Before the Colonies
The ice age spanned about two million years, interrupted by intermittent warmer periods that slowly melted the glaciers.The last glaciers melted about 18,000 years ago, leaving behind the rocky surface and stony subsoil typical of the New England landscape today. Paleo-Indian sites in New England date from the end of the last glacial epoch, some 12,000 years ago when the climate was colder. The grasses and low plants of the tundra supported large animals, such as the mastodon, mammoth and caribou, providing food for mobile hunter-gatherers.
A 10,000-Year History in Lebanon
The first inhabitants of what is now the town of Lebanon were mobile bands of Paleo-Indians who used the area as a stopover on hunting or trading trips as long ago as 10,000 years before the present time. An archaeological dig in the bed of Williams Pond in 1994 provided evidence that Paleo-Indians used the area as a small, seasonal encampment.
The Liebman Site on Williams Pond is one of only three Paleo-lndian sites in Connecticut that have been excavated by scientific investigation. Archaeologist John Pfeiffer conducted the excavation at Williams Pond. The site is named for the owner of the area, Harold Liebman. The Liebman family has donated the artifacts to the Lebanon Historical Society.
Among the artifacts recovered are projectile points, scrapers, and knives. These tools were made on site but the flakes from the manufacturing process are chert and jasper, types of stone not found anywhere in Connecticut. This discovery makes the site particularly important since it may indicate ancient migration and trading routes with connections to eastern Pennsylvania and New York where these rocks are indigenous.
The Passage of Time
As the climate warmed, the flora and fauna changed. The tundra was replaced first by coniferous forest, and then by deciduous forest. Deer and other more modern species replaced the large animals of the glacial period.
A number of Indian sites associated with the Archaic Period dating from 8,000 to 1,000 B.C. have also been identified in Lebanon but none of these has been excavated.
Other than scattered archaeological evidence little is known about this period unfit the more modem era when the written records of early European explorers and settlers and the oral traditions of the Mohegan Tribe become known.
The Wolf People or Mohegans
The origins of the Mohegan Nation are traced from their oral traditions. These stories are the tribal teachings that link Mohegans to their ancient past when their ancestors migrated to southeastern Connecticut from their homeland in the Lake Champlain area of New York state. Oral tradition dates the arrival of the Mohegans to about 1500. The Mohegans, whose name means Wolf People, disrupted other tribes as they passed through Connecticut. These local tribes referred to the Mohegans as "Pequotaug," which means "invaders." That name was shortened to "Pequot" and adopted by the Mohegans.
Written records date from the first contact with the Pequots by the Dutch in 1614. The Pequots dominated other tribes because of their control of wampum production. Wampum became essential to the Dutch and English for the fur trade with the Indians. Conflicts over control of the fur and wampum trade increased as English settlers moved into eastern Connecticut onto lands used by the Indians for farming and hunting. Contact with the English also brought European diseases that decimated the Indian population.
The increasing tensions led to a split among the Pequots over tribal policy toward the English. Uncas (1600?-l683) favored alliance while his rival Sassacus (?-1637), chose resistance. Uncas and his followers separated from the Pequots and called themselves Mohegans after their earlier name. The Mohegans claimed a large tract in eastern Connecticut which included traditional hunting grounds in the area in present-day Lebanon called Poquechanneeg.
The resisting Pequots were defeated by a combined force of the English and Narragansett and Mohegan allies at the massacre at Mystic on May 26, 1637. The remaining Pequots were subjugated to Uncas and the Mohegans. In 1655 the Pequots were given their own reservation.
The Leadership of Uncas
The Pequot War led both the English and the Indians to make and use alliances to their advantage. Uncas used this strategy of alliances to the advantage of the Mohegans. His cooperation with the Colony and his friendships with Major John Mason and other powerful Connecticut men enabled the Mohegans to maintain tribal political autonomy and control over the Mohegan's vast land claims in eastern Connecticut.
Warfare and epidemics continued to take their toll, however, and the Mohegan population declined drastically Mohegan warriors served as English scouts in all the colonial wars but sided with the Americans during the Revolution and fought as patriot allies. After the war, the tribe was too small to resist continued takeovers of their land.
Records from the 18th century show a number of Mohegan families living in Lebanon, and Jonathan Trumbull employed several Mohegans as fur trappers. Descendants of Mohegan John Cooper, known as Lebanon John, were here as late as 1827.
Though weakened by betrayal and loss of land, tribal resistance and survival were maintained over subsequent years, leading to a cultural renaissance in the 20th century. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe gained federal recognition in 1983 and the Mohegan Tribe in 1994.