Did It Happen: Penn's Great Treaty of 1682

It's one of those enduring stories of Americana, much like Squanto and the Pilgrims or Pocahontas and John Smith.  William Penn and Lenape/Delaware chief Tamarend (Tammany), meet under a giant elm tree in Shackamaxon, now within the city of Philadelphia, to agree a treaty of perpetual peace and unity with the language standard for every treaty, as long as the grass grows and river flows.  The treaty was drawn up and signed by representatives of both sides and commemorated in wampum.

So, did it happen?  The answer, kind of

 but not quite that way.

First, Shackamaxon, which some say translates from a Lenape word meaning "place of making chiefs" or maybe, "place of eels" was an important meeting place along the Delaware River.  It was used by the Delaware as a meeting place for the selection and installation of headmen and sachems, and a summer rendezvous point for fishing.  And, there was an elm tree there at one time.  The key ingredient missing is a formal, written treaty.  William Penn (1644-1718) was a devout Quaker.  His faith forbade him to take a formal oath, but absolutely bound him to keep his word.  By all accounts, he was respectful of the Natives and they were willing to assist with permission to settle on their land and not make war.  Tamarend was a real person.  However, there was no evidence that any written document was drawn up and signed.  However, both sides acknowledged ever afterward that some type of agreement was reached at Shackamaxon.  Delaware leaders referenced these treaty many times in subsequent meetings with Pennsylvania authorities.  And, the Pennsylvania Historical Society has a wampum built which it believes was a memorial of treaty.  But that still doesn't make up for the fact that there was never a signed writing.

The lack of written specificity would come back to haunt the Delaware years later, during the Walking Purchase of 1737, when Penn's two sons, Thomas and John, produced a document that they said was the treaty, along with a map specifying the treaty boundaries.  According to these documents, the Delaware had ceded land as far as a person could walk in a day and a half.  However, the rivers and landmarks specified in these documents were erroneous, and the appointed walkers turned the process into a footrace, cheating and outraging Delaware leaders.  Most sources agree that while there may have been a spoken or gentleman's agreement between William Penn, Tamarend and other Delaware leaders, his sons had produced fraudulent documents and did their best to cheat the Delaware out of more land than the Natives contemplated by the Walking Purchase.  Nevertheless, the Delaware made the best of a bad situation, moving further west and trying to coexist with the Settlers as best they could.  And the treaty under the elm passed into legend, being celebrated by the French writer Voltaire, an early fan of the "noble savage" school of thought on Natives.  The place where the elm and the treaty were thought to have occurred was made into a park in 1872.