They were settled in, Milford, Stratford, and Derby, thus occupying considerable territory on both sides of the Housatonic River. It separates New Haven from Orange, all the way to Fairfield. On the west of the Housatonic River they claimed all the territory now compromised in the towns of Stratford, Bridgeport, Trumbull, Huntington, and Monroe; and on the east side, as far north as Beacon Hill Brook, east of the Naugatuck, including the town of Milford, and the western part of Orange, Woodbridge, and Bethany, and, as we shall see, still further, overlapping the hunting grounds of the Tunxis ; and north and west of the Housatonic River above Birmingham Point, they claimed the territory nearly to the Massachusetts line, certainly into the town of Norfolk, wither their deeds extend.

Milford, Stratford, and Derby

Population

Culture

History

This large tribe at the coming of the English was under the dominion of the well-known chief Ansantaway, whose big wigwam is said to have been on Charles Island, at Milford, and the wigwams of whose people scarcely extended beyond The Neck above the present village of Birmingham, in Derby.

Eventually, the Wepawaugs sold themselves out of house and home, at Milford, to settlers who came into the area. Through last agreement Ansantaway and wife and his sons Toutonemoe and Ankeanack, were granted liberty to sit down for shelter in some place near the town where the townsmen (selectmen) should think fit. In accordance with this agreement the town sometime afterwards appointed a tract of land on its northern border, adjoining the Derby line and made it a reservation for them.The place was known as Turkey Hill.

Other remnants of the Wepawaug Indians remaining east of the Housatonic, were absorbed in this settlement at Turkey Hill. This reservation was set apart by the town of Milford as the home of the Milford Indians who had remained in the south part of that town when Ansantaway was removed into Derby.

Charles Island, located off of Silver Sands state beach has a long and mysterious history. The Wepawaug Indians regarded the island as sacred ground. Following the defeat of the tribe by English settlers, the Chief put a curse on the island, pronouncing "Any shelter will crumble to the Earth, and he shall be cursed" About 25 years after the defeat of the Wepawaugs, the notorious pirate Captain Kidd reportedly buried part his treasure on the island, and treasure hunters from around the country still look for this stash today. At the end of the 18th century, a monastery was built on the island. After the monks moved in, a series of mysterious deaths, suicides, and bouts of insanity, and subsequent ghosts forced them to abandon the monastery. Today, people report of seeing glowing spectres flitting through the trees, disembodied voices, and phantom monks making processionals through the monastery ruins. The only access to the Island is a causeway that only surfaces from the sea at low tide.