Native People: the Wappinger (Munsee-Stockbridge)

As White settlement made more of an impact on North America, Native peoples scrambled to adapt before their societies, like the Patuxet and some others, went completely extinct.  A case in point is the Wappinger people of New York.  Debate exists in some sources about the name.  There are several versions of this common name and other names for these people.  The most likely is that it comes from Dutch words meaning "weapon-bearers", alluding to the troubled history between these Natives and Dutch Settlers.

The Wappinger were an Algonquian-speaking people closely related to the Delaware/Lenape.  Their range was the east bank of the Hudson River to the Connecticut River Valley, and including Manhattan Island.  They were not a cohesive tribe, but formed into a dozen bands, each led by a sachem.  They were first contacted by Henry Hudson's expedition in 1609.  Never a large tribe, they are estimated to have around 13000 people at the time of contact.  An officer on Hudson's ship described the Wappinger trading tobacco for knives and beads.  Early sources described the Wappinger as being very civil, well-dressed and eager for contact and trade.  That would soon change.

As more Dutch settlers came into the area, pressure increased on the Wappinger to sell their lands and seek refuge with surrounding tribes.  This led to Kieft's War (1643-45) where desperate Wappinger bands attacked Dutch settlements, and were suppressed by the Dutch along with Mohawk allies.  This war cost the lives of 1500 Wappinger.  The Dutch and Wappinger clashed again in 1655, during the Peach Tree War.  After that, the remaining Wappinger scattered and tried to meld into surrounding, Algonquian-speaking tribes, primarily the Delaware.  Other Wappinger tried suing for the right to reclaim their ancestral lands, but were unsuccessful.  In 1766, Daniel Nimham, more on him in a later blog post, traveled with a delegation to London, seeking protection from the British Crown for their remaining ancestral lands. 

When the British proved to be indifferent, Nimham led his men in battle for the Americans, dying at the Battle of Kingsbridge, New York in 1778.  Other Wappinger served in the Stockbridge Militia, a Patriot unit, during the Revolutionary War.  Following the Revolution, the remaining Wappinger moved to Ohio to join the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe in Ohio.  Only a few remained in New York, where some were still recorded as living in the Kent area in 1811.  Today, members of the Stockbridge-Munsee nation, including descendants of the Wappinger, reside in Wisconsin.