WAPPINGER INDIANS OF N.Y.

Dictionary: Wappinger (wä'pĭn-jər)

n., pl. Wappinger or -gers.
A Native American people formerly inhabiting the east bank of the
Hudson River from Poughkeepsie to Manhattan and closely related to the
Munsee-speaking peoples. The Wappinger dispersed to other Native
American groups after warfare with the Dutch in the mid-17th century.
A member of this people.
[Of Algonquian origin.]
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Columbia Encyclopedia: Wappinger
(wŏp'ĭnjər) , confederation of Native North Americans of the Algonquian
branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American
languages). In the early 17th cent. they occupied the east bank of the
Hudson River from Poughkeepsie to Manhattan Island and ranged E into
Connecticut. They were closely related to the Mahican to the north and
the Delaware to the southwest, and there is much argument about
assigning various groups to any one of the three peoples. The
Wappinger, however, included many groups, the most important of which
were the Wappinger proper, the Kitchawong, the Sint Sink, the
Tankiteke, the Weckquaesgeek, the Manhattan, the Siwanoy, the Nochpeem,
and the Mattabesec. The power of the Wappinger confederacy, which
numbered about 5,000 at its peak, was broken in a war with the Dutch
(1640–45), and gradually they lost their lands and retired to the
protection of neighboring tribes. Some joined the Nanticoke, some the
Delaware, and some the Mahican. The Wappinger were of the Eastern
Woodlands cultural area (see under Natives, North American).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WAPPINGER AREA IN N.Y.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fishkill is a town in Dutchess County, New York, USA. The population
was 20,258 at the 2000 census. The name means "fish creek" in Dutch.

The Town of Fishkill also contains a village named Fishkill. The town
is in the southwest part of the county, partly surrounding the City of
Beacon.


History
Fishkill was within the Rombout Patent of 1685. The town was first settled around 1709 near the mouth of Fishkill Creek.

In 1777, the first copies of the New York state constitution were printed in Fishkill.

The Town of Fishkill was created in 1788 as part of a general formation
of towns in Dutchess County. Fishkill was reduced by the formation of
the Towns of LaGrange (1821} and East Fishkill (1849).


A dispute about the name
In 1996 the animal rights group, PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals, requested that the town change its name, claiming it could
be construed to mean cruelty to fish[1]. The request was declined. The
kill part in the name is actually the Dutch word for stream or creek
and is common in the names of many communities in the area, which was
settled by the Dutch in the early 1600s.


Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area
of 82.8 km² (32.0 mi²). 71.0 km² (27.4 mi²) of it is land and 11.8 km²
(4.6 mi²) of it (14.26%) is water.

The southern town line is the county line between Dutchess and Putnam
Counties. The western town line is defined by the Hudson River and the
City of Beacon. To the north is the town of Wappinger.

Fishkill Creek gives the town its name and empties into the Hudson
River. Interstate 84 passes through the town, and US Route 9 passes
through both the town and Village of Fishkill.

Dutchess Stadium, home of the Class A Minor League Baseball Team, the Hudson Valley Renegades is in the Town.


Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 20,258 people, 6,856 households,
and 4,264 families residing in the town. The population density was
285.3/km² (738.9/mi²). There were 7,040 housing units at an average
density of 99.1 persons/km² (256.8 persons/mi²). The racial makeup of
the town was 77.19% White, 14.13% African American, 0.19% Native
American, 2.99% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 4.49% from other races,
and 0.99% from two or more races. 10.47% of the population were
Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 6,856 households out of which 27.7% have children under the
age of 18 living with them, 51.0% were married couples living together,
8.1% have a woman whose husband does not live with her, and 37.8% were
non-families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals and
12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The
average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 3.02.

In the town the population was spread out with 18.3% under the age of
18, 7.1% from 18 to 24, 38.1% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and
14.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years.
For every 100 females there were 135.8 males. For every 100 females age
18 and over, there were 142.6 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $52,745, and the
median income for a family was $63,574. Males had a median income of
$42,106 versus $32,198 for females. The per capita income for the town
was $22,662. 5.4% of the population and 3.4% of families were below the
poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 6.2% are under
the age of 18 and 7.5% are 65 or older.


Communities and locations in the Town of Fishkill
Beacon Hills -- A hamlet southwest of Fishkill village and suburb of Beacon.
Brinckerhoff -- A hamlet northeast of Fishkill village.
Brockway -- A hamlet adjacent to the Hudson River, north of Beacon.
Castle Point -- A location at the north town line.
Dutchess Junction -- A hamlet south of the City of Beacon.
Fishkill -- The Village of Fishkill on Route 9.
Fishkill Correctional Facility -- A New York prison near the City of Beacon.
Glenham -- A hamlet southwest of Fishkill village.
Groveville -- A hamlet southwest of Fishkill village, a suburb of Beacon.
Hudson Highlands State Park -- The north part of the state park is in the southwest part of the town.
Maurerbrook -- A hamlet west of Fishkill village and location of the annual Maurerbrook luminaries.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE PEOPLE of MOUNT GULIAN

The Wappinger Indians

The Wappinger People were a loose confederation of tribes living from
the eastern banks of the Hudson River, from modern northern Dutchess
County NY, south into Westchester County, and eastward into
north-central Connecticut into the Connecticut River valley south to
the Long Island Sound. They spoke an eastern-algonkian Native American
language. Culturally they are closely related to the Lenape People
(Delaware Indians) to the west and south of Wappinger lands; also
related to the Mahican People to their immediate north and to the
Metoac Peoples of Long Island. “Wappinger” means “easterner” in most
algonkian languages.

We know from local archaeology that Native Americans have lived in the
Hudson Valley for over 10,000 years. As the Ice Age glaciers receded,
these First Americans lived in seasonal camps as they hunted game for
meat, fur, hides, and used the bones, sinew, feathers, quills and
antlers for tools, weapons and decorations. They fished in the Hudson
River, in smaller streams and in ponds using bone fishhooks, small
harpoons and nets made from plant material and held down with small
stone weights. They gathered fresh water shellfish and caught small
animals, birds, fish and crayfish in snares and by hand in wetland
areas. They made canoes from dug-out logs and birch bark. Turtles,
squirrels and turkeys were some favorite catches. They made stone tools
such as scrapers, hand axes and choppers to prepare food, clean hides
and chop wood. Some of the flint they used for arrowheads and spear
tips, called “points” came from trade with other Indian peoples living
far away. The earliest Hudson Valley people used bowls and cooking pots
made of soft stone that were carved into the shapes they wanted. Later
Indians in the area developed clay pottery, which they “fired” into
water-tight ceramics, to be decorated with rope designs and quill
sketchings. The clay came from the banks of the Hudson. Of course
Native Americans knew the use of fire and wore warm clothing made of
deerskin and slept on bearskin blankets in the snowy winters. They
sometimes covered their bodies in animal grease as insulation from the
cold (and insects) and they wore moccasins in winter and deer skin
leggings to stay protected from thorns and sticker bushes. The women
wove fine baskets and platters made of local grasses. Most importantly,
the Native Peoples relied on gathering wild fruits, flowers, seeds,
vegetables, berries, roots, nuts and honey for their main diet.

Gradually, by watching the cycles of nature, they learned to plant
crops and they maintained small gardens and fields filled with
varieties of squash (pumpkins, gourds, etc.), beans (string beans, lima
beans, peas, etc.) and corn of all colors. Squash, beans and corn were
referred to as “The Three Sisters” due to their reliability and
spiritual significance to the people. They grew tobacco for ceremonial
purposes. Spiritually, these people were aware of the powers and
spirit-souls in all living things and considered all living beings as
their relatives. They believed in a Great Creator called Kishelemukong
who loosely controlled the natural world and the cycles of life. Many
of the Wappinger and Lenape rituals, rites of passage and ceremonies
were directly tied to honoring and interacting with these spirits and
the Great Creator.

With more dependable agriculture, developed around 2000 years ago,
Native Americans such as the Wappingers (Wappinnee, Wapinck) created
town-like settlements, surrounded with a wooden palisade or fence.
Wappinger people spoke an eastern-algonkian (algonquian) language, like
their closest Lenape relatives. The Lenape People are a large cultural
group (pronounced len-AH-pay) that lived from the Catskills in New York
State, into western Massachusetts and Connecticut, south into the
modern New York City area, onto Long Island, throughout eastern
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and south into Delaware. Their homes were made
of wooden frames covered with bark and sometimes animal hide. Wigwams
were round in shape and often temporary, used in hunting and gathering
camps. Larger “long-houses” were rectangle in shape and could house
40-60 people. Some settlements could have had up to twenty long-houses,
other large ceremonial buildings. Settlements near fresh water and good
garden spots could remain in one place for twenty years or so, until
the people moved the town to a fresher location a few miles away.
Archaeology done at Mount Gulian has indicated that Native Americans
lived intermittently on the property for since 6,000 b.c., right into
the “period of contact” with the Dutch and English.

In 1609, Henry Hudson encountered Wappinger and Lenape peoples from New
York harbor throughout the Hudson River Valley. These Native American
cultures had lived in the area for at least three thousand years. He
reported that these people were healthy looking, for the most part
friendly, independent minded and numerous on both sides of the river.
The Dutch settlers made most of the Lenape lands, and the Wappinger
lands in Fishkill, part of the New Netherlands Colony from 1609-1664.
During that period, the Wappingers life turned very bitter as they
gradually lost their traditional ways. Many left their lands to move
away from the European settlers. Many died of the new diseases the
settlers accidentally brought from their lands. Some gave up their
Indian culture to join the new frontier culture that was evolving in
America. Others were killed in brutal wars with the Dutch or were
captured and sold into harsh slavery in other parts of the New World,
such as the Caribbean Islands from where they never returned. By the
end of Dutch rule in America, the Wappingers had nearly become terribly
weakened.

In 1666, the Dutch New Netherlands permanently became part of the
British Empire. The Hudson Valley Dutch declared their loyalty to the
British Crown, as did the Wappinger Indians, but the Lenape and
Wappinger people were being quickly pushed out of their lands by the
British and their Indian allies to the north, the Nations of the
Iroquois. The Iroquois had long been enemies of Lenape peoples and the
Wappingers, to whom they had previously honored and paid tribute. With
British muskets and assistance, the Iroquois punished the Lenape and
raided their towns, forcing them into near destruction. By the 1680’s
after years of war and turmoil, the Wappinger Indians made a difficult
decision.

On August 8, 1683 an “Indian Deed of Sale” was written, selling 85,000
acres of Wappinger lands in present Dutchess County, NY, to Francis
Rombout, Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Gulian Verplanck. Twenty
Wappingers made their marks on the Deed (they could not write in
English), which was recorded on August 14th, 1683. The Wappingers, in
return for 85,000 acres of land received perhaps one thousand two
hundred dollars worth of items, including wampum, guns, gunpowder,
cloth, shirts, rum, tobacco and beer. Perhaps the Wappingers did not
understand that this Deed meant that they could no longer live on the
land, that their claim to the land was now extinguished forever.
Perhaps they believed that the Deed meant that they could still use the
land to hunt, fish and grow gardens, sharing the land with the
settlers, because no one can “own” land any more than anyone can own
the air or sky. Perhaps they understood too well that they were being
forced off in any case and to get one thousand dollars worth of goods
was better than nothing. Their thoughts on the Deed are not recorded.
The Deed was reviewed by King James the Second’s ministers and the
Rombout Royal Patent was issued by the Crown on October 17, 1685
formally granting the 85,000 acres, one-seventh of Dutchess County to
Mr. Verplanck and Mr. Rombout. The Wappingers no longer could live on
their ancestral lands.

From the 1680’s until the Revolutionary War, the remaining Wappingers
began slowly leaving this area, joining the Lenapes, the Mahicans and
even their former enemies the Iroquois, who were each suffering from
the upheaval of white settlement, disease and war. Many converted to
the religion of the white settlers and permanently left their
traditional ways. Around 1730, Gulian Verplanck (the grandson) built a
fieldstone house on the Rombout Patent property in Fishkill and named
it Mount Gulian, beginning a new era. During the Revolutionary War
(1775-1783), the Wappingers and most Lenapes declared their loyalty to
George Washington’s new nation. Many Wappinger and Lenape warriors
fought and died with the Americans, including Wappinger sachem and hero
Daniel Nimham. By the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, very few
Wappingers lived on their former lands. The period immediately after
the Revolution also saw a final war between the Lenapes and the
Americans in the Port Jervis-Pocono Mountains area, which resulted in
the remaining Lenapes moving westward and relinquishing claims to their
lands in New York. In fact, some had already moved north toward Canada;
the remaining few had moved west into the Ohio Valley, where they were
fighting for their very survival, as were all the other Native
Americans during that era.

Today, after many sad journeys, few people identify themselves as “Wappinger”.

From the 1680’s until 1800, the remaining Wappingers joined other
migrating tribes and formed new groups such as the Stockbridge-Muncees,
the Brotherton Indians and the various contemporary Delaware (Lenape)
Indian Nations. Some joined the Oneida Iroquois upstate New York and
the Moravian Delawares of Ontario. Many married into white families and
blended into modern America. Approximately 13,000 Americans and
Canadians today identify themselves as Lenape or Delaware. Most live in
Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Ontario. Less than 100 speak the original
Lenape languages. They are struggling to maintain their heritage and
their traditional ways. At Mount Gulian, we respect and honor the
Wappinger People and seek to teach our visitors about their long
history on this land and their enduring ways.
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MORE INFO ON WAPPINGER PEOPLE'S

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Wappinger Location
East side of the Hudson River between the Bronx and Rhinebeck extending
east to the crest of the Taconic Mountains on the border between New
York and Connecticut. Except for a few small groups, most Wappinger had
left the lower Hudson Valley by 1760 and settled in western
Massachusetts with the Mahican at Stockbridge, the Iroquois in New
York, or the Delaware in Pennsylvania.


Population
In 1600 the seven Wappinger tribes probably numbered about 8,000 in 30
villages. After contact, the rate of their "melting away" was dramatic.
Smallpox struck the area 1633-35 and 1692. By 1700 epidemics (including
malaria) had reduced the lower Hudson tribes to 10 per cent of their
original number. Warfare also took a serious toll, and at least 1,600
Wappinger were killed during the Wappinger War (1643-45). Only a few
hundred Wappinger



remained in the lower Hudson Valley after 1700, and almost all were
gone by 1758. One possible group of Wappinger remain in the region
today, the Ramapough Mountain Indians (Ramapo Mountain People) in
northern New Jersey. They are probably descendents of a mixture of
Munsee Delaware, Mattabesic Ramapo, and Pompton (Wappinger who
relocated to northern New Jersey during the 1660s). With 2,500 members,
they have state recognition but were denied federal status in 1993.


Names
Meaning "easterner" and applied to the entire group of seven related
tribes, Wappinger was originally the name of a small sachemship
consisting of three villages on the east side of the Hudson near
Poughkeepsie. Spelling variations are: Wappinck, Wapping, Wappingo, and
Wawping. Because many of the Algonquin-speaking tribes south of the St.
Lawrence River (Mahican, Wappinger, Delaware, etc.) had a wolf clan,
the French commonly referred to them collectively as Loup (French for
wolf). Other names for the Wappinger were: Highland Indians, Long Reach
Indians, Oping (Opine), and Pompton.


Language
Algonquin. The R-dialect spoken by the Wappinger was almost identical
to that of the Mattabesic in western Connecticut and the Metoac tribes
of western and central Long Island.


Sub-Nations
Kitchawank (Kitchawong) - northern Westchester County.

Villages:

Kitchawank, Sackhoe, and Senasqua
Nochpeem - northern Putnam and southern Duchess Counties.
Villages:

Canopus (Canpopus), Keskistkonk, Nochpeem, and Pasquasheck
Sintsink (Sinsink) - east side of Hudson River between Tarrytown and Croton. Villages:
Kestaubuinck, and Ossingsing (Sin-Sing)
Siwanoy (Sinanoy) - Hellgate east to Norwalk, Connecticut.
Villages:

Cassacuhque, Noroaton (Roatan), Norwauke (Norwalk), Poningo, and Sioascauk
Tankiteke (Pachami, Pachany) - extreme western portion of Fairfield
County, Connecticut into eastern halves of Duchess and Putnam Counties,
New York.
Villages:

Aspetuck, Mount Misery, Pahquioke, Saugatuck, and Shippan
Wappinger (Waping) - east side of Hudson River between Wappinger Falls and Poughkeepsie.
Villages:

Poughkeepsie, and Waping
Wecquaesgeek (Wechquaesgeek, Wiechquaeskeck, Wickquaskeek) - east side of Hudson River between the Bronx and Tarrytown.
Villages:

Alipkconk, Nappeckamak, Nipinichsen, Rechouwakie, Rechtauck (Rechgawawank, Reckawawana), Wecquaesgeek, and Wysquaqua
Other Villages:
Ridgefield (CT), Saeckkill, and Sapohanikan
Culture
Mention is sometimes made of a Wappinger tribe or confederation, but it
took a major war with the Dutch to unite these seven small tribes into
a single unit. Like most of the eastern Algonquin groups, the Wappinger
were organized into sachemships where, in most cases, the authority of
the sachem and council (composed of clan chiefs) extended over only a
few villages and was limited mostly to resolving problems and disputes.
Councils of the individual sachems were only held as required by common
problems. However, in times of war, leadership was given to a war
chief, whose authority was absolute for the duration of the conflict. A
greater degree of organization was not required, since the Wappinger
generally lived in peace with most of their neighbors. "Most" is used
here, since, like the neighboring Metoac on Long Island, the Wappinger
manufactured a superior form of wampum which they traded with other
tribes. There appears to have been some warfare before contact because
of this valuable commodity. There were also raids by European slavers
during the 1500s.

As a result, the Wappinger were forced to make more extensive military
preparations than the norm. Besides their villages, most of the
Wappinger had at least two "castles," or forts, where they could
retreat when threatened. Like other tribes in the region, the Wappinger
relied heavily on an agriculture of corn, beans, squash. Tobacco was
also grown for ceremonial purposes. Diet was supplemented by fishing in
the spring and summer and hunting during the colder months. The
Wappinger frequently cooked their meat without removing the innards
which made it difficult for some of their Dutch guests to enjoy the
meal. Despite this, many Dutch are known to have married Wappinger
women. Villages consisted of wigwams and mid-sized longhouses. As a
rule, the Wappinger only lived in their villages during the warmer
months and moved to their castles for the winter. The Hudson River
provided easy transportation for their dugout canoes. Because of its
tidal surges, both the Wappinger and Mahican called it the Mahicanituk
meaning "ever flowing river." Its Iroquois name was Cohatatea, but the
Dutch renamed it the Maurititius. Only after the English gained control
of New York in 1664 did it become known as the Hudson River.

The area around greater New York City was originally occupied by three
tribal groups: Wappinger, Munsee and Unami Delaware, and Metoac. Since
all of them spoke related languages and shared a common culture, there
has never been a consensus as to which tribe belonged to which group.
In the classification employed here, the Wappinger lived on the east
side of the lower Hudson, the Delaware occupied the west side, and
Manhattan and Long Island belonged to the Metoac. These distinctions
would not be important if not for the question of which tribe sold
Manhattan Island to the Dutch for only twenty-five dollars. Even Native
Americans are not certain about this. The Delaware usually blame the
Wappinger. However, if the Manhattan had purchased, rather than sold,
their island for this price, they would probably be claimed as
immediate family. For our purposes, the Manhattan - meaning "people of
the island" - were Metoac.


History
While he was exploring the coast of North America for France in 1524,
Giovanni da Verrazano discovered the narrow entrance to New York harbor
which today bears his name. His encounters with the native peoples at
the mouth of the Hudson River were friendly, but unfortunately, he set
the pattern for what was to follow by trying to kidnap some of them
before his departure. During the next 80 years, this kind of
"unofficial" contact continued as Spanish treasure fleets and English
pirates passed by riding the Gulf Stream home to Europe from the
Carribean. The Wappinger and other coastal tribes soon learned to be
wary of the Swannekins "salt water people" who came ashore from the big
ships to kidnap them and steal their food. Aside from this harassment,
European contact did not really begin until 1609. Attempting to find
the fabled Northwest Passage to China for the Dutch East India Company,
the English sea captain Henry Hudson explored the New Jersey coast
north of his initial landfall at Delaware Bay. While anchored off Sandy
Hook, Hudson and his men apparently had a minor confrontation with the
Navasink (Unami Delaware). Despite this, Hudson pressed on and entered
the mouth of the Hudson River on September 9th.

Hudson dropped anchor near the north end of Manhattan Island and
lowered his longboats to explore the area. His men were already nervous
from their encounter with the Navasink. One of the boats became lost in
a fog bank near Hellgate. When the fog parted, the crew suddenly found
themselves being approached by a group of curious Wappinger in canoes,
and the sailors apparently fired first. A barrage of arrows killed one
sailor and wounded two others. Fortunately, the Wappinger withdrew, and
the survivors were able to make their way back to the ship. Despite
this initial hostile encounter, Hudson was able to entice a delegation
of Wappinger sachems aboard his ship. Food and drink were served, and
gifts exchanged, but the meetings remained uncomfortable, giving Hudson
the feeling that he "durst not trust them." It would appear that the
Wappinger "durst not trust Hudson" either, since he attempted to detain
two of their young men as guides before raising anchor and continuing
upstream. Once clear of the Wappinger, the people became friendlier
after reaching the Highlands, and the Munsee near Kingston deliberately
broke their bows and arrows as a sign of their peaceful intentions.

On September 18th, Hudson was finally halted by shallow water at the
Mahican villages just south of Albany. The Mahican were not only
friendly but eager to trade. Hudson soon exhausted trade goods and,
loaded with a cargo of valuable fur, started back down the river on
September 23rd. Two incidents marred the return journey. Near the
Highlands, the Munsee came aboard again, but during their visit, a
warrior was caught stealing and shot trying to escape with his loot.
The other Munsee immediately jumped overboard. Hudson ordered a
longboat lowered to retrieve the stolen goods, but one of the Munsee
warriors in the water attempted to overturn the boat and was killed.
Hudson raised anchor and kept going, but opposite Yonkers, he was
attacked by Wappinger warriors in canoes who pursued him downstream
until he finally reached the open sea on October 4th.

Hudson had not found the Northwest Passage, but the furs he brought
back >from the Mahican brought Dutch traders to the Hudson River the
following year. The Wappinger on the lower river remained hostile and
had fewer furs than the tribes upstream, so the Dutch bypassed them,
and in 1613 opened their first trading post (Fort Nassau) on Castle
Island just south of Albany. This was in Mahican territory, the
location unfortunate since it was vulnerable to flood. Perhaps worse,
the fur trade aggravated a pre-existing rivalry between the Mahican and
the Mohawk of the Iroquois League. The Mahican proved reluctant to
allow their old enemy to trade with the Dutch, and after four years of
occasional skirmishes, war erupted between the Mohawk and Mahican
during 1617 which forced the Dutch to abandon Fort Nassau. The Dutch
managed to arrange a truce the following year, but since the Mohawk
were forced to pay tolls to cross Mahican territory to trade, the
situation remained tense.

Involved in a war along the St. Lawrence with the Algonkin and
Montagnais (French allies), the Mohawk endured this only because they
desperately needed the steel weapons obtained in trade with the Dutch
to fight their northern enemies. The problem was, however, that neither
the Mohawk nor the Mahican had enough beaver in their own homelands to
satisfy the enormous demand of the Dutch. Within a few years, most of
their beaver were gone which forced them to expand to find more by
taking hunting territory from neighboring tribes. In 1615 this
encroachment started a war between the Mohawk and the Munsee and
Susquehannock along the upper Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. As time
went by, the situation only worsened. In 1624 the Dutch brought 30
families to New Netherlands and built a new post (Fort Orange) at
present-day Albany. The new location was on the west side of the Hudson
and, while still on land claimed by the Mahican, was actually more
convenient for the Mohawk who no longer had to cross the river to trade.

There is little doubt that the Dutch at Fort Orange were more
sympathetic to the Mahican than the Mohawk. At their urging, the
Mahican attempted to cut into French trade on the St. Lawrence by
arranging trade between the Dutch and the Algonkin and Montagnais. The
Mohawk had endured the humiliation of paying tolls to trade with the
Dutch, but the Mahican trading with their enemies was too much. A war
broke out in 1624 which the Dutch could not halt. The fighting
continued until 1628 and before it ended, the Mahican had been defeated
and forced to abandon their territory west of the Hudson River. With
the exception of seven Dutch soldiers who joined a Mahican war party
against the Mohawk (four were killed), the Dutch were neutral during
this conflict and allowed the rivals to fight it out among themselves.
The lengthy warfare did, however, force them to look elsewhere for fur
and a place to settle and, for the Wappinger, had the unfortunate
effect of shifting the focus of Dutch settlement downstream to the
mouth of the Hudson River.

This was not entirely unwelcome. After 1610, the Dutch had steadily
improved their relations with the Wappinger, Munsee and Metoac at the
lower end of the river, and as a result, they had been able to expand
the range of their trade into Connecticut, Long Island, and New Jersey.
In 1626 Pieter Minuit, the new director-general of New Netherlands,
purchased Manhattan Island from the Metoac tribe of the same name for
twenty-five dollars of trade goods. Fort Amsterdam was built with the
settlement of New Amsterdam for the farmers to raise the food for its
garrison. Dutch settlement soon spread across the lower Hudson Valley.
Unlike the friendly relations the Dutch enjoyed with the Mahican,
conflict with the Wappinger and neighboring tribes was immediate. A
seemingly unimportant incident occurred in 1626 when a Wecquaesgeek
visiting Manhattan was robbed and murdered. His young nephew who
accompanied him managed to escape unharmed, which several years later
would have serious consequences for the Dutch.

The colony of New Netherlands which the Dutch established on the Hudson
was essentially a company town. The Dutch West India Company had been
formed in 1621 with exclusive authority to trade and govern. Since
there was little economic opportunity for anyone else in this
arrangement, there was little immigration from the Netherlands to the
New World. An attempt to increase settlement occurred in 1629 when the
company sold patroonships to persons willing to pay to bring in
settlers. Only one, Van Rensselaer, met with any success, and by 1635
the company had repurchased four of the five patroonships it had
granted. Immigration did increase until the company decided in 1639 to
give up its monopoly in the fur trade. Dutch colonists began to arrive
in greater numbers, although by then there were still fewer than 750
Dutch in New Netherlands in 1643. New settlements began on Staten
Island, in the Hackensack Valley in New Jersey, and the Bronx. The
amazing thing was how so few Dutch were able to create so much trouble
with their Native American neighbors.

The Dutch usually took the trouble to purchase the land they occupied,
but in many cases, they greased the process with brandy and fraud. The
able Pieter Minuit was replaced as director-general in 1631, and his
successors were not always as capable. Serious trouble began in 1639
after the appointment of Director Kieft, an aggressive but stupid man
inclined to run roughshod over the rights of the resident tribes. Kieft
arrived just after the English had destroyed the Pequot (Pequot War,
1637), and English settlement had spread down the coast of western
Connecticut to within a few miles of Fort Amsterdam. At the same time,
the Swedes had established themselves on the lower Delaware River on
lands claimed by the Dutch. Once in charge, Kieft set the tone by
dispatching an armed sloop to demand tribute in corn and wampum from
the Tappan (Unami Delaware) in New Jersey. The Tappan paid but were
angered by this abuse.

One source of irritation was that Dutch farmers allowed their cows and
pigs to wander free in the woods which often resulted in their invasion
of the tribal corn fields. Not only did this bring immediate revenge on
the offending animal, but the natives did not yet understand the
European concept of the ownership of domestic animals, and a pig
roaming loose in the woods was often viewed as meat on the table. After
some pigs were stolen at the De Vries plantation on Staten Island in
1640, Kieft dispatched 100 men to punish the Raritan (Unami Delaware)
thought to be responsible. The Dutch killed several of them, took one
chief prisoner, and mutilated the corpse of another. Raritan
retaliation in the "Pig War" killed four of De Vries' workers and
burned his farm. Kieft then ordered a war of extermination against the
Raritan and offered a bounty of ten fathoms of wampum for every Raritan
head brought to Fort Amsterdam. Most tribes refused to participate, and
only a few Metoac warriors from Long Island "took up the hatchet" for
the Dutch. Records indicate that Kieft received one only head for his
trouble.

The growing tension could have ended there. Unfortunately, the
Wecquaesgeek nephew, in the fashion of his people, chose this moment to
take revenge for his uncle's murder by killing a hapless Dutchman with
his own axe. Not understanding the native tradition of a blood debt,
Kieft demanded the Wecquaesgeek surrender the murderer, but this was
refused. In March, 1642 Kieft dispatched a punitive expedition of 80
men under Ensign Hendrick Van Dyke to attack the Wecquaesgeek village
at Yonkers. Fortunately, Van Dyke and his men got lost. The
Wecquaesgeek, however, soon learned of this attempt to attack them and,
becoming alarmed, immediately signed a peace with the Dutch. However,
by this time the nephew had found refuge with another tribe, and the
Dutch never got their hands on him. A similar situation developed after
some Dutch got the son of a Hackensack (Unami Delaware) sachem drunk
and robbed him of his beaver coat. In what has been called the "Whiskey
War," he retaliated by shooting a Dutchman and then fled to the
Tankiteke.

Kieft made his usual demand that the Hackensack surrender him. For
their part, the Hackensack were willing to to settle things with a
payment of wampum to "cover the dead," but the sachems were unwilling
to go to Fort Amsterdam for fear that the intractable Kieft would take
them hostage. That summer, the Narragansett sachem Miontonimo from
Rhode Island, in the company of 100 of his warriors, visited both the
Metoac tribes on Long Island and the Wappinger and Mahican in the
Hudson Valley to recruit allies for the war he was planning against the
rival Mohegan in Connecticut. While an intertribal war in an English
colony should have been of little concern, the growing tensions had
made Kieft and Dutch almost paranoid, and they came to believe that an
uprising was being planned against themselves and the English. However,
it was not the Narragansett who would touch off the powder keg building
on the lower Hudson. Instead, it was the most reliable allies of the
Dutch - the Mahican and Mohawk.

The peace which ended the war between the Mohawk and Mahican in 1628
had also bound them together as allies against the Algonkin,
Montagnais, and Huron who had driven the Iroquois from the St. Lawrence
River during 1610. The Iroquois never accepted their defeat, and after
the English capture of Quebec in 1629 interrupting French trade, the
Mohawk seized the opportunity to retake the upper St. Lawrence Valley.
By the time Quebec was returned to France by the Treaty of St. Germaine
en Laye in 1632, their native allies were in retreat and the Mohawk
were close to controlling the critical trade route through the Ottawa
River Valley to the western Great Lakes. Prior to this, all of the
Europeans had been very reluctant to sell firearms to Native Americans
...the steel knives and hatchets conferring enough advantage for their
trading partners over their enemies. However, when the French regained
Quebec in 1632, the situation was desperate enough that they sought to
restore the previous military balance by providing limited amounts of
firearms and ammunition to their allies.

The result was an arms race and a major escalation in the level of
violence in intertribal warfare. Dutch traders countered with their own
guns for the Iroquois, and the latecomers to the fur trade, the English
and Swedes, attempted to compensate by selling even more. However, the
sales of these new weapons were not even, and the tribes which traded
with the Europeans suddenly acquired a tremendous advantage over their
neighbors. French trading partners in Ontario used their firearms to
seize hunting territory from the Fox, Sauk, and Mascouten in Michigan
who only had traditional weapons. The disparity only worsened. In 1640
English traders along the Connecticut River, in violation of existing
laws, tried to lure the Mohawk away from the Dutch by offering
firearms. With this all restrictions ended, and the Dutch responded by
selling the Iroquois as many guns and as much ammunition as they
wanted. They also offered the same weapons to the Mahican, who were
Iroquois allies.

For obvious reasons, the Dutch did not provide firearms to the tribes
near their settlements of the lower Hudson. Sensing their growing
disadvantage, this refusal added to the growing resentment of the
Wappinger, Munsee, Unami, and Metoac. To acquire even more guns, both
the Mohawk and Mahican needed more fur and hunting territory. This was
especially true for the Mahican, since they had been forced east of the
Hudson by their defeat in 1628. they expanded north, east and south,
the last direction being mostly at the expense of the Wappinger. The
Mohawk did the same to the Munsee west of the river. Fur was becoming
scarce but the Dutch also accepted wampum as payment. Located in the
interior, neither the Mahican or Mohawk had access to this, but the
Wappinger and other lower river tribes did. The solution was for the
Mohawk to demand tribute in wampum from the Munsee while the Mahican
went after the Wappinger. During the winter of 1642-43, 80
heavily-armed Mahican warriors came to the Wecquaesgeek villages to
demand tribute. In the melee which followed, the Mahican killed 17
Wecquaesgeek and captured many of their women and children