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 and Dutchess County, New York, and Litchfield County, Connecticut.
[
]
Villages
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Weantinock, the tribe's primary village, situated along the Housatonic River near present New Milford
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Bantam
[
]
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Pachgatgoch (present day Schaghticoke Indian Reservation - Kent, CT) "Where the river forks" at the mouth of the Housatonic R. and Ten Mile R.
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Pomperaug
[
]
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Scaticook
[
]
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Shekomeko (Shecomeco),
[ meaning "great village," 2 miles south of present Pine Plains, NY]
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Weataug,
[ meaning "wigwam place," likely on the Housatonic River between Washining Lake and Canaan, Connecticut, near present Salisbury]
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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 Mohicans.
The majority of the Wawyachtonoc were converted to Christianity, beginning in 1740, by Moravian Church missionaries.[
]
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.
