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The Wappinger Indians are a long forgotten grouping of seven tribes who, at the time of European contact, were living on the Eastern part of the United States, in what is now the area between Bronx and Rhinebeck on the east side of the Hudson River. The territory of the Wappinger extended from the Hudson to the Taconic mountains on the New York / Connecticut border. The Wappinger numbered around 8,000 people in the early 17th Century. These were scattered amongst some thirty villages.
The name ‘Wappinger’ can be translated as ‘easterner.’ The name has been variously spelt as ‘Wappinck,’ “Wapping,’ and ‘Wawping.’ Because they belonged to a wolf clan the French referred to them as ‘Loup,’ that being the French word for wolf. The Wappinger spoke the Algonquin language. They were divided into the following sub-nations: the Kitchawank, the Nochpeem, the Sintsink, the Siwanoy, the Tankiteke, the Wapping, and the Wecquaesgeek. The sub nations were fairly autonomous. In fact, it was only a major conflict with the Dutch that finally brought the seven groupings together to form a confederation of sorts. The villages were organised on the clan level, with a sachem and chiefs who were given authority over a grouping of villages. These groups ran their own affairs until a major problem, such as war, united the tribes under a single war chief for the duration of the conflict.
The Wappinger were an agricultural people. They grew corn, beans, squash and tobacco. During the winter months they would hunt for such game as deer, wolf, and bear. They were also expert fishermen. Their dwellings were a mixture of wigwams and wooden long houses. During the winter period, however, the Wappinger would leave their villages and move into heavily fortified forts, or ‘castles’.
The first contact with Europeans occurred in 1524 when French explorer Giovanni de Verrazano came across the Wappinger at the mouth of the Hudson River. This first contact was friendly but Verrazano attempted to kidnap some of the Indians before leaving. This and subsequent encounters made the Wappinger wary of the strange new people. In 1609 British seafarer Henry Hudson entered the mouth of the river that was to bear his name. On initial contact with the Wappinger, Hudson’s men opened fire. The Indians reply was to send a hail of arrows towards the strangers. One of Hudson’s men was thus killed. The Wappinger, however, then withdrew. Hudson tried to appease them by inviting several sachem to his ship , where they were showered with gifts. But a feeling of unease remained until the British ship departed.
Dutch traders followed the British into the Hudson Bay area in search of furs. Initially the Wappinger were bypassed by the Dutch, in favor of the more lucrative territory of the Mahicans. But warfare with the Mahicans forced the Dutch to look elsewhere for their furs. They focused on the eastern side of the mouth of the Hudson – the tribal area of the Wappinger. Dutch towns were soon established and the arrival of more and more Europeans led inevitably to conflict with the Wappinger. A series of minor skirmishes in the 1620s and 30’s was only prevented from erupting into all out warfare by the interruption of an inter tribal conflict between the Iroquois and their Mahican allies and the Narraganestt alomg with the Wappinger, Munsee, Unami and Metoac. This warfare drove the Wappinger out of their home territory after a devastating encounter in which the Mahican attacked a Wecquaesgeek village. The Wecquaesgeek now fled to what they thought was the safety of the Dutch settlements in Manhatten. In what must rank as one of the worst episodes in European/Native American history, however, the Dutch turned on the Wappinger, with a detachment of soldiers from Fort Amsterdam slaughtering the entire village as they slept.
This outrage not only incensed the other Wappinger sub tribes, but also many of the other Indian tribes in the area. Soon a wide scale war with the Dutch was under way ( Governor Kieft’s War of 1643-5). Initially the Indian alliance caused havoc amongst the Dutch. When the Dutch allied with the English, and then the Mahicans, however, the tide turned. The tribes were eventually defeated, with the Wappinger numbers being decimated. The numbers were further depleted by the inevitable epidemics of smallpox and the social disintegration caused by alcohol abuse. By 1730 the once populous Wappinger were reduced to just a few hundred people. Further warfare depleted them still further. The Wappinger fought for the Americans during the Revolution. Nearly half of their fighting men were killed during the war years. In the 19th Century, those few who remained were located on reservation land in Wisconsin.
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