the 37th Lot in the Tunxis reservation for 20 pounds
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research CollaborativeCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Land transfer of 6 acres, 1 rood, with a dwelling house, Lot 21 on the Indian lands west of Pequabuck meadow. Also a 1 and a half acre parcel west of the Indian grant, abutted on the north by the land of Abigail Sanchuse
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research Collaborative, TunxisCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Culture & Society, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Transfer by the administrator of a debtor Tunxis man's probate to a Farmington resident of 3/4 of an acre and a house for 15 pounds 
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research CollaborativeCategory
Work, Poverty, & Economy, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Town Committee to procure Highways ,in exchange for part of Mossuck's lands in Lots 7 and 17, grant him equivalent pieces to the west
Digital Heritage
Community
Native Northeast Research CollaborativeCategory
Geography, Land, & the Environment, Politics, Power, & SovereigntySummary
Land transfer of two parcels of Daniel Mossuck's lands, in the "Indian Village" west of Pequabuck meadow, one being 14 acres and the other a 5 acre piece of the original Indian grant