The Esopus Indian Nation’s Revolutionary War Experience

Editor's Note: This series of blog posts recounts the dramatic story of the Esopus Indian Nation’s Revolutionary War exodus. The original inhabitants of Ulster County, the Esopus Indians successfully maintained their sovereignty and traditional way of life in the face of overwhelming odds for over a century. These blog posts are summaries of a much fuller story that will be published in 2027.

Map: Sauthier, Claude Joseph (1776) "A map of the Province of New-York" Library of Congress Geography and Map Division G3800 1776 .S3 Medal: 1766 Peace Medal, American Numismatic Society Raymond.1925.929; Fuld,Tayman.HWU12; Stahl.Scully.28

Part 7. The Exodus to Grand River (1783)

In 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, effectively ending the American Revolution. Many Esopus Indian families were still living in what was now called the Loyal Village outside of Fort Niagara, with an equal number of families living along Buffalo Creek to the south. The news of Britain’s defeat was devastating for the loyal Native allies of Great Britain, who had been burned out out of their ancestral homelands and who had made huge sacrifices in allying with the British Crown in their attempt to prevent the loss of their land. Rumors soon spread that a huge American army was assembling to invade Indian Country and commit total genocide on the Native allies of the British. Although the rumors were mostly unfounded, the Esopus Indians and their leadership took them seriously. They were the first to leave after hearing the “horrid report.”[1] They paddled across a short stretch of Lake Erie and made their way up the Grand River into what is now Ontario. They had found their new home.

The Grand River, a tributary of Lake Erie, runs through a fertile country that was once a patchwork of lush deciduous forests and wide prairies rich in game animals. The same limestone ridge that crosses through their Ulster County homeland also passes through the Grand River country, supporting many of the same plant medicines. Every spring, huge numbers of fish – especially walleye – ascended the Grand River from Lake Erie, allowing for the reestablishment of traditional spring fishing camps. The Esopus Indians had found a new country for their people. It was a country that, in many respects, was similar to their ancestral Ulster County home, only lacking in dramatic topography. Censuses taken over the 1780s and 1790s reveal a population of close to two hundred individuals, a number which also included a number of related Munsees and Unamis who had intermarried with them. They were soon joined along the Grand River by most of the other loyal contingents of the Six Nations Confederacy. Towns were established for each ethnic group, sometimes several miles apart; the village of loyal Mohicans from Onaquaga/Unadilla, also displaced from the Hudson Valley, would locate about ten miles upstream on the Grand River.

The settlements on Grand River would have government support. As compensation for wartime losses, the British government secured 550,000 acres of land along the river for their loyal Native allies through the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784. The Grand River Reserve, though much diminished, is still the largest reserve in Canada today. From their new home base, and with the war over, small groups of Esopus Indians would attempt to return to the Catskills Region and Ulster County for visits over the following decades. Records reveal that at least one Esopus family that had formerly lived in Otsiningo on the Susquehanna River temporarily moved back for two or three years. Other individuals trickled into the Catskill Mountains region to visit old settler friends and places of importance. Among them was notorious Esopus Indian war captain Benjamin Shanks, whose visits are remembered in a number of local histories.[2] Tragically, sometimes these visits resulted in murders committed by vengeful settlers against any Indians that reappeared in the region. In one account, Benjamin Shanks was almost killed in an ambush. His friend or relative, Canope, was not so lucky, and was shot and killed right next to him while fishing in the Delaware River in 1784. Ben Shanks was then purportedly killed by white settlers while picking apples in an old Indian orchard at Chenango (Otsiningo) Point three years later.[3]

As the war began to fade into a distant memory, it became safer for Esopus Indian families to visit their homeland from the Grand River in Canada. A number of records reveal their summertime visits over the course of the early 19th century. While living at Grand River, they were joined by many families of closely-related refugee peoples, including Munsees and Unamis who had formerly lived in the Delaware Valley and Mohicans from the upper Hudson Valley. Along with the Nanticokes (originally from Chesapeake Bay), these five groups became collectively known as the Delawares of Grand River. The Delawares of the Grand River – including at least one definitively Esopus chief – were instrumental in defending Canada from the American Invasion in the War of 1812. As late as 1820, an eyewitness noted that the Esopus Indians’ government continued to function on the Grand River. There, they would continue to practice their traditional religion through the mid 19th century. Amazingly, the Esopus Indians’ system of hereditary chieftainship – which can be traced back to their first encounters with the Dutch in the 17th century – persisted until the 1930s. Today, the Delawares of the Grand River Reserve number several hundred enrolled individuals.
 
Citations:
[1] Historical Collections, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, Volume 20. 117-121
[2] Benjamin Shanks (aka Ben, son of Shanks), whose Esopus name was remembered as Huycon (possibly meaning ‘Big Knife’) was the son of a namesake who was also known in the records as Wesomainso (meaning ‘Black Oak’). Father Wesomainso/Jacob Shanks was involved in the sale of various parts of the Catskills in the Hardenbergh Patent. In the years immediately after the American Revolution, son Ben Shanks may have temporarily joined the Munsee community living with the Senecas at Cattaraugus and fathered one or more children; in the early 19th century, Seneca individuals at Cattaraugus appear with the surname Shanks.
[3] Munsell, W.W. The History of Delaware County, Town of Hancock.

Author

Author Justin Wexler is an ethnoecologist who has spent the last 25 years conducting archival and ethnographic research to better understand the history, culture, and land management practices of the Native Peoples of the Hudson and Delaware Valleys. He has a BA in History and Anthropology from Marlboro College and an MA in Teaching History from Bard College. He and his wife Anna Plattner run Wild Hudson Valley, a forest farm and educational organization focused on Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountain history, ecology, wild foods, and land stewardship practices.

---

​If ​you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today! Your support helps us live our mission of Connecting People to the Hudson River!

Donate Now

Join Today

---