Samson Occum

Samson Occum was born in 1723 in Mohegan,

Connecticut, which is near to my home in Uncasville.

From a collection in the Connecticut Historical Society,

is this drawing of his house by John Warner Barber:

Samson Occum's house in Mohegan

In 1749 Occum went to Long Island to become a schoolmaster

to the Montauk tribe. The Indians there liked him, so he stayed and

eventually became their preacher, judge, healer and advisor in many things.

Native people of Western Long Island spoke the Munsee form of Delaware,

as did those on the Manhattan and Staten Islands and in New Jersey.

Occum founded a Native School and married one of the Montauks,

Mary Fowler, with whom he had 10 children.

In 1775, Occum went to England for 2 years to raise

funds to help establish a College for Natives in the area.

This proved to be quite a successful trip, as he raised nearly $50,000.

But the Native School that Occum worked so hard to create,

would never be built with these funds.

His plans had included the College being built on Long Island near

the school he had started for the Montauks, but this never came to be.

Instead, it would be a Congregational minister and his mentor,

Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779) Yale Class of 1733,

who would found Dartmouth far away in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Wheelock had searched in vain for a local setting for the college,

but was rejected by all until a group in New Hampshire

finally gave their approval to a charter for the school.

The Native School that Occum had envisioned would uplift Natives,

became instead a College for elite whites.

This page has details about the creation of the Dartmouth

charter and how the betrayal of Occum began.

Good Seal

Occum, discouraged by the treatment of his people in Connecticut

and on Long Island combined with the nearly total loss of their lands,

became a sort of Moses leading a small group out of the area

to a location he hoped would be safer for them in New York.

The area near Oneida, became Brothertown and

Samson Occum died there on July 14, 1792.

These links offer further information about Samson Occum:

Samson Occum

The First Long Islanders

Preaching to the Indians

Long Island and Samson Occum

Samson Occum - A Fisher of Men - 1749

Samson Occum and the Brothertown History

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