Sub Tribes

Wappinger proper, a sachemship whose members lived on the east side of Hudson River, in present day Dutchess County, New York

Mention is sometimes made of a Wappinger tribe or confederation, but it took a major war with the Dutch to unite these seven small tribes into a single unit. Like most of the eastern Algonquin groups, the Wappinger were organized into sachemships where, in most cases, the authority of the sachem and council (composed of clan chiefs) extended over only a few villages and was limited mostly to resolving problems and disputes. Councils of the individual sachems were only held as required by common problems. However, in times of war, leadership was given to a war chief, whose authority was absolute for the duration of the conflict. A greater degree of organization was not required, since the Wappinger generally lived in peace with most of their neighbors. "Most" is used here, since, like the neighboring Metoac on Long Island, the Wappinger manufactured a superior form of wampum which they traded with other tribes. There appears to have been some warfare before contact because of this valuable commodity. There were also raids by European slavers during the 1500's.  

As a result, the Wappinger were forced to make more extensive military preparations than the norm. Besides their villages, most of the Wappinger had at least two "castles," or forts, where they could retreat when threatened. Like other tribes in the region, the Wappinger relied heavily on an agriculture of corn, beans, squash. Tobacco was also grown for ceremonial purposes. Diet was supplemented by fishing in the spring and summer and hunting during the colder months. The Wappinger frequently cooked their meat without removing the innards which made it difficult for some of their Dutch guests to enjoy the meal. Despite this, many Dutch are known to have married Wappinger women. Villages consisted of wigwams and mid-sized longhouses. As a rule, the Wappinger only lived in their villages during the warmer months and moved to their castles for the winter. Living along rivers provided easy transportation for their dugout canoes.

History

After 1610, the Dutch had steadily improved their relations with the Wappinger, Munsee and Metoac at the lower end of the river, and as a result, they had been able to expand the range of their trade into Connecticut, Long Island, and New Jersey.

Serious trouble began in 1639 after the appointment of Director Kieft, an aggressive but stupid man inclined to run roughshod over the rights of the resident tribes. Kieft arrived just after the English had destroyed the Pequot (Pequot War, 1637), and English settlement had spread down the coast of western Connecticut to within a few miles of Fort Amsterdam. Once in charge, Kieft set the tone by dispatching an armed sloop to demand tribute in corn and wampum.

One source of irritation was that Dutch farmers allowed their cows and pigs to wander free in the woods which often resulted in their invasion of the tribal corn fields. Not only did this bring immediate revenge on the offending animal, but the natives did not yet understand the European concept of the ownership of domestic animals, and a pig roaming loose in the woods was often viewed as meat on the table. After some pigs were stolen in 1640, Kieft dispatched 100 men to punish those who he thought to be responsible. The Dutch killed several of them, took one chief prisoner, and mutilated the corpse of another. The retaliation in the "Pig War" killed four workers and burned the farm. Kieft then ordered a war of extermination against them and offered a bounty of ten fathoms of wampum for every head brought to Fort Amsterdam. Most tribes refused to participate, and only a few Metoac warriors from Long Island "took up the hatchet" for the Dutch. Records indicate that Kieft received one only head for his trouble.

The growing tension could have ended there. Unfortunately, the Wecquaesgeek nephew, in the fashion of his people, chose this moment to take revenge for his uncle's murder by killing a hapless Dutchman with his own axe. Not understanding the native tradition of a blood debt, Kieft demanded the Wecquaesgeek surrender the murderer, but this was refused. In March, 1642 Kieft dispatched a punitive expedition of 80 men under Ensign Hendrick Van Dyke to attack the Wecquaesgeek village. Fortunately, Van Dyke and his men got lost. The Wecquaesgeek, however, soon learned of this attempt to attack them and, becoming alarmed, immediately signed a peace with the Dutch. However, by this time the nephew had found refuge with another tribe, and the Dutch never got their hands on him. A similar situation developed after some Dutch got the son of a Hackensack sachem drunk and robbed him of his beaver coat. In what has been called the "Whiskey War," he retaliated by shooting a Dutchman and then fled to the Tankiteke.

Kieft made his usual demand that the Hackensack surrender him. For their part, the Hackensack were willing to to settle things with a payment of wampum to "cover the dead," but the sachems were unwilling to go to Fort Amsterdam for fear that the intractable Kieft would take them hostage. That summer, the Narragansett sachem Miontonimo from Rhode Island, in the company of 100 of his warriors, visited both the Metoac tribes on Long Island and the Wappinger and Mahican in the Hudson Valley to recruit allies for the war he was planning against the rival Mohegan in Connecticut. While an intertribal war in an English colony should have been of little concern, the growing tensions had made Kieft and Dutch almost paranoid, and they came to believe that an uprising was being planned against themselves and the English. However, it was not the Narragansett who would touch off the powder keg building on the lower Hudson. Instead, it was the most reliable allies of the Dutch - the Mahican and Mohawk.

For obvious reasons, the Dutch did not provide firearms to the tribes near their settlements. Sensing their growing disadvantage, this refusal added to the growing resentment of the Wappinger, Munsee, Unami, and Metoac. To acquire even more guns, both the Mohawk and Mahican needed more fur and hunting territory. This was especially true for the Mahican, since they had been forced east of the Hudson by their defeat in 1628. they expanded north, east and south, the last direction being mostly at the expense of the Wappinger.

To acquire even more guns, both the Mohawk and Mahican needed more fur and hunting territory. This was especially true for the Mahican. However, fur was becoming scarce and the Dutch readily accepted wampum as payment which neither the Mahican or Mohawk had access to this because they were located in the interior of Connecticut, but the Wappinger and other lower river tribes did. The solution was for the Mohawk to demand tribute in wampum from the Munsee while the Mahican went after the Wappinger. During the winter of 1642-43, 80 heavily-armed Mahican warriors came to villages to demand tribute.

The Dutch were already becoming concerned about an uprising, and several incidents afterwards seemed to confirm this suspicion. Ignoring the advice of his council, Kieft decided to exterminate the Wecquaesgeek and set an example to the other "wilden" (wild men) in the vicinity. In what has become known as the Pavonia Massacre, he ordered a surprise attack to be made on the night of February 23rd, 1643. Kieft's orders were to kill all of the warriors and take the women and children prisoner (valuable as slaves).

Only one group followed these instructions. Most just slaughtered every Wecquaesgeek in the sleeping village without regard for age or sex. The killing by these Dutch "Christians" was especially brutal involving babies hacked to death in their mother's arms, torture, and mutilation. Soldiers reportedly brought the severed heads of their victims back to the fort and played kickball with them.

Kieft expected some retaliation but obviously underestimated the extent of the ill feeling among the tribes of the area against the Dutch. As the news of the massacre spread, the other Wappinger raided the outlying Dutch farms and settlements. Kieft had his uprising - Wappinger War (Governor Kieft's War 1643-45), but it was far greater than anything he had anticipated.

During Kieft's War in 1643, the various Wappinger groups united against the Dutch, attacking settlements. The Dutch, however, were allied with the Mohawk and the Wappinger were thoroughly defeated by 1645. More than 1500 Wappinger were killed in the two years of the war.

After the war, the confederation broke apart and many of the remaining Wappingers left their native lands for the protection of neighboring tribes.

Many Wappani also served as part of the militia during the American Revolution. Following the war, most of the surviving Wappani moved west to join the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe.

Kieft's War

Kieft's War, also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between Dutch settlers and Indians from 1643 to 1645. The war is named for Willem Kieft, who was the Director-General of New Netherland at the time.

Appointed director general by the Dutch West India Company, Willem Kieft arrived in New Netherland in 1639 with the task of increasing profits. In 1638, the New England colonies had defeated the Pequots in the Pequot War, after which the colonies received large amounts of wampum in tribute. Kieft's first solution to increase profits was to similarly tax the Lenape, or Delaware Indians living in the region, with claims that the money would buy them protection from rival tribes. In addition, the Dutch settlers were in intermittent conflict with their Wappani neighbors. Tensions mounted between the natives and the Dutch settlers, eventually leading to violence. The death of a Dutch settler, Claes Swits, at the hands of a Weckquaesgeek (Wappani on the east side of the Hudson River) particularly angered many of the Dutch when the tribe would not turn over the murderer.

The War

Although the Council of twelve men advised against it, Kieft decided to punish the Indians by attacking which he ordered on February 25, 1643. The initial strike was a massacre: 129 Dutch soldiers killed 120 Indians, including women and children. The attacks united the Algonquian peoples in the surrounding areas, including Lenape and Wappani, to an extent not seen before. In autumn of 1643, a force of 1,500 natives invaded New Netherland, famously killing dissident preacher Anne Hutchinson. In retaliation that winter, 500 Weckquaesgeeks were killed by Dutch forces. In desperation the Dutch settlers petitioned the Republic to intervene. For the next two years the united tribes harassed settlers all across the area, killing sporadically and suddenly. The sparse forces were helpless to stop the attacks, but the natives were kept too spread out to mount more effective strikes. A truce was finally agreed to by the last of the eleven united tribes in August of 1645.

The war was extremely bloody in proportion to the population at the time: more than 1,600 natives were killed in Kieft's War.