Letters Home from the Brothertown "Boys"

This book is about the educated Brothertown Indian men who fought in the Civil War and wrote letters home telling of this horrible war. American Indians, who despite the guarantees from the United States, found that same government continually stripping them of their lands. And, still, they rushed to volunteer their services to defend the Union.

The Brothertown Indian Nation is unique from many other tribes in that they are an amalgamated group. They are made up of remnants of the coastal tribes who made the first contact with the whites. As a result of the Great Awakening, a religious movement in New England during the 1740s, many Indian people in southern New England converted to Christianity, including the Mohegan, Pequot, Narragansett, Montauk, Tunxis, and Niantic. As these people tried to live Christian lives in New England, they found it difficult to resist the pressures from whites around them who encouraged them to abuse alcohol, give up farming and sell their lands. By the 1700s, the tribes were poverty stricken, decimated by wars and disease.

A small group of young Natives, educated at Eleazer Wheelocks Indian Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut, became the impetus for forming a new community where they might live amicably together. On November 7, 1784 the band of Christian New England Indians settled on lands given to them by the Oneida Nation in New York and called their Town by the Name of Brotherton, in Indian Eeyam qittoowauconnuck.