The Newtown bee., 1878-09-12
INDIAN RELICS.

before the Bridgeport Scientific Society, was very interesting. We clip from the Standard of last week the following:
 Doctor Powers introduced Doctor w. c. Vile, of Newtown, who read an interest ing paper on Indian remains illustrated by portions of q skeleton which was dug recently from ;I mound in Newtown, Conn. These portions were ill an excellent state of preservation particularly the skull with its accompaniment, the lower naxillary bone. The upper teeth also were cun- plGte and perfect. Together with these bones were found arrow heads, beads, and other trimkets, all of which Doctor Vile has presented to the museum of the Socie- ty. The Doctor gave minute account of the finding of these remains and of the facts which go to show that they are the bones of a member of the tribe which for merly Inhabited that section, but is now extinct. Incidentally to this paper Doctor
 Vile gave q sketch of the
 PoTATUCK INDIANS,
 which is alike interesting and valuable, and which we reproduce here for the beue- fit of our readers
 The PotatuckS of NewtOWn and Wood- bury appear to have been d small comnu- nity; they never gave any trouble to the English settlers; and they arc not known to have distinguished themselves by wars upon the ncighboring tribes.
 One of the first if not the very first acts recorded of them is the sale in l728 of forty-eight square miles of their territory | ,l,1,. ,Nf IN,, The deed of sale is subscribed .hv rk- of ninntann Im.i;...r~ ...1UIg which those of Sauquash, Massunpus and Nunawauk, are the first and probably the most inl- portant. The price received for the land consisted of four guns, four broad-cluth coats, four dulfed coats, ten shirts ten pairs of stockings four kettles, ten hatchets, fourty pounds of lead ten pounds of powder and forty knives. Never prob ably had the POtatuck tribe felt itself so in wealth as at the instant this bargain was consulnmated, when they could put on the coats, handle the guns and fill their empty pouches with the in- valuable powder. Little did they trouble themselves in that moment of Overhowing opulence with the reflection that they had parted with their country, or imagine that in one century there would not be Pota- tuck man, woman or child above the sod of Connecticut.
 The PotatuCks were said to number in 1710 fifty warriors, but the estimate being made more than half a century subse- quent to that date is very uncertain, and probably altogether too large. President Stiles gives it as his opinion that they were at this time subject to Waraumaug, a Sachem who lived on the within the township of New 
 of a great pow-wowing which took place in the village of the Potatucks probably about 1720 or 1725.
 The scene was witnessed by Mrs. Be- met, then little girl, and after her death was related by one of her children to the President. The ceremonies lasted three days and were attended, she said by five or six hundred Indians, many of whom came from distant towns, as Hartford and Pennington. While the Indians excited by their wild rites and dark superstitions were standing on dense mass, little girl gaily dressed and ornamented was led in among them by two squaws, her mother and her aunt. As she entered the crowd, the Indians set up their high pow VOWS, bowling, yelling, throwing them- selves into strange pastures and making strange grimaces. Many white people stood around gazing at the scene; but such was the excited state of the savages that although they feared for the child S safety none of them dared to interfere or to enter the crowd:
 After awhile the two squaws emerged alone from the press, stripped of all their ornaments and walked away shedding tears, and uttering mournful cries. The informant deeply interested ill the fate of one so near her own age ran up to the two woman and asked them what they had done with the little girl. They would not tell her and only replied that they should neser see that little girl again.
 The other Indians likewise remained silent on the subject but Mrs. Bemet be- lieved that the Indians had sacrificed her and that they did at times offer human sacrifices.
 In 1742 the Potatucks united with the Indians of Milford in a petition to the Legislature for a school and a preacher.
 From the sentiments and language of the petition it is quite evident that it was dictated as well as penned by some pious white person of the neighborhood.
 It has the marks of Mowehu Chary, and nine other nations, and it states the num- Der of the Potatucks at forty, and that of the New Milford Indians at thirty individ- uals. The assembly voted forty pounds in bills of the old tenor to assist the Indians of New Milford in obtaining schools in that town, and twenty-five pounds for the Potatueks who were to receive the same benefits in NewtOwn and Woodbury.
 The ministers of New Milford, Wood bury and Newtown were recommended to take the petitioners under their care and instructions. know nothing of the re- suits of this movement nor anything fur ther of the history of the Potatucks until l761. At that time they were found to