WAPPINGER INDIANS OF N.Y. PART 2

The Wecquaesgeek fled south to what they thought was the safety of the
Dutch settlements on Manhattan. They remained nearby for two weeks
before moving across the river to the Tappan and Hackensack villages at
Pavonia (Jersey City). Another group settled with the Tappan at
Corlear's Hook. As mentioned, the Dutch at New Amsterdam were already
concerned about an uprising, and several incidents afterwards seemed to
confirm this suspicion. Ignoring the advice of his council, Kieft
decided to exterminate the Wecquaesgeek and set an example to the other
"wilden" (wild men) in the vicinity. In what has become known as the
Pavonia Massacre, he ordered a surprise attack to be made on the night
of February 23rd, 1643. Maryn Andriansen was sent with a group of
militia to Corlear's Hook, while Sergeant Rodolf and his soldiers from
Fort Amsterdam were to attack the village at Pavonia. Kieft's orders
were to kill all of the warriors and take the women and children
prisoner (valuable as slaves). Only Andriansen followed these
instructions.

Rodolf and his men just slaughtered every Wecquaesgeek in the sleeping
village at Pavonia without regard for age or sex. The killing by these
Dutch "Christians" was especially brutal involving babies hacked to
death in their mother's arms, torture, and mutilation. When the attacks
began, some Wecquaesgeek made the mistake of fleeing to Fort Amsterdam.
They were murdered in cold blood outside the gates and their bodies
tossed into the Hudson. De Vries, who had relocated near the Tappan
villages at Corlear's Point and apparently bore no hatreds after his
plantation on Staten Island had been destroyed by the Raritan, saved
some of the Wecquaesgeek who came to him for protection by telling them
to hide in forest. In all, Andriansen killed 31 but brought 30
prisoners back to an uncertain fate at Fort Amsterdam. Rodolf butchered
80 Wecquaesgeek and took no prisoners. His soldiers reportedly brought
the severed heads of their victims back to the fort and played kickball
with them. Preparing for a possible siege, Kieft further inflamed the
situation by seizing corn from the Metoac on Long Island and killing
three Canarsee warriors in the process.

Kieft expected some retaliation but obviously underestimated the extent
of the ill feeling among the tribes of the area against the Dutch. As
the news of the massacre spread, the other Wappinger raided the
outlying Dutch farms and settlements. The war quickly spread to include
warriors from almost 20 different tribes: Tappan, Hackensack,
Haverstraw, Navasink and Raritan in New Jersey; Wecquaesgeek, Sintsink,
Kitchawank, Nochpeem, Siwanoy, Tankiteke, and Wappinger to the north;
and Canarsee, Manhattan, Rockaway, Matinecock, Merrick, Secatoag, and
Massapequa on Long Island. Kieft had his uprising - Wappinger War
(Governor Kieft's War 1643-45), but it was far greater than anything he
had anticipated. The Dutch were quickly driven inside of Fort
Amsterdam. Small groups sent even a short distance outside to gather
firewood were in constant danger of attack. A glimmer of hope came in
the spring. Although the Metoac were still denouncing the Dutch as
murderers and "corn thieves," De Vries was able to convince their
sachems to meet with Kieft and negotiate a peace. After a treaty was
signed, envoys were dispatched to the Tappan and Hackensack, and for a
time, it looked as if the hostilities would end at this point.

However, this was not to be. Urged by the Tankiteke sachem Pacham to
destroy the Dutch, the Wappinger and their allies resumed the war that
fall. After years of abuse, Pacham's words found ears willing to
listen. It began with a Wappinger attack on Dutch boats near
Poughkeepsie followed by raids on what remained of the outlying Dutch
settlements. Among the victims was Anne Hutchinson, a religious
dissenter banished from Massachusetts in 1634 along with Roger
Williams. After settling near Portsmouth, Rhode Island for several
years, she had, with a terrible sense of timing, chosen to relocate to
New Amsterdam in 1642. She and her entire family (a granddaughter was
taken prisoner) were killed during a Siwanoy raid in 1643. With only
250 men to defend against more than 1,500 warriors led by the Siwanoy
war chief Mayane, the Dutch were in danger of being overwhelmed. As the
war spread, the Dutch were being hit by tribes they had not met or with
whom there had always been friendly relations and trade. Since the
Netherlands was at war with Spain at this time, Kieft could not expect
much help from Europe.

Despite his other shortcomings, Kieft was resourceful. He first
negotiated a treaty of friendship and alliance at Fort Orange with the
Mohawk and Mahican. Although the Mohawk and Mahican did not intervene
directly, the mere threat of their doing so was sufficient to keep the
war from spreading further. Kieft then offered 25,000 guilders to the
English colonists in Connecticut for 150 men to help put down the
uprising. There was no objection to this. The English were already
angry about the deaths of Anne Hutchinson and other English colonists
in New Netherlands and concerned by the proximity of the fighting to
the new English settlements at Stamford, Bridgeport, and New Haven.
Captain John Underhill organized two companies of volunteers (120 men)
with Mohegan scouts and joined the fight in 1644. Underhill had a
well-earned reputation throughout New England as the "scourge of
Indians." A deeply religious man, he had a unusual concept of Christian
duty, best illustrated by his later explanation that "Scripture
declareth women and children must perish with their parents ...we had
sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings."

The first combined efforts by the Dutch and English were largely
ineffective. An expedition sent to clear Staten Island found only
abandoned villages. However, the corn it brought back to Fort Amsterdam
was very welcome since the Dutch were running out of food. A second
expedition against a Wecquaesgeek castle had similar results, and an
English attack on Siwanoy villages and forts near Stamford and
Greenwich killed only a few warriors and captured a few old men, women,
and children. More telling results came when Underhill combined with
the Dutch to lay waste to the Metoac villages on the western end of
Long Island. 120 Canarsee, Massapequa, Merrick were killed and, warming
to their work, the soldiers executed seven of their prisoners in a
manner usually reserved for the worst descriptions of the atrocities
attributed to native warriors. However, the most brutal acts occurred
during the night attack by the English and Dutch on the Siwanoy and
Tankiteke fort near Greenwich Connecticut in February. Between 500 and
700 Wappinger were killed in this massacre, exactly the same number as
the more infamous slaughter of the Pequot at Mystic, Connecticut by the
English in 1637. Once again, there was unspeakable cruelty, mutilation,
and torture, but it brought the war to an end. In April of 1645 the
Sintsink, Wecquaesgeek, Nochpeem, and Wappinger sachems presented
themselves at Fort Amsterdam and asked for peace.

This was not granted immediately, because the Metoac were still at war
with the Dutch. The Matinecock finally succeeded arranging a truce
which was also extended to the Tappan and Hackensack in New Jersey.
Through the mediation of the Mahican and Mohawk and Mahican, a final
peace treaty was signed with Kieft and the Dutch at Fort Orange in
August of 1645. By this time, more than 1,600 Wappinger and their
allies had been killed. As a condition of the peace, the Mohawk and
Mahican gained control not only of the Wappinger, but also the Metoac
on the western end of Long Island. Annual tribute was to be paid in
wampum, so without losing a single warrior, the Mahican and Mohawk
benefited enormously from the war they had provoked between the
Wappinger and Dutch. After the war, some groups of Wappinger crossed
over to northern New Jersey and settled among the Unami and Munsee
where they became known as the Pompton. Others were absorbed outright
by the Mahican (not always voluntarily). The Mahican used the remaining
Wappinger as enforcers to collect the wampum tribute due them from the
Metoac. Failure to pay brought Wappinger raids on the Metoac villages
which the Dutch made no effort to prevent.

For the most part, the Wappinger who remained on the lower Hudson tried
to avoid further conflict with the Dutch, and in 1649 the Wecquaesgeek
surrendered their claims to lands on the north end of Manhattan .
However, just below the surface, resentment continued to smolder fueled
by the illegal brandy readily available at Fort Amsterdam. Another
source of irritation was the Dutch support of the Mohawk after 1651 in
their war against the Susquehannock and Munsee. This was tolerated
while the Swedes on the lower Delaware River were able to supply guns
to Munsee and Susquehannock, but the Dutch capture of New Sweden in
1655 ended this and forced the Susquehannock and Munsee to ask the
Mohawk for peace. That year, the Wappinger got into their final major
confrontation with the Dutch. In September, a Dutch farmer on Manhattan
named Van Dyck shot and killed a Wappinger woman when he caught her
"borrowing" a peach from a tree in his garden. This brought canoes with
more than 200 Wappinger warriors down the Hudson to Manhattan to kill
Van Dyke. They eventually found and put an arrow into him (he was only
wounded), but while tearing up the island looking for him, they got
into a fight with burgher guards (Dutch militia). The warriors retired
across the river to lick their wounds and raise hell by burning Dutch
farms at Pavonia, Hoboken, and Staten Island. At least 50 Dutch were
killed in the fighting - Peach War (1655).

Meanwhile, the Metoac had grown increasingly angry that the Dutch
permitted the Wappinger to attack them whenever they failed to pay the
tribute due the Mahican and by 1658 were planning to kill all of the
Dutch on Long Island (and also the English settlers on the island if
they dared to intervene). Despite a recent Anglo-Dutch War (1652-54),
the English colonists warned Governor Peter Stuyvesant who brought in
troops to put down the revolt. After ransoming the 50 Dutch prisoners
held by the Metoac, Stuyvesant promised to halt the Wappinger attacks.
Following the Wappinger War, Dutch settlement in New Netherlands
increased from 2,000 in 1648 to more than 10,000 by 1660. Beginning in
1652, it had spread north into the Munsee country in the Esopus Valley
near present-day Kingston. During 1659 this erupted in a serious
conflict known as the Esopus Wars (1659-64). The Wappinger certainly
had enough of their own grievances against the Dutch, but few, if any
of them, were involved in the fighting on on opposite side of the
Hudson. However, a Wappinger sachem was able to arrange a prisoner
exchange in November, 1663. To defeat the Esopus, the Dutch ultimately
were forced to call in the Mohawk. Although the Dutch made peace with
the Esopus in May of 1664, the slaughter did not finally end until 1675
with the Munsee defeated and subject to the Iroquois.

In September, 1664 a British fleet captured New Amsterdam, and the
important role of the Dutch in North America ended. Despite this, few
of the Dutch settlers left the area. A steady influx of English
colonists began to arrive with the first Puritans from Connecticut
settling at Newark, New Jersey in 1666. Few were willing to settle up
the river and challenge the Iroquois, so most of the new settlement
moved onto the Wappinger and Munsee lands along the lower Hudson.
Rather than treaty, lands were surrendered mostly through private
contracts of sale with payment in trade goods. In some cases land was
taken without any attempt at payment. In 1677 the Esopus sold their
remaining lands to newly-arrived French Huguenots and moved west with
the permission of their Iroquois masters to the Wyoming Valley. East of
the Hudson, the Wappinger sold more than 100,000 acres between 1683 and
1685. While a few families stubbornly clung to their river homeland,
most began to move north to the Mahican villages along the Housatonic
River in western Massachusetts or settled with the 1,000 New England
Algonquin refugees who had settled at Schaghticoke after the King
Phillip's War (1675-76).

The "melting away" of the Wappinger population on the lower Hudson is a
perfect example of what happened to most of the eastern tribes when
confronted with the "advance of civilization." The blame cannot easily
be attributed to any single reason. Although illegal, alcohol
contributed to social disintegration and greased the wheels of a series
of suspicious land sales to whites which usually left the Wappinger
with little beyond the clothes on their backs. Epidemic accelerated the
process by killing off both the old and young (smallpox in the Hudson
Valley during 1636, 1656, and 1692 followed by malaria after 1700)
leading to a lack of experienced leadership and a loss of any hope for
the future. Warfare also contributed to the decline. When the Mohawk
were dispersed in 1693 by French attacks on their homeland during the
King William's War (1689-96), the British attempted to compensate by
recruiting Mahican, Munsee, and Wappinger warriors to help defend New
York. Fully two-thirds of the Wappinger and Mahican warriors who
volunteered never returned and gave their lives defending the interests
of the colonists who were taking their land.

The Wappinger disappeared but did not cease to exist. However, there
was no massive migration which would be easy to trace where they went.
As their lands and numbers dwindled, small groups of extended families
left the Hudson Valley and moved elsewhere. As mentioned, many went
north and settled at Schaghticoke on the upper Hudson or in the Mahican
villages near Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Others moved to northern New
Jersey and were absorbed by the Unami and Munsee Delaware. By the
1730s, only a few hundred remained in the lower Hudson Valley. Living
in small bands, they posed no threat to their white neighbors, and
through the influence of Christian missionaries were adjusting to their
new circumstances. Missionaries not only exposed traders who were
illegally selling alcohol to the natives but also provided legal advice
which kept many natives from being cheated. Rather than supporting
these efforts, many whites resented the missionaries interference with
"nature taking its course." This was especially true of the Moravians
who in 1740 established a mission at Shekomeko (Pine Plains, New York)
for the Wappinger and Mahican still living along the river.

In the meantime, the King George's War (1744-48) broke out between
Britain and France. The Iroquois, except the Mohawk, chose to remain
neutral. The Wappinger and Mahican made a similar decision, but French
allies from Canada raided settlements in Vermont, New Hampshire, and
the Hudson Valley north of Albany. Warned of impending attacks on the
lower river, the colonists massacred several peaceful Munsee families
near Walden, New York during the fall of 1745. The Munsee and Wappinger
immediately left the area and remained in Pennsylvania until 1746. That
year, a French army of 960 men under Philippe de Vaudreuil captured
Fort Massachusetts on the Hoosic River which exposed the entire Hudson
Valley to attack. Apologies were quickly sent explaining that the
incident at Walden the year before was a terrible mistake, and the
Wappinger and Mahican suddenly found they were welcome in the Hudson
Valley to defend it against the French. No invasion came except for a
battle near Schenectady in 1748.

The good feelings lasted until the outbreak of the French and Indian
War (1755-63). In August, 1755 Abenaki raiders from St. Francois
(Quebec) grabbed the last New England refugees at Schaghticoke and took
them back to Canada and the French alliance. The Mahican, Munsee and
Wappinger families there probably went with them. Their sudden
departure cast suspicion on the loyalty of all natives still living
along the Hudson. In December, the Munsee and Wappinger families living
along the Hudson were ordered to leave the backcountry and move closer
to white settlements for their own "protection." On March 2nd, 1756, a
group of white vigilantes led by William Slaughter (appropriate name)
killed nine peaceful Munsee. Remembering 1746, the 300 remaining Munsee
and Wappinger fled north to the Iroquois. A total of 196 Wappinger and
Munsee moved in among among the Mohawk and Oneida in 1756; others
settled near the Moravian missions for the Mahican and Delaware at
Freidenshutten and Gnadenhutten in Pennsylvania; and the remainder with
the Mahican at Stockbridge. None would ever return to their homeland.

During the summer of 1757, frontier settlements in Orange and Duchess
Counties, New York and northern New Jersey were attacked by Munsee
warriors still angry about being cheated out of their lands near
Minisink. The following year, New York responded by confiscating all of
the remaining native lands in the Hudson Valley. Whites immediately
moved into the abandoned lands, and when the Moravian missionaries
protested, they were arrested as French agents and banished from New
York. The Munsee and Delaware raids were not prompted by any desire to
help the French, but to avenge themselves against the British for being
cheated out the their lands. Realizing this, William Johnson, the
British Indian Commissioner, convened a conference at Easton,
Pennsylvania in 1758. Hostilities ended for the most part after
Pennsylvania relinquished its claim to Ohio and New Jersey agreed to
pay the claims of the Delaware and Munsee within its borders. Besides
the Munsee, Delaware, and Iroquois, the Wappinger also signed this
treaty. By 176O there were 300 Mahican, Munsee, and Wappinger living
with the Oneida in upstate New York. They served with distinction as
scouts for Sir William Johnson and the British for the remainder of the
war. However, their demands that the St. Francois (French allies)
compensate them for the warriors they had lost delayed peace with the
Abenaki until 1762.

After violence and riots in reaction to the Pontiac Rebellion (1763),
the Moravian closed their missions in Pennsylvania. The Wappinger
families living nearby joined the general migration west to Ohio where
they were most likely absorbed by the Delaware. Many of those with the
Iroquois settled at Chenango and were adopted by the Nanticoke,
themselves refuges from English settlement in Maryland. The Nanticoke
supported the Mohawk and British during the American Revolution and in
1783 were forced to relocate to southern Ontario. Some of their
descendants can still be found there among the Delaware of the Thames
and Munsee-Delaware First Nations. The last major group of Wappinger
settled in western Massachusetts with the Mahican at Stockbridge.
Because of the missionary efforts of John Sargeant, the Mahican at
Stockbridge were largely Christian, and through association, many
Wappinger also converted. Besides acquiring a new religion, they also
learned something about the British legal system.

Both the Wappinger and Mahican were still angry about their lands in
Duchess and Putnam counties which had been confiscated by New York in
1758. However, when they tried to forcibly expel the white squatters,
troops were brought in to prevent bloodshed. Daniel Nimham, the last
great Wappinger sachem, travelled to England to plead his people's
case. After receiving a favorable hearing, he returned to America in
1762 and filed suit in the New York courts to reclaim land taken
without compensation. The idea of Native Americans demanding justice in
an English court stunned the colonists of New York, but they recovered
with numerous motions intended to delay a decision. The proceedings
were finally interrupted by the start of the American Revolution. As
the war started, the Mahican and Wappinger, now virtually the same
tribe, joined the Iroquois as neutrals. However, after attending a
meeting in Boston in April, 1774, Captain Hendrick Aupamut of the
Stockbridge agreed to support the Americans. Ninham's Wappinger
followed suit. Few white American families can match the patriotic
credentials of the Wappinger and Mahican from Stockbridge. They fought
at Bunker Hill (1774), White Plains (1776), Saratoga (1777), and Barren
Hill (1778).

Daniel Nimham was killed at the battle of Kingsbridge (near Yonkers NY)
in August, 1778. The Stockbridge and Wappinger lost over 40 warriors in
this battle. In all, half of the Mahican and Wappinger men of military
age were killed fighting for the American cause in the Revolutionary
War. The new nation's gratitude for their sacrifice was brief. They
were not allowed to become citizens after the war. By 1786 the last
groups of the Stockbridge (and Wappinger had been forced to leave
Massachusetts and resettle with the Oneida in upstate New York. For
similar reasons, the Brotherton Indians from Connecticut and Long
Island joined them at Oneida during the next few years. During the
years which followed, the Oneida, Brotherton, and Stockbridge slowly
lost their lands to speculators and the State of New York. In 1822 they
relocated to a reservation established for the Oneida near Green Bay,
Wisconsin. In 1856 a separate reservation was created for the
Stockbridge, Brotherton, and Munsee on lands purchased from the
Menominee by the United States.