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The Lenapes:
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Part 5The Effects of Contact on the Lenape: Contact with the Dutch had a profound and devastating impact on the Lenape people. This area, which once was the center of a thriving population of Native Americans, is left with very few traces of their existence. Descendants of the Lenape people are few, and most do not live in this area, although their ancestors did for centuries before contact. Four factors contributed to the decline of the Lenape people, and in fact, these same hardships were faced by most Native Americans. The first was disease, which decimated the Indian populations because they had no immunity to European diseases. The second factor was wars with the Dutch (and later the British) and with neighboring tribes who took the side of the Dutch. The third factor was massacres, which though relatively few in number were psychologically damaging and had demographic effects as well. The fourth factor was a loss of livelihood through a decrease in the animal population and a loss of land. Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River in 1609-10. By 1624 the first colonists had arrived. It took only nine years for the first smallpox epidemic to hit, between 1633-35. Since the Lenape people, like all Native Americans, had no immunity to European diseases, these epidemics proved fatal. Although there are no statistics for this epidemic, it is safe to assume that a large number of Lenape people died from this first epidemic. It was common for epidemics to eliminate entire villages. This was the first in a long series of events that would deplete the numbers of the Lenape. In 1643 the Mohawks (part of the Iroquois Confederation) made a peace treaty with the Dutch and shortly thereafter attacked a band of Wappingers Indians. When this group fled to a Dutch shelter at Pavonia, they were executed. This atrocity, often referred to as the Pavonia Massacre, resulted in the deaths of 80 men, women, and children. After they were beheaded, the Dutch soldiers responsible for their deaths played kickball with the severed heads. In retaliation for this brutal attack, the Wappingers joined with the Mahicans in what is now called Governor Keifts’ War (since he was Governor of New Amsterdam when the Pavonia Massacre occurred). Although the Wappingers and Mahicans enjoyed a victory in this war, which took place between 1643-45, they nonetheless lost men, which further depleted their population. The Esopus Indians had their share of battles in the Peach War, which began because a Dutch farmer killed an Esopus woman who stole one of his peaches. Fought between the years 1655-64, the war ended only because Governor Stuyvesant, the new Governor of New Amsterdam, took some Esopus children hostage. In 1677, the Esopus Indians signed a contract with the Huguenots in which they agreed to sell a large portion of land for some European goods. The goods received included kettles, axes, stockings, gunpowder, lead, wine, blankets, and shirts, among other items. These simply prove that by this time there was great demand for European goods, especially weapons and alcohol, which helped decimate the Indian populations in the area. In 1683, the Wappingers Indians signed a similar contract with Francis Rombout and Gulian Verplanck. The contract resulted in the loss of large parcel of land in return for items such as gunpowder, lead, wampum (beads), tobacco, beer, hatchets, knives, guns. This contract also shows the dependence upon European goods and the extent to which the Wappingers would go to obtain them. Another problem that the Lenape people faced was food supply. Because of the fur trade, what was once a seasonal collection of furs became a frequent slaughter. As a result, the animal population dwindled (especially beavers). Since the Indians relied on these animals both for food, clothing, and for trade, they felt the impact of this animal shortage. Some Lenape starved to death as a result. Others were forced to trade their land for goods such as clothing and food. By 1700, the Hudson Valley had already lost 90% of its indigenous population from death and migration. The remaining population was forced from their land. Throughout the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth centuries, the amount of land accessible to the Lenape was decreasing as a result of sales to small settlers and through coercion or fraud. For example, Livingston Manor was purchased from the Wappinger Chief Tatemshiat and the female Esopus Chief Mamanachqua between 1683-85. Although the chiefs agreed to sell only 2,000 acres, Livingston managed to increase the amount to 100,000 acres. The Esopus Indians were better able to resist encroachment onto their land, however. With help from nearby allies, they managed to deter settlers from occupying the area. This work for a little while, as settlers were frightened by the sight of armed Indians upon their arrival. But this was only a temporary solution. In the late Seventeenth century, there were two additional smallpox epidemics and an outbreak of malaria. These diseases once again decimated the local tribes. Robert S. Grumet claims that “scarcely more than 3,000 Indian people were living in the Hudson Valley at the dawn of the Eighteenth century.” His figure counts all Hudson River Valley Indians, meaning all of those from Albany to New York City. The populations of the Munsee- speaking tribes was even smaller by this time. The Indians that survived the war, massacres, and the loss of their land were living in remote areas where settlers had not taken over. But an incident in Esopus terrified them enough to force them to leave. This incident involved white settlers arriving to occupy land in the Esopus area. Upon hearing of ‘an impending French and Indian attack upon the Ulster county frontiers...[they] massacred several Indian families in their wigwams at Walden during the fall of 1745.” The Wappingers tribe heard about this attack and decided that they had had enough. They migrated to Pennsylvania, but returned for a peace settlement in 1746. The leader of the Wappingers, Daniel Nimham, argued for their rights and even traveled to England, but to no avail. The lands were taken away all Hudson Valley Indians by 1758. The only choice the Hudson Valley Indians had was to migrate. They traveled to five areas primarily: Ontario, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Ohio. When they settled in these areas, they lost their tribal distinctions, and they all became known as Munsee. The Hudson Valley Indians suffered the fate of all Native Americans. Their numbers diminished over the years due to war, disease, massacres, and the acquisition of their lands. Although they were the original inhabitants of this area, hardly any traces of their existence remain. It is estimated that in 1950 there were only 525 Munsee speaking people left. Their original population is difficult to determine, but is estimated to have been 10,000.(Grumet, 15) This total decimation of the original inhabitants of this area (and our country) is nothing less than a tragedy. Previous Table of Contents Next Part | |