Episode
Highlights
A BRILLIANT MOHEGAN INDIAN
Occom was a Mohegan Indian, born in a wigwam in Eastern Connecticut in 1723 to parents who scavenged and hunted for food. But he went on to rub elbows with England’s elite, and even dress like them. And all along, he was driven by the goal of helping Native Americans survive in colonial America.
In this portrait, Occom points to a passage in what is likely the Bible. Behind him, perhaps to acknowledge a past life, hangs a bow and quivered arrows. | Photo: Courtesy of Dartmouth College, Rauner Special Collections Library
FEAR AND DESPISE
Colonists oppose the idea entirely. They fear and despise Indians. They don’t want to build a school for people they blame for burning their towns and killing colonists.
GOING TO ENGLAND
“They think it is nothing but a shame to send me over the great water. They say it is to impose upon the good people. They further affirm I was brought up regularly and a Christian all my days. Some say, I can’t talk Indian. Others say I can’t read. In short, I believe the old devil is in Boston to oppose our design, but I am in hopes. I don’t think he is worth a minding.”
—SAMSON OCCOM
REFUGEE STATUS
Occum and his Native American followers become immigrants themselves, refugees in their own land.