The largest free-standing boulder in New England, Cochegan Rock, is known as the place where Sachem Uncas met with his council in the 1600s. There, they made the difficult and strategic decision that would ultimately preserve the Tribe through the
struggle with the exploding European population. The Tribe decide to break arrows’ and made an alliance with the ‘pale strangers.’ By sacrificing some of its dwindling independence, the Tribe preserved enough autonomy to maintain its
identity. The decision meant that the Tribe survived through the wars, theft of land and broken promises that wiped out our neighboring tribes.
It is not known how the Tribe lost ownership of the site, later owned by the Connecticut Rivers
Council of the Boy Scouts of America since it was deeded to them by a local family in the 1960s. In 2007, the Tribe reacquired the sacred site.
