EP.6
//SEASON 1

The Brothertown Fight For Recognition

After settling in Wisconsin, members of the Brothertown tribe are forced to give up their reservation to avoid a government ordered removal to present-day Kansas, setting in motion an unforeseen legal battle their ancestors will fight more than a century later.
July 30, 2019

Episode Host(s)

Alex Nunes
Ana, Host of Mosaic
Ana González

GONZALEZ: I’m Ana.

NUNES: I’m Alex.

GONZALEZ: And you’re listening to Mosaic, a podcast about immigration from The Public’s Radio. 

NUNES: In this episode, we continue the story of Samson Occom and the Brothertown Indian Nation.

GONZALEZ: The story of Samson Occum and the Brothertown tribe is this huge, 300-year odyssey that captures the impact of early immigrants on indigenous Americans.    

NUNES: And it starts with Samson Occum, a Mohegan man full of hope that  Iindians can co-exist with colonists.

GONZALEZ: Occum’s a colonial celebrity. He’s received by the King of England. George Washington knows his name.  

NUNES: But today his tribe, the Brothertown, can’t even get recognition from the U.S. government that their nation exists. 

GONZALEZ: They remember the day they got that news.

JESSICA RYAN: It was devastating. It was heartbreaking. There are people that openly wept and wailed at receiving that information.

GONZALEZ: This is a case that says a lot about the legacy of early European immigration to America and how legal systems set up centuries ago continue to affect American Indians to this day.  You might want to listen to episodes 4 and 5 first.

NUNES: Before we get too far into this story, a quick recap on the Brothertown: the story begins in the 18th Century with Samson Occom.

GONZALEZ: Yes. This brilliant Mohegan Indian from Connecticut who helped found Dartmouth College, although that wasn’t what he thought he was doing. He was trying to build this great school for Native Americans when his mentor took off with the money Occom raised in Europe and built an Ivy League school instead. 

NUNES: This left Occom devastated. He no longer thought Indians could survive if they lived side-by-side with white settlers. So he got a group of Indians together and left Southern New England to start over in Central New York.

GONZALEZ: That worked for a few decades, until more settlers moved west and pushed this new tribe—the Brothertown—off their land. So the Brothertown moved again, in a deadly journey, this time to Wisconsin. And that’s where many of the Brothertown still are to this day. 

NUNES: In this episode of Mosaic, we travel to Wisconsin to follow the story of the Brothertown Indian Nation through to the present.

JESSICA RYAN: We love to come here because this is one of our oldest cemeteries, in the State of Wisconsin as well. We call this the Dick Cemetery. A lot of the family members in here are part of the Dick family, and that’s my relatives.

NUNES: This is Jessica Ryan. We heard from her last episode. She’s a Brothertown Indian and a tribal council member. She and I are standing in the snow on the side of the road in Brothertown Township, Wisconsin. This isn’t a reservation anymore, but it was when the Brothertown settled here after leaving Central New York.

JESSICA RYAN: The old stone wall around here, that’s the traditional way things were taken care of back east. And so, always has good feelings coming here. Um, yeah...

ANDRÉA NUNES

GONZALEZ: When the Brothertown arrive on this land in the 1830s, it’s thickly forested. They quickly go about cutting down trees and clearing space for their new homes and farms.

NUNES: Things get off to a promising start. Within a few years, about 250 people are living at the new Brothertown. And that’s a lot when you consider that, by just 1800, only 90 Indians are living on the Mohegan land in Connecticut where the Brothertown founder Samson Occom was born.

GONZALEZ: But the Brothertown also have really powerful forces mounting against them, because the Brothertown are settling in Wisconsin right as the federal government is enforcing the Indian Removal Act.

NUNES: That’s the notorious law signed in 1830 by President Andrew Jackson. It called for the forced removal and resettlement of tribes to the west of the Mississippi River. Thousands of Native Americans die on the Trail of Tears.

GONZALEZ: The Brothertown aren’t exempt from the government’s new plan for Indians. Not long after they arrive in Wisconsin, the feds come to the tribe and tell them they need to move to Indian Territory in what we now call Kansas.

JESSICA RYAN: They hadn’t even all arrived hardly at this new space that was promised to them in Wisconsin, and they were asked to relocate again. As you can imagine, the leaders at that time feared the demise of the tribe if they relocated. Considering the many people that had been lost on the journey over to that area in Wisconsin, they simply would not and could not move again and did not want to have the people and the tribe become nonexistent.

NUNES: Think about this moment from the Brothertown’s perspective. They had just finished this deadly journey to Wisconsin. They hiked through the woods and paddled over Great Lakes in canoes. And now they’re being told all these families—kids, elderly people—need to pack up and head out again.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. They must be thinking: You have to be kidding me. But they do consider it. They send scouts down to Kansas to check out this land the government wants to send them to. The story passed down by the Brothertown goes that this small group never returned.

NUNES: So the Brothertown say: no way, this isn’t happening. They start thinking of other options, which, needless to say, are limited.

GONZALEZ: But they come up with a plan they think will work. And it’s something novel, just like back in Connecticut decades earlier when they decide to go to Central New York.

NUNES: Right. They ask the federal government if they can become U.S. citizens and exempt themselves from all this forced removal.

GONZALEZ: So what makes this idea so unusual? Aren’t all Native Americans U.S. citizens today?

NUNES: Good question. So: back then in the 1830s they weren’t. The Brothertown are asking to become the first Native American tribe to be made U.S. citizens.

GONZALEZ: And the government agrees. But there’s a catch.

NUNES: Absolutely. So this deal is made official by an act of Congress in 1839, and what it says is that, in exchange for citizenship, the Brothertown have to dissolve their reservation. The land gets turned into private property that gets divvied up into separate plots to be held by individual members of the tribe.

GONZALEZ: You might be thinking that doesn’t sound so bad, but it is. Being property owners means the Brothertown now need to pay property taxes. This is totally new to the Brothertown. And it means that, if the Brothertown don’t have the money to pay their taxes or don’t know how to navigate the system, their land gets taken away.

JESSICA RYAN: Our people never had the history and the experience of becoming individual landowners in the sense of how the Anglo government recognized and defined individual land ownership. We had owned land in common. We had shared space and taken care of different pieces of land along with our other relatives. But we hadn’t ever been individual landowners. And we lost a tremendous amount of land to tax forfeiture.

NUNES: And there’s more. The Brothertown don’t know it at the time in 1839, but the federal government will come to interpret the deal to mean the Brothertown agreed to exchange their official status as an Indian tribe for U.S. citizenship.

GONZALEZ: In essence, when the Brothertown became U.S. citizens, they also stopped being a tribe in the eyes of the U.S. government. And this opens up a whole set of problems that the Brothertown are still wrestling with to this day.

NUNES: To the federal government,So to the fedsIn the eyes of the United States government, the Brothertown Indian tribe does not formally exist. 

GONZALEZ: But many of them still consider themselves part of the tribe and we found some many of the descendents not far from the original Brothertown settlement.

NUNES: I’m in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, about 25 minutes from the settlement on a day of celebration. These are Native American Jingle dancers.. They’re wearing colorful dresses lined with rolled up snuff cans. That’s the sound you’re hearing.This is one of the ways the Brothertown preserve and share their traditions, which are way older than the United States government. 

JESSICA RYAN: It’s also really important to us that we do some welcoming songs and of inclusion where everyone is invited to dance and share in the good feelings that come from listening to that drum, that heartbeat of the people. The Brothertown Indian Nation is like many other tribes in the sense of wanting people to understand and know a little bit more about who we are. But I think we’re unique from other tribes in the sense of urgency and commitment that we have to helping others understand and know we have continued to exist from generations and generations ago, and we still exist today.

GONZALEZ: There’s a reason why the Brothertown feel a sense of urgency and it has to do with the fact that they’re not a federally recognized tribe. 

NUNES: Federal recognition is important because, without it, a tribe can’t have a governing body that negotiates with the U.S. government; it can’t have a federally recognized reservation; and it’s doesn’t qualify for certain protections and economic development programs.

GONZALEZ: The Brothertown didn’t know for sure that they weren’t recognized until the 1980s. And that’s around when they decide to apply for recognition through the BIA and settle this thing once and for all.

NUNES: Jessica Ryan is a kid when all this is happening.

JESSICA RYAN: I was just born in the early 70s there, and there were a number of meetings that I went to with my mom as a little girl, and of course I didn’t understand all of it, because I was so little at that time. But by the time I was 10 years old, I knew that we needed to have more lawyers that were Brothertown Indians so they could help with this process.

GONZALEZ: From then on out, Jessica knows what she’s going to do with her life. She’s going to become a lawyer and fight for her tribe to get recognized.

NUNES: Jessica remembers being in the eighth grade and her teacher passing out a career survey, and Jessica says: no thanks. I already know what I’m doing.

GONZALEZ: When she graduates from high school, she asks people to give her money so she can buy one of those big, clunky camcorders you lug around over one shoulder so she can videotape Brothertown elders giving the historical testimony the tribe needs for its application.

NUNES: And, as Jessica recalls, the whole process was going really well at this point. The Bureau of Indian Affairs kept telling the Brothertown: great job, keep doing what you’re doing.

GONZALEZ: Jessica says the BIA even began mailing around parts of the Brothertown application to other tribes as an example of what they should be doing.

NUNES: So the Brothertown get their application in, and then they wait—for years. They watch to see if the BIA’s criteria for tribes changes, and when it does they send in new attachments to their application.

GONZALEZ: They don’t want to leave anything to chance. They’re dotting every i and crossing every t.

NUNES: And they’re thinking: we have been so thorough. We’ve submitted 10 banker’s boxes of material. There is no way the federal government can turn us down.

GONZALEZ: And when they get word in the 2000s that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is ready to decide on their application, they’re expecting a celebration.

NUNES: Then, in 2009, the BIA announces its decision on the Brothertown is ready. They say: sorry, the Brothertown tribe doesn’t qualify for federal recognition.

GONZALEZ: And it comes down to that deal their ancestors agreed to in 1839. They didn’t realize it at the time, but the BIA now says that terminated their status. And because it was an act of Congress, the BIA, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, says the tribe has to go to federal lawmakers to get their recognition back.

NUNES: The Brothertown are stunned.

JESSICA RYAN: It was devastating. It was heartbreaking. There are people that openly wept and wailed at receiving that information. I received the correspondence, and I remember just sitting in my living room and weeping about it, and calling my mom to tell her, because this is a battle she’s been involved with since I was a little girl. I was born in 1971. And to have that kind of determination come from the federal government was a tremendous blow.

GONZALEZ: It’s a heartbreaking story, but unfortunately it’s also not unique.

NUNES: Yeah. The Brothertown story is this experience of one tribe, one group of Native Americans. But it says so much about the history and experience of American Indians in the U.S. and the effect the early immigration of Europeans has had on all of them.

KAUANUI: “These criteria are very stringent, and you’ve got the colonizer who’s in the business of dispossessing indigenous peoples being the entity that determines whether or not they’re legitimate.” 

GONZALEZ: Kehaulani Kauanui is a professor of American Studies at Wesleyan University who lectures about federal recognition. 

KAUANUI: “And this is really important for people to understand—that settler colonial domination for native nations has not ended. Tribes are still living under a structure of colonial domination today, in the 21st Century.”

NUNES: And now they suffer this modern indignity. And, to Jessica, one way the federal government can make amends for this treatment is by saying: yes, the Brothertown Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe.

JESSICA RYAN: “Having the federal government acknowledge and identify us again as a federally recognized tribe is critical, because when identity has been taken from you, and in a way that it was not intended and in a way that it was not understood, it leaves a tremendous hole in your heart and in your sense of self. And having the federal government identify and acknowledge that again is very important for some healing to happen for our tribe and for individuals as well.”

GONZALEZ: So we should recognize that some Brothertown have different feelings about federal recognition.

NUNES: Right. Some say: forget the U.S. government. We don’t need them to validate us and say we’re a real Indian tribe. It’s not like France of Belgium are lining up to have the U.S. recognize their legitimacy. Why should Indian tribes give the government that power?

GONZALEZ: But others have continued the fight, which has now moved to Congress. They know it’s going to be another long process, but they say it’s worth it. And they’ve taken steps in that direction, like reaching out to the office of Wisconsin U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin.

NUNES: Jessica Ryan says, whatever you think of federal recognition, there are undeniable benefits to being a recognized tribe. For one, the Brothertown need help preserving their history and sacred places. And they could get that help if they were a recognized tribe.

NUNES: And that’s what we talked about in that cemetery at the end of my trip to Brothertown.

NUNES: It’s about 6 o’clock at night right now?

JESSICA RYAN: Yeah.

ALEX: A little bit of sun over the horizon left. But almost dark.

JESSICA RYAN: Yup. Beautiful blanket of snow everywhere. So, for me, one of the reasons that federal recognition, or federal acknowledgement, is important is we need to be able to take care of those relatives who’ve traveled on, and we need to be able to take care of them in a good way. And we do the best that we can with what we have available. But there are resources available to help us take care of those people. We would be able to qualify for different protections for this cemetery if we had that federal recognition status. And so without that status we don’t qualify to take care of our ancestors like we need to and have those places protected. And that for me is a driving force for why we need to have the federal government acknowledge us as a federally recognized tribe.

NUNES: Our story, that begins with Samson Occum, and follows the impact of immigration on the Brothertown tribe, ends here, for now,  in this Wisconsin cemetery. 

GONZALEZ: Mosaic is a production of the Public’s Radio, edited by Sally Eisele with production help from James Baumgartner and Aaron Selbig. Our original music is by Bryn Bliska. Our intern is Kylie Cooper. Torey Malatia is the general manager of The Public’s Radio. I’m Ana Gonzalez.

NUNES: And I’m Alex Nunes. Thanks for listening.

Episode
Highlights

NO LONGER A RESERVATION

This isn’t a reservation anymore, but it was when the Brothertown settled here after leaving Central New York.

Native American dancers lead a procession at the Fond du Lac Convention Center in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin., during a multicultural event on Feb. 16, 2019. | Photo: Andréa Nunes

THE CALL TO BECOME A LAWYER

“By the time I was 10 years old, I knew that we needed to have more lawyers that were Brothertown Indians so they could help with this process.”
—JESSICA RYAN

STILL DOMINATED

“Settler-colonial domination for native nations has not ended. Tribes are still living under a structure of colonial domination today, in the 21st Century.”
—PROFESSOR KEHAULANI KAUANUI

FEDERAL RECOGNITION

One way the federal government can make amends for this treatment is by saying: yes, the Brothertown Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe.

A HOLE IN YOUR HEART

When identity has been taken from you, and in a way that it was not intended and in a way that it was not understood, it leaves a tremendous hole in your heart and in your sense of self.
—JESSICA RYAN

Jessica Ryan participates in a group dance at the Fond du Lac Convention Center | Photo: Andréa Nunes

Members of a Native American drum circle perform at the Fond du Lac Convention Center | Photo: Andréa Nunes

DOING THE BEST WITH WHAT WE HAVE

“We need to be able to take care of those relatives who’ve traveled on, and we need to be able to take care of them in a good way. And we do the best that we can with what we have available. But there are resources available to help us take care of those people. We would be able to qualify for different protections for this cemetery if we had that federal recognition status.”
—JESSICA RYAN

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