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.

About Ezra Silk

I have been interested in journalism ever since I was an editor at my high school student newspaper, where I was involved in a freedom of speech controversy that was covered in the local newspaper as well as local television and radio outlets. The ACLU became involved, and the ensuing negotiations lead to a liberalization of my school's freedom of expression policy. I worked as a summer intern at the Hartford Courant after my freshman year at Wesleyan, reporting for the Avon Bureau under Bill Leukhardt and publishing over 30 stories. At the Argus I have been a news reporter, news assistant editor, news editor, features editor, editor-in-chief, executive editor, blogger, and multimedia director. I have overseen the redesign of wesleyanargus.com, founding the Blargus and initiating ArgusVideo at the beginning of my time as editor-in-chief during the spring of my junior year. During my senior year, I have co-edited the Blargus with Gianna Palmer and founded Argus News Radio, a 15-minute weekly show produced by WESU 88.1 on which I conduct a weekly segment interviewing seniors about their thesis topics. I have written over 70 stories at the Argus and continue to do reporting and blogging as much as I can.