Wawyachtonoc
Wawyachtonoc were an Algonquian-speaking Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands who lived in east-central New York and northwest Connecticut.
Name
The ethnonym Wawyachtonoc is often translated as "eddy people" or "people of the curved channel."Their name is also rendered Wyachtonok, Wawayachtonoc, and Wyaghtonok.
Territory
The traditional territory of the Wawyachtonoc extended throughout what is now Columbia [County, New York|Columbia County] and Dutchess County, New York, and Litchfield County, Connecticut.Villages
Weantinock, the tribe's primary village, situated along the Housatonic River near present New Milford- Bantam
- Pachgatgoch "Where the river forks" at the mouth of the Housatonic R. and Ten Mile R.
- Pomperaug
- Scaticook
- Shekomeko, meaning "great village," 2 miles south of present Pine Plains, NY
- Weataug, meaning "wigwam place," likely on the Housatonic River between Washining Lake and Canaan, Connecticut, near present Salisbury
- Wechquadnach, meaning "wrapped around by the mountain," on the Eastern side of Indian Lake, Litchfield County
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. During this period Wawyachtonoc populations became concentrated at the Moravian missions at Shekomeko and Scaticook. Some of them moved to Moravian Indian communities in Pennsylvania.
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.