Wappinger

The Wappinger ( ) were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutchess County, New York, but their territory included the east bank of the Hudson in what became both Putnam and Westchester counties south to the western Bronx and northern Manhattan Island. To the east they reached to the Connecticut River Valley, and to the north the Roeliff Jansen Kill in southernmost Columbia County, New York, marked the end of their territory. Their nearest allies were the Mohican to the north, the Montaukett to the southeast on Long Island, and the other Algonquin tribes to the east. Like the Lenape, the Wappinger were highly decentralized as a people. They formed numerous loosely associated bands that had established geographic territories. The Wequaesgeek, a Wappinger people living along the lower Hudson River near today's New York City, were among the first to be recorded encountering European adventurers and traders when Henry Hudson's Half Moon appeared in 1609.…

The Wappinger ( ) were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutchess County, New York, but their territory included the east bank of the Hudson in what became both Putnam and Westchester counties south to the western Bronx and northern Manhattan Island. To the east they reached to the Connecticut River Valley, and to the north the Roeliff Jansen Kill in southernmost Columbia County, New York, marked the end of their territory. Their nearest allies were the Mohican to the north, the Montaukett to the southeast on Long Island, and the other Algonquin tribes to the east. Like the Lenape, the Wappinger were highly decentralized as a people. They formed numerous loosely associated bands that had established geographic territories. The Wequaesgeek, a Wappinger people living along the lower Hudson River near today's New York City, were among the first to be recorded encountering European adventurers and traders when Henry Hudson's Half Moon appeared in 1609. Long after their original settlements had been decimated by wars with the colonists, wars with other Indian tribes, questionable land sales, waves of diseases brought by the Europeans, and absorption into other tribes, their last sachem and a group of their heavily dwindled people were residing at the "prayer town" sanctuary of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. A stalwart spokesman for Native American concerns and valiant soldier, Daniel Nimham had traveled to Great Britain in the 1760s to argue for a return of tribal lands, and served in both the French and Indian Wars (on behalf of the English) and American Revolution (in support of the Colonists). He died with his son Abraham in a slaughter of the Stockbridge Militia at the Battle of Kingsbridge in 1778¹. Following the war, what was left of a combined Mohican and Wappinger community in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, left to join the Oneida people in Oneida County in western New York. There they were joined by the remnants of the Munsee, forming the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe. From that time, the Wappinger ceased to have an independent name in history, and their people intermarried with others. Their descendants were subsequently relocated to a Stockbridge-Munsee reservation in Shawano County, Wisconsin. The tribe operates a casino there, and in 2010 was awarded two small parcels suitable for casinos in New York State in return for dropping larger land claims there. The totem (or emblem) of the Wappinger was the "enchanted wolf", with the right paw raised defiantly. By one account, they shared this totem with the Mohicans. ==Name== The origin of the name Wappinger is unknown. While the present-day spelling was used as early as 1643, numerous alternate phonetic spellings were also used by early European settlers well into the late 19th century. Each linguistic group tended to transliterate Native American names according to their own languages. Among these spellings and terms are: Wappink, Wappings, Wappingers, Wappingoes, Wawpings, Pomptons, Wapings, Opings, Opines, Massaco, Menunkatuck, Naugatuck, Nochpeem, Wangunk Wappans, Wappings, Wappinghs, Wapanoos, Wappanoos, Wappinoo, Wappenos, Wappinoes, Wappinex, Wappinx, Wapingeis, Wabinga, Wabingies, Wapingoes, Wapings, Wappinges, Wapinger and Wappenger. Anthropologist Ives Goddard suggests the Munsee language-word wápinkw, used by the Lenape and meaning "opossum", might be related to the name Wappinger. No evidence supports the folk etymology of the name coming from a word meaning "easterner", as suggested by Edward Manning Ruttenber in 1906 and John Reed Swanton in 1952. Others suggest that Wappinger is anglicized from the Dutch word wapendragers, meaning "weapon-bearers", alluding to the warring relationship between the Dutch and the Wappinger. Such reference would correspond to the first appearance of the spelling in 1643. This was thirty-four years after the Dutch aboard Hudson's Half Moon would have enquired what the people called themselves. The 1643 date reflects a period of great conflict with the Native people, including the preemptive Pavonia massacre by the Dutch, which precipitated Kieft's War. ==Language== , a Lenape tongue]] The Wappinger were most closely related to the Munsee, a large subgroup of the Lenape people. All three were among the Eastern Algonquian-speaking subgroup of the Algonquian peoples. They spoke using very similar Lenape languages, with the Wappinger dialect most closely related to the Munsee language. Their nearest allies were the Mohican to the north, the Montaukett to the southeast on Long Island, and other Algonquin tribes to the east. Like the Lenape, the Wappinger were highly decentralized as a people. They formed approximately 18 loosely associated bands that had established geographic territories. ==History== The Wappinger had summer and winter camps. They cultivated maize, beans, and various species of squash. They also hunted game, fished, collected shellfish, and gathered fruits, flowers, seeds, roots, and nuts. By 1609, the Wappingers' earliest recorded European contact, their settlements included camps along the major rivers between the Hudson and Housatonic, with larger villages located at the river mouths. Settlements near fresh water and arable land could remain in one location for about 20 years, until the people moved to another place some miles away. Despite many references to their villages and other site types by early European explorers and settlers, few contact-period sites have been identified in southeastern New York. ==Bands== [[File:Excerpt from Map-Novi Belgii Novæque Angliæ (Amsterdam, 1685).jpg|thumb|Wappinger bands appear east of the Hudson on this excerpt of Novi Belgii Novæque Angliæ (Amsterdam, 1685) ("New Netherland and New England", and also parts of Virginia, a copy of a 1685 interpretation by Petrus Schenk Junior of a 1656 map by Nicolaes Visscher I)]] The suggested bands of the Wappinger, headed by sachems, have been described as including: Wappinger (proper), lived on the east side of the Hudson River in present-day Dutchess County, New York Hammonasset, an eastern group at the mouth of the Connecticut River, in present-day Middlesex County, Connecticut Kitchawank, lived in northern Westchester County, New York in the area of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, site of the oldest oyster-shell middens found on the North Atlantic Coast. There they built a large, fortified village, called Navish, at the neck of Croton Point. Massaco, along the Farmington River in Connecticut Nochpeem, in southern portions of present-day Dutchess and western and northern Putnam counties, New York. Their tribal fire at one point was in Kent. Paugussett, along the Housatonic River, present-day eastern Fairfield and western New Haven counties of Connecticut Podunk, east of the Connecticut River in eastern Hartford County, Connecticut Poquonock, western present-day Hartford County, Connecticut Quinnipiac, in central New Haven County, Connecticut The Menunkatuck, were a sub-group of the Quinnipiac, living along the coast in present-day in Guilford in New Haven County, Connecticut. Sicaog, in present-day Hartford County, Connecticut Sintsink, also Sinsink, Sinck Sinck, and Sint Sinck, origin of the name of the penitentiary Sing Sing in Ossining, east of the Hudson River in present-day Westchester County, New York Siwanoy, southeast coastal Bronx as far as Hell Gate, and interior southernmost Westchester County, New York, into southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut at the Five Mile River. Tankiteke, also "Pachami" and "Pachani", central coastal and extreme western Fairfield County, Connecticut, north to Danbury, north and west into northern Westchester County, New York, eastern Putnam County, New York and southeastern Dutchess County, New York Tunxis, Farmington, in southwestern Hartford County, Connecticut Wangunk, also sometimes called the "Mattabesset", they lived in the Mattabesset area in central Connecticut. Originally located around Hartford and Wethersfield, but were displaced by settlers and relocated to land around the oxbow bend in the Connecticut River. Wecquaesgeek (Wiechquaeskeck, Wickquasgeck, Weckquaesgeek), southwestern Westchester County, New York, originally centered on the mouth of the Saeck Kill in today's Yonkers, and ranging south into the western Bronx along the Hudson and Harlem rivers. Had hunting grounds on the northern three-quarters of Manhattan Island, and ranged north to present-day Tarrytown and Pocantico Hills. While Edward Manning Ruttenber suggested in 1872 that there had been a Wappinger Confederacy, as did anthropologist James Mooney in 1910, Ives Goddard contests their view. He writes that no evidence supports this idea. ==Legacy== The Wappinger are the namesake of several areas in New York, including: Town of Wappinger Village of Wappingers Falls Wappinger Creek Wappinger Trail, Briarcliff Manor, New York Broadway in New York City also follows their ancient trail. ==Notes== ==References== ==Bibliography==

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