Indian Mills, formerly known as Brotherton, is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located within Shamong Township in Burlington County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. It was the site of Brotherton Indian Reservation, the only

Indian reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

in New Jersey and the first in America, founded for the Lenni Lenape tribe, some of whom were native to

's Washington Valley. Before becoming a reservation, it was an industrial town, known for

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

s and

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s. Brotherton was the first Native American reservation in New Jersey. The town was also historically known as ''Edgepillock'' or ''Edgepelick.'' 7 November 2010

History

In 1756, the British colonial government appointed

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

s to resolve disputes between white settlers and the Munsee Lenape native to the Washington Valley. For 100 years prior, the groups had been on peaceful terms. In 1757, the "New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians" wrote a constitution to expel Munsee Lenape native to the Washington Valley. Led by Reverend John Brainerd,

colonists A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among the first settli ...

forcefully relocated 200 people to Indian Mills, then known as Brotherton. In 1777, Reverend John Brainerd abandoned the reservation, making circumstances increasingly difficult. In 1780, Munsee Lenape community leaders of Brotherton, native to Washington Valley, wrote a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

to oppose selling any more land to white settlers:

Displacement to Stockbridge, New York

In 1796, the Oneidas of Stockbridge invited Brotherton's Lenape families to join their reservation. The initial Lenape response was negative; in 1798, Munsee Lenape community leaders Bartholomew Calvin, Jason Skekit, and 18 others signed a public statement of refusal to leave "our fine place in

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

." However, in 1801, many of the Munsee Lenape families agreed to relocate to New Stockbridge, New York to join the Oneidas. A few Munsee Lenapes stayed behind and assimilated with the white colonists.

Displacement to Green Bay, Wisconsin

In 1822, the remaining families were forcefully displaced by white colonists again, over 900 miles' travel away, to

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the head of Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the F ...

References

Shamong Township, New Jersey Unincorporated communities in Burlington County, New Jersey Unincorporated communities in New Jersey Former American Indian reservations Native American history of New Jersey {{BurlingtonCountyNJ-geo-stub