Mattabeseck

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[edit] Mattabeseck River

In early Dutch maps of the American Colonies from the early 17th Century, the term Mattabeseck is applied to an area of land just to the north of New Haven, Connecticut between the Housatonic and Connecticut Rivers. This land was eventually absorbed by the English Colony of Connecticut.

Although the Dutch used the term broadly, specifically speaking, Mattabeseck is a place name for the location known today as Middletown, Connecticut. Linguistically, Mattabeseck is a regional variant of the same word as Mattapoisett, and means 'land between waters' and was used in both instances to indicate a place of portage. In this instance, the portage refers to the trail connecting the Quinnipiac River in Meriden to the Mattabeseck River in Middletown, and which subsequently links to the Connecticut River. In other words, travelling south on the Connecticut, at Middletown the river turns to the Southeast toward the mouth of the Connecticut, but, by taking the Mattabeseck River and then portaging, (roughly along the route of today's Route 66), one can connect to the Quinnipiac River and reach Long Island Sound at New Haven Harbour.

Further south, the River flows from an upland meadow in Durham, where it was called the Coginchaug, or 'winding meadow'.

Since it was the old western boundary of the incorporated City of Middletown, it was also called the West River, and also, for no known reasons, it was given other names, including the Sebethe River and the Arrawanna River. Presumably the word Mattabeseck was never considered properly euphonious, and various local individuals tried to improve on the name poetically.

[edit] Mattabeseck Indians

Mattabeseck also refers to the North American Indian tribe of the same name with a principal settlement at the Mattabeseck River. It is presumed that the portage offered the Mattabeseck additional opportunities for trade. The Mattabeseck River also forms an extensive swamplands where it meets the Connecticut, which would also have offered a variety of natural resources for exploitation.

Also spelled Mattabesett, Mattabesic, or Mattabesec, their land appears to be also referred to as the Makimanes and are a branch of the Algonquian Indian tribe or tribes of people. Sowheag, Chief of the Connecticut Indians claimed the allegiance of the Indians of Hartford and Wethersfield also was considered chief of the Mattabesecks. He moved his principal residence to Middletown after Hartford and Wethersfield were occupied by English colonists. His son, Manitowese, claimed the allegiance of Quinnipiac Valley indians, (Meriden to New Haven).

Whether the Mattabesecks were a distinct tribe or simply the members of a larger tribe resident at Mattabeseck is an open question. Given the close interplay of the various groups, the best option is simply to consider them part of one larger tribe, the Connecticut Indians.

The last lands of the Mattabesecks were a small section in Portland on the east side of the river, and a larger tract in the Newfield section of Middletown, still close to the Mattabeseck marshlands. The last remnants of the tribe left in the late 1700s for upstate New York, and were among the many New England Indian groups that merged with the Indians at Schaghticoke.

[edit] Notes

Recently, a local group has claimed the North Branch of the Mattabeseck (passing through Berlin, Connecticut) as the Mattabeseck River. However, the main course of the river flows from the south, and the the place of portage itself is near Palmer Field, just below Sowheag's main stronghold at Indian Hill.

For the first few years of its existence, the town of Middletown, Connecticut was named Mattabeseck, which was laid out in on the broad hill south of the mouth of the Mattabeseck swamplands in 1647 and afterwards.