Wawyachtonoc

{{Short description|Native American tribe from New York and Connecticut}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Wawyachtonoc | image = File:Wohngebiet-mahican.png | image_caption = A map of the traditional territory of Mahican-affiliated tribes. The Wawyachtonoc are shown in dark green in the bottom right. | image_alt = Map | total = extinct as a tribe merged into Stockbridge–Munsee Community, Brothertown Indians, and Schaghticoke Tribal Nation | total_year =  | total_source =  | total_ref =  | regions = Northeastern Connecticut, later New York | languages = An Eastern Algonquian language | religions = Indigenous religion, Moravian Church | related_groups = Paugussett, Mohican Confederacy }} '''Wawyachtonoc''' were an Algonquian-speaking Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands who lived in east-central New York and northwest Connecticut.

== Name == The autonymous ethnonym—or endonym—''Wawyachtonoc'' is often translated into English as "eddy people" or "people of the curved channel".<ref name="hodge">{{cite book |last1=Hodge |first1=Frederick Webb |title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: N-Z |date=1910 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |page=924 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Handbook_of_American_Indians_North_of_Me/iPAYAAAAYAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ricky|first=Donald|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=88z94nv6rlwC&q=Wawyachtonoc&pg=PA296|title=Indians of Maryland|date=1999-01-01|publisher=Somerset Publishers, Inc.|isbn=978-0-403-09877-4|language=en}}</ref>

The name ''Wawyachtonoc'' is also transcribed and rendered, in Latin script, as '''''Wyachtonok''''', '''''Wawayachtonoc''''', and '''''Wyaghtonok'''''. From this term derives the demonym ''Weantinock''—the name given by the Wawyachtonoc, and toponym used by them in reference to, their primary community and chief settlement, historically located along the confluence of the Housatonic River and its tributary Still River in the vicinity of what is today downtown New Milford, Connecticut.

== Territory == The traditional territory of the Wawyachtonoc covered much of today's Litchfield County, Connecticut, and extended very slightly into what is now easternmost Columbia and Dutchess counties in New York.<ref name=hodge/>

=== Villages === * '''Weantinock,''' the tribe's primary village, situated along the Housatonic River near present New Milford<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hodge|first=Frederick Webb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i9c_AAAAYAAJ&q=Wawyachtonoc+Weantinock&pg=PA926 |title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico |date=1912 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |language=en}}</ref> * Bantam<ref name=hodge/> * Pachgatgoch (present day Schaghticoke Indian Reservation - Kent, Connecticut) "Where the river forks" at the mouth of the Housatonic River and Ten Mile River. * Pomperaug<ref name=hodge/> * Scaticook<ref name=hodge/> * Shekomeko (Shecomeco),<ref name=hodge/> meaning "great village," 2 miles south of present Pine Plains, New York<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hodge|first=Frederick Webb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOwpAQAAMAAJ&q=Shecomeco+Wawyachtonoc&pg=PA538|title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: N-Z |date=1912|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}}</ref> * Weataug,<ref name=hodge/> meaning "wigwam place," likely on the Housatonic River between Washining Lake and Canaan, Connecticut, near present Salisbury<ref>{{Cite book |last=Douglas-Lithgow |first=R. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IsXbBpHmRaAC&q=Weataug&pg=PA54 |title=Native American Place Names of Connecticut |date=2001 |publisher=Applewood Books |isbn=978-1-55709-540-4 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=starna>{{Cite book|last=Starna|first=William A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tJDVDwAAQBAJ&q=Weataug&pg=PT206|title=From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830|date=2020-03-09|publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-1-4962-1058-6}}</ref> * Wechquadnach,<ref name=hodge/> meaning "wrapped around by the mountain," on the Eastern side of Indian Lake, Litchfield County<ref name=starna/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iaismuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/mohican-connection.pdf|title=Archaeology and Ethnohistory in Connecticut's Northwest Corner: The Mohican Connection |last=Lavin|first=Lucianne|date=|website=The Institute for American Indian Studies|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>

== History == In 1687, the Wyachtonok, originally subgroup of Paugussett, joined the Mohican Confederacy.

The majority of the Wawyachtonoc were converted to Christianity, beginning in 1740, by Moravian missionaries.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJgO7orwLLIC&q=Wyachtonok+moravian+1740| title=Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast |date=1978 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution|language=en}}</ref> During this period Wawyachtonoc populations became concentrated at the Moravian missions at Shekomeko and Scaticook.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ricky |first=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qP-7BxjLV-8C&q=weantinock+Wawyachtonoc&pg=PA287 |title=Encyclopedia of New Jersey Indians: Encyclopedia of Native Peoples |date=1998 |publisher=Somerset Publishers |isbn=978-0-403-09331-1 |language=en}}</ref> Some of them moved to Moravian Indian communities in Pennsylvania.<ref name=hodge/>

In the 1830s, some Wawyachtonoc were displaced to Wisconsin. These Wawyachtonoc descendants are now part of the Stockbridge–Munsee Community and Brothertown Indians of Wisconsin, while those that remained in Connecticut are part of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, a state-recognized tribe.

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{authority control}} Category:Extinct Native American tribes Category:History of Fairfield County, Connecticut Category:Native American history of Connecticut Category:Native American tribes in Connecticut Category:Native American tribes in New York (state) Category:Paugussett