A Native American Declaration of Independence
On November 7, 1785, a group of Native American families gathered in a farmhouse near present-day Deansboro, New York—about 15 miles southwest of Utica—and established a new nation, the first American republic to be founded in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War.
The families derived from seven tribes along the Northeastern Seaboard: Narragansett, Niantic, Groton Pequot, Stonington Pequot, Tunxis, Montauk, and Mohegan. They were united by a common Algonquian language, shared traditions, and a desire to distance themselves from the colonial chaos of their coastal homelands. Their founding moment was recorded in the diary of one of the group’s leaders, a minister from the Mohegan nation named Samson Occom. “Now we proceeded to form into a Body Politick,” he wrote. “We Named our Town by the Name of Brotherton, in Indian Eeyawquittoowauconnuck.” The tribe established a governing committee to be reelected yearly, appointed various officials, and commenced the business of self-government. Soon after, their counterparts in Philadelphia started doing the same under their new federal Constitution.
One of these foundings eventually became
