For this blog I selected native
languages.1 When selecting this topic, I wasn’t sure what to expect
but upon further investigation and research, I noticed a link for New York
Indian Tribes. Since I am a native of New York, I was intrigued by what I may
find out about the area I live in. I then noticed in that link that there was a
link for the Mohican Tribe including the Wappingers.2 I was a little
taken off guard since I lived in Wappinger’s for 20 years and my children still
reside there today. I wasn’t even aware that this name was originally from the
Wappingers Tribe. I knew the area was settled by the Dutch, English and others
but never once gave thought to the Native population that once lived there; the
population that was dispossessed as we also stole their name to leave as a
memory today. How could I live in an area that was originally Indian land and
not have any knowledge of that? Another
thing I learned is that they were part of the Mohican tribe.3 How
many times have I said or used the line “we are the last of the Mohicans” when
I was referring being the only ones left standing. Now I learn that this saying
may have been derived from the area I lived in and more specific to Wappingers
where I resided. How ironic and crazy is that?
The articles I read on the Wappingers
Indians are educational and historic. The articles represent the preservation
of Native American languages and culture and the historic land marks and
culture within our communities today. The materials were selected in these
sites to provide insight to the various cultures that have lived in the past
and present and provide knowledge of their cultural history and diversity. The
information I read in the articles represents the area I have lived in all my
life. The beauty and serenity of the Hudson River Valley is a connection from
the Wappingers Tribe to my own family. As the Wappingers enjoyed the abundance
of natural resources this geographical area has to offer, I enjoy the very same
things today and see the very same things today that they saw over the past 10,
000 years.
The word Wappinger means Easterner
and the Wappingers dominated the Hudson Valley for over 10, 000 years.4
When the Dutch arrived, they declared this area the New Netherlands Colony from
1609-1664.5 Over time as new settlers emerged in the area, the
Wappingers began to sell off their land. On August 8th 1683 the
Wappingers sold off 85,000 acres of land which currently encompasses the
present day Dutchess County.6 [It’s not understood if the Indians
realized at the time that this meant they no longer could live on the land.
Natives didn’t look at land ownership the way we do today. They didn’t believe
that one could own land just as one cannot own the sky or air that we breathe.
The Wappingers could no longer dwell on the ancestral lands they once
occupied.]7 [Many of the Wappingers joined other migrating tribes
such as the Stockbridge Muncees of Massachusetts, the Delaware (Lenape)
Nations, Oneida Iroquois and the Moravian Delaware’s of Ontario. Others blended
into white families and modern America.]8 The Wappingers were
decimated as a tribe where many if not all of their customs and culture were
lost as a result of disease, dispossession and integration into other tribes, communities
and families.
NOTES
3.
Ibid.
5.
Ibid.
6.
Ibid.
7.
Ibid.
8.
Ibid.
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