Uncas

THE EARLIEST YEARS of the English settlements in Connecticut were enlivened by almost continuous conflict between two Indian tribes, the Narragansetts and the Mohegans, over territory claimed by each group. The area first called by the English "Nine-miles-square" and now known as Norwich formed a kind of boundary to lands controlled by each tribe, the Mohegans to the north and west and the Narragansetts to the south and east. Thus, it was a principal battleground for the skirmishing nations.
Given the fact that both tribes were led by aggressive chiefs whose courage, skill and boldness would have made them fit subjects for hero stories even under ordinary circumstances, it is not surprising that the years of conflict gave rise to many legends about Uncas, the Mohegan sachem and Miantonomo, chief of the Narragansetts. It is also interesting to note that the white settlers perpetuated these legends long after the Indians had disappeared from the area, which just goes to show that bigger-than-life heroes, scenes of one-on-one combat, extraordinary physical feats and exciting chases apparently know no bounds of time or race.
Some of the most interesting traditional tales describe a series of events leading up to the defeat of Miantonomo's forces by the tribe of Uncas, followed by the capture and execution of the Narragansett chief. Although some of the circumstances described in the legends were eventually transmitted to Governor John Winthrop and recorded in his journal, most of what is known about the conclusion of the warfare between Uncas and Miantonomo has come down through oral transmission, sometimes recorded by English chroniclers and sometimes unrecorded. Separate legends about individual events form an almost continuous narrative, something like the following account, and have, with the passage of time, been accepted as the closest thing to reliable history as can ever be discovered.
* * * * * Although Miantonomo and Uncas had struck a 1638 agreement with the English in Hartford not to carry on hostilities against each other before first checking with them, the Indians' mutual dislike and territorial jealousies soon made them forget their pact with the white man. Apparently sparked by some incident, maybe Uncas' slaying of Sequassen, a Connecticut sachem and relative of Miantonomo, the flames of open war were crackling once more in the summer of 1643.
At that time Miantonomo secretly gathered about him a party of some five or six hundred Narragansett warriors and set off for the land of the Mohegan, hoping to catch Uncas by surprise and finish him off for good. Unfortunately for the Narragansett sachem, Uncas was on the alert. With his scouts in place all along the most obvious route that any Narragansett raiding party would take to reach his camp, Uncas was aware of Miantonomo's little "surprise party" by the time the aggressors crossed the Shetucket River at a fording place near the junction of the Quinebaug. As the Narragansetts streamed through the woods and over the long hill that overlooks the valley of the Yantic River, Uncas quickly gathered his troops about him and then boldly advanced to meet the foe.
When Uncas' men reached the area called the Great Plain, they learned that the Narragansetts were all ready to pounce on them from rising ground to the south. Sizing up a situation in which he knew his forces were badly outnumbered, Uncas quickly devised a strategy, halted his braves on high ground at the northern margin of the plain and explained his plan to the Mohegan warriors. When the strategy session broke up, Uncas sent a messenger to Miantonomo requesting a powwow with the Narragansett chief. When Miantonomo agreed, the two fierce sachems strode toward one another across the Great Plain, between their watchful armies. When they finally met face-to-face, Uncas proposed that their differences be settled in single combat between themselves, thus sparing the lives of many warriors on both sides. Said Uncas, "Let us two fight it out: if you kill me, my men shall be yours; but if I kill you, your men shall be mine."
Miantonomo would have none of it, however. Fearing some kind of trick by the Mohegan sachem, he replied, "My men came to fight, and they shall fight." As soon as he heard Miantonomo's answer, Uncas threw himself flat on the ground before the startled Narragansetts, a pre-planned signal to the Mohegans that all bets were off and that it was time to loose the arrows already in place in their bows. Under the shower of arrows, whooping and yelling, the Mohegans came charging across the field, tomahawks raised on high. Uncas, meanwhile, had quickly picked himself up and run over to his forces to lead the charge.
The Narragansett braves were taken completely by surprise. While their chief was parleying with Uncas, they had been standing around sharpening their tomahawks (or whatever), never dreaming the Mohegans would actually come out and fight a force so superior in numbers to their own. After a very brief engagement, the Narragansetts took off in the direction from which they had originally come, with Miantonomo leading the panicky pack and Uncas' company close on their moccasined heels. They say that many fleeing Narragansetts were so crazy with fear that they set new cross-country records in reaching the fording place on the Shetucket on their way back to their own territory to the southeast. One of them, so the story goes, was even found many days later "swimming" through bushes and underbrush lining the river, still so bewildered by fear and excitement that he thought he was in the water.
While one group of rapidly retreating Narragansetts went home via the old familiar path, another group led by Miantonomo took a less fortunate route: in their reckless haste they suddenly found themselves on the steep cliffs overlooking the falls of the Yantic. Many fell to their deaths in the rushing waters below, but their chief somehow managed to reach the other side with no more than a broken leg to show for his effort to leap across the Yantic from the cliff on one side to the equally high cliff on the other.
However, when the pursuing Uncas arrived at the top of the same gorge moments later and saw Miantonomo hobbling away into the woods on the opposite side, determination and hatred for his enemy gave wings to his feet. With a fast, running start, Uncas hurtled high over the Yantic rapids -- and landed safely on the high bank opposite. This astounding leap permitted him to catch up with the injured Miantonomo within a few minutes. As soon as the Mohegan sachem touched the Narragansett chief's shoulder, Miantonomo stopped and, silent and unresisting, permitted Uncas to take him captive. Surprised at the ease with which he took Miantonomo, Uncas asked why he did not speak. "If you had taken me," he said, "I would have begged you for my life." The sullen Narragansett gave no response, choosing to die rather than ask Uncas for mercy.
At the request of his white friends in Hartford, Uncas brought Miantonomo up to the English settlement, where the victorious Mohegan willingly gave over his captive to the English government and agreed to abide by their decision on how to dispose of Miantonomo's case. Although the sachem of the Narragansetts had a nasty history of threatening Uncas' assassination, making war against the Mohegans without English permission and vowing to exterminate the white settlements, the Commissioners of the United Colonies who tried his case hesitated to pass the death sentence. In their dilemma, the Commissioners turned to ecclesiastical counselors, five principal Puritan ministers of the colonies, for advice. The church fathers were unanimous in their opinion: for the public good, Miantonomo must be executed.
Having proclaimed the death sentence, the Commissioners decided that Uncas should have the pleasure of carrying it out. They thereupon directed Uncas to take Miantonomo "into the next part of his own government and there put him to death: provided that some discreet and faithful persons of the English accompany them and see the execution, for our more full satisfaction." So, accompanied by two English witnesses, Uncas led Miantonomo to the nearest Mohegan lands (probably somewhere in the present East Windsor or East Hartford area), split his skull with a tomahawk, sliced a large piece of flesh from the dead man's shoulder and, in savage triumph, ate it. The date was September 28, 1643.
Uncas thought it appropriate that Miantonomo be buried near the place where he had originally been captured and that a small pile of rocks be placed as a marker on the gravesite. So the Mohegans buried their fallen foe in a place on the western bank of the Shetucket River, north of the present village of Greenville, and marked the spot with stones, as Uncas ordered. And as years passed, the little memorial on the place called Sachem's Plain grew larger and larger. For being on an Indian route much traveled during the seventeenth century, it was visited by warriors from many tribes, both friends and foes of Miantonomo's people, who added to the pile as they passed by. It is said that no true-hearted Narragansett ever failed to throw a stone upon the heap with much wailing and moaning, and no Mohegan ever passed without hurling a rock with a howl of joy and exultation.
Sometime in the late eighteenth century, long after the Indians had passed from the land and the English settlers had come in numbers to the Norwich area, a farmer found a large mound of rocks on his newly-acquired acreage. Not recognizing its significance, apparently, he used the stones to build a foundation for his house and barn. There was nothing left to remind posterity of the spot where a fleeing Narragansett chief had been captured and ultimately buried until July 4, 1841. On that date a few citizens of Norwich erected a granite monument where once the pile of stones had been and dedicated it in dignified and solemn ceremonies. The simple inscription read:MIANTONOMO 1643

from Legendary Connecticut by David E. Philips / ISBN 1-880684-05-5 / $17.95

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