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• 1 media/fortshantok.png media/Site of Occom House CT Hist Society.jpg 2022-12-02T14:55:24-08:00 New Covenants, Old Covenants, and the Bid for Brothertown 28 image_header 2022-12-07T06:50:15-08:00

  Scholars dispute the theological import of Occom’s sermons, hymns, petitions and letters. Some argue that he did adhere, theologically, to old covenant interpretations of Indigenous people and their role in an incipient America. They cite the increase in Occom’s explications of Old Testament passages in sermons he delivered around the time of the Brothertown formation.

  This section analyzes Occom’s use of both New Testament and Old Testament theologies to characterize Indigenous relationships to the land, in a way that was simultaneously theologically multivalent and politically unequivocal.

  Many Old Testament and New Testament typologies hinge on the idea of the covenant as a conceptual symbol of the divine-human relationship and the progression of historical time, from God’s first covenants with Abraham and Moses to the New covenant, in which Jesus Christ figures as the sole route between humans and God. Indeed the initial covenant was one grounded in notions of land, place, and displacement: it hews neatly to modern migrations of peoples across vast landscapes in the name of persecution. Whereas the New Testament’s covenant does away with all of this in the name of Christ, for whom “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” as Paul tells the Galatians. “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Geneva Bible, Galatians 3:28). Christ is a narrative salve, dissolving distinctions and bringing all under the heritage of Abraham.

  Occom’s writing situates Indigenous Christians in this framework of the New Covenant while simultaneously articulating a model of Indigeneity that is firmly rooted in the land and ordained by God. Of particular interest is his use of the word “boundless,” which he frequently deploys in both his religious and political work to describe both the North American continent and the divine. This synchronicity is significant; “boundless” eschews territorial and transactional notions of land (later codified by English colonizers).

  In his 1785 petition on behalf of the Brotherton tribe to the United States Congress, he situates the English imperial project as existing within the “boundless” world: “To the Most August Asembly, The Congress of the Thirteen United States, in this Boundless Western New World, Now Conven’d at the City of New York” (Occom 150). He swiftly delinks “boundless” and the land claims of the U.S. Congress, however, when he proceeds to describe the continent pre-colonization as a gift from a “sovereign” God: “he fenced this great Continent by the Mighty Waters, all around, and it pleased him, to Plant our fore Fathers here first, and he gave them this Boundless Continent, and it was well furnishd,” he writes. (Emphases mine). It is as if, in 1985, Occom locates the source of “just” power that he had interrogated in his 1764 letter to William Johnson.
  
  

  To the Most August Asembly, The Congress of the Thirteen United States, in this Boundless Western New World, Now Conven’d at the City of New York— Your Ancient and Most true and Sincere Friends and Brethren, the aboriginal Nations of this Great Indian World,—Sendeth Greeting We intreat that of your Great ^Noble^ Excellencies and Clemencies, You Would listen to us, and hear us few Words—The Most Great, The Good and The Supream ^Spirit above^ Saw fit to Creat This World, and all Creatures and all things therein; and the Children of man to Inhabit the Earth and to enjoy, and to ^over^rule all the rest of the Creatures in this World— and the good, and the Great ^govr^ of the Worlds,—Saw fit in his good pleasure, to Divide this World by the Great Waters, and he fenced this great Continent by the Mighty Waters, all around, and it pleased him, to Plant our fore Fathers here first, and he gave them this Boundless Continent, and it was well furnishd, and Stored with all Necessaries of Life for them, and here they have livd and Spread over the Face of this Wilderness World, no man knows ^how or^ how long,—This World was full of all manner of four footed Wild Creatures great & small both on the Land and in the Waters, and Fowls Without Number ^on the dry & in the Waters^ of all Sizes and Coulors, they Darken the Air Some Times and they Coverd the Face of the Earth and the Waters and our Lakes, Ponds, Rivers, Brooks, and the Seas, were all alive, and [fom’d] with Fish of every Sort and Bigness, even our Sa^n^d and Mud were well Stord with Shell Fish, besids with Variety of Creeping Shell Fish great and Small,— and our Land and Woods were Loaded with Fruit in a boundence, there were ground Nuts and beans in the Earth and Nuts on the Trees plenty,—Thus our Forefathers lived upon the Spontaneous Produc^t^ of this Country,—and in Process of Time, The great Sovereign of the Universe, Saw fit to permit the [word crossed out] ^Brethren^ of your fore Fathers to rise up against them for their maintaining the pure Religion of Jesus Christ, and they killd many of them, and a few of them fled ...

  
  

  ... from the Face of their Cruel Bre[thr]en and the good Spirit above Directed their Course to the West, [an]d he brought them over into this Country, and here the Good Spirit made Room for them ^and here your Fathers found us very poor and Wild and Ignorant^ and others of their Brethren Soon Come after them, and Settle with them, and Soon Multiplied, and our fore Father Sold them Lands for little or nothing our Fathers knew not the Value of Lands, for they had not other use for it only to Hunt on and to gather the Natural Fruits of it; & they have Sold all their Country, along the Sea Shore, and all our Hunting, Fishing and Fowling is now gone, our Father thought to live always by hunting, but they were greatly under a mistake for now we find our selves Stript of all our Natural Priviledges,—And Just before these and Some years back we made application to our good Brethren the Onoydas for a little Room to Settle ^down^ upon, and they were So kind as freely to give us a large Tract of good Land and Several ^Families^ went up and began to Settle it and others were geting ready to move up,—And the [invy?] Which your Brethren had against for Some Time for Your Happiness you injoy in this Country, grew so hott, that your own ^king^ Sent over an Army to Supress you, by which an open Family Contention began and we were also greatly distrest, and were drove of and left our efects and lost them,— And all the Tribes to ^which^ we belong to were warmly Engaged in Favour of the United States of America ^and our young men are^ And now Thanks be to the good Spirit above, that there is a Finis to these unhappy Wars, and we hope that it will be a long and an Honorable Peace,—And we rejoice with you and Congratulate you that after a long Strugle, Under the Tyrannic Hand of your invious Elder Brother, you have broke the Slavish Chains and the galling Yoke, and by your firmness Steadyness, Resolution and Great Courage, you have got your Freedom Liberty and Independence.—And now we hope, we wish, and pray, that you may be very good, Happy, great, and Strong People, that you may be like a Tree planted by a River, that will take deep and Strong Root; that you may grow up very high towards Heaven, and your Branches may Spre^a^d Extensively Wide and be Very Fruitfull in all things that are praiseworthy—And Since the Peace have took Place a number of have got up here again, and others woud Come up also but we are So poor, we are much dishartend,—and we find that this late war has stript us of all help we use to have—All the Fountains abroad that use to water and refresh our Wilderness are Dryed up, and the Springs that use to rise near are all Ceased—We have neither Missionaries nor Scholmasters amongst us,—and it is pinching Necessity that Con- strains us to make our Cries for help; and we h no where to make our Cries, but to Your Excellencies Benevolence—And Therefore our ^most^ Humble Petition and Request is, this once, to help us a little, in our Settling, in this Wilderness, we extreamly want a grist mill and a Saw Mill and we very Destitute of all manner of Husbandry Tools and we Should be glad and thankfull for a little Liberary, for we would have our Children have some Learning,—our Young People are much inclined to learn

  
  Here Occom spins an origin story not dissimilar to Old Testament narratives of a chosen tribe whose land has been set aside sovereign god, with slight undertones of Eden. Again he pursues the metaphor of Indigenous rootedness: they are a people planted by God, though they face threats of dismemberment and uprooting at the hands of the settlers. It is curious that these images and their implicit messages come after an evocation of a boundless “new” world: it is as if the Old Testament portraits are transposed, grafted onto the landscape of the “new” world, which is, as Occom suggests, actually very old.

  In his 1784 sermon “To All the Indians In This Boundless Continent,” he again connects Indigenous people to a “boundless” landscape, i.e. a landscape prior to colonization and its attendant divvying of land. He then hearkens to the Old Testament creationist narrative: “I am an Indian also, your Brother and you are my Brethren the Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh, I live at Mohegan or M^m^oyanhegunnuck” (Occom 196). This language reflects Genesis 2:23: And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.” Occom appears to the Indigenous audience as if from a faraway world, a distance that has obscured or occluded the relation between him and them. “I am an Indian also,” he writes, as if their shared connection to their boundless continent is not readily apparent. His rhetoric melds Indigenous rootedness is land with Biblical models of kinship and origin.
  
  Occom proceeds to rehearse a familiar and originary tale of Adam and Eve, concluding that Jesus Christ “is the only Saviour of Sinners that believe in him; this promise was made to Adam and his wife in the Garden, and then he was turned out of the garden with his Wife—Now this one man and Woman, is the Father and Mother of all Nations of the Whole World” (197). Here he evokes a solidly Old Testament perspective in order to show the fulfillment of the New Covenant, that being the “promise” of Jesus Christ. See the first page, and Occom's invocation of "boundless, in "To All the Indians in this Boundless Continent" below:
  
  

  To all the Indians in this Boundless Continent,—I am an Indian also, your Brother and you are my Brethren the Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh, I live at Mohegan or M^m^oyanhegunnuck, I have had a great Desire to Write to you a long While, but I have put it off from Time to Time, to This Time, I am ^now^ Sixty one years of Age—Now my Brethren lend me both your Ears and listen with great at- tention, and ^let^ nothing Croud into your Ears whilest I am Speaking, and prepare your hearts. Let there be Room for my words & keep them there Choice and loose them not, awake your Understanding and Call home all your Roving Thoughts, and attend Diligently, and I Will Speak ...