Why is Indian Hill called Indian Hill?
According to a sign erected by the Middletown Heritage Society, a local Native American chief apparently used to chill there on the reg. Sitting on top of the scenic hill, he would admire his sizable kingdom, which stretched across the Connecticut River (which, at the time, would have been called Quinnitukqut, a Mohegan term that means “long river”).
“From the peak of the grassy hill behind these gates, Sowheag, leader of the Wangunks, could see for miles, observing the round-topped wigwams of his people in small settlements on both sides of the Connecticut River,” says the sign.
Sowheag’s days of peaceful frolicking came to an end, however, when local tribal rivalries and English colonization forced him to fortify the hill in 1639. By 1650, English settlers began colonizing the region that is now Middlesex County in full force, and Sowheag quickly sold off much of his land. The Wangunks moved together into what were essentially proto-reservations.
By the 1770s, the Wangunks had sold off all that remained of their land and moved west. The few who remained married into local African-American families.
In the 19th century, when people stopped thinking of graveyards as corpse landfills, Indian Hill was converted into the “cemetery of choice for Middletown’s elite.” Most of the graves standing today are from that era.
And what of today?
“The cemetery’s intriguing gravestones and striking views still attract locals and visitors who walk, jog, and picnic on Indian Hill’s handsome grounds centuries after the Wangunks made it their home,” the sign informs us.
Ain’t that the truth.