Wappinger

The Wappinger were an <a href="/facts/Eastern_Algonquian_languages/rYl35Wv8">Eastern Algonquian</a> <a href="/facts/Munsee_language/jUHc3yaT">Munsee-speaking</a> <a href="/facts/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States/lr8Qmd6N">Native American</a> people from what is now southern <a href="/facts/New_York_(state)/mnl67G1G">New York</a> and western <a href="/facts/Connecticut/LeDhYdJG">Connecticut</a>.
At the time of <a href="/facts/First_contact_(anthropology)/0Gr3P66W">first contact</a> in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now <a href="/facts/Dutchess_County,_New_York/AjKI4fWW">Dutchess County, New York</a>, but their territory included the east bank of the Hudson in what became both <a href="/facts/Putnam_County,_New_York/bnHwzw1Y">Putnam</a> and <a href="/facts/Westchester_County,_New_York/8NjUafq0">Westchester</a> counties south to the western <a href="/facts/Bronx/yVMesM0v">Bronx</a> and northern <a href="/facts/Manhattan_Island/fF9JeXjh">Manhattan Island</a>. To the east they reached to the <a href="/facts/Connecticut_River_Valley/yhnubDoq">Connecticut River Valley</a>, and to the north the <a href="/facts/Roeliff_Jansen_Kill/ATdQIXgH">Roeliff Jansen Kill</a> in southernmost <a href="/facts/Columbia_County,_New_York/V6owyxsh">Columbia County, New York</a>, marked the end of their territory.
Their nearest allies were the <a href="/facts/Mohican/LDFS6XfH">Mohican</a> to the north, the <a href="/facts/Montaukett/IHrfdbsl">Montaukett</a> to the southeast on Long Island, and the remaining New England tribes to the east. Like the Lenape, the Wappinger were highly decentralized as a people. They formed numerous loosely associated bands that had established geographic territories.
The <a href="/facts/Wequaesgeek/7Pgbc7a0">Wequaesgeek</a>, a Wappinger people living along the lower <a href="/facts/Hudson_River/dGgu7VFE">Hudson River</a> near today's New York City, were among the first to be recorded encountering European adventurers and traders when <a href="/facts/Henry_Hudson/6XxATEzh">Henry Hudson's</a> <a href="/facts/Half_Moon_(ship)/HrKbS5q7">Half Moon</a> appeared in 1609.
Long after their original settlements had been decimated by wars with the colonists, wars with other Indian tribes, questionable land sales, waves of diseases brought by the Europeans, and absorption into other tribes, their last <a href="/facts/Sachem/KwpspNNo">sachem</a> and a group of their heavily dwindled people were residing at the "prayer town" sanctuary of <a href="/facts/Stockbridge,_Massachusetts/VAMJ2P4t">Stockbridge, Massachusetts</a>. A stalwart spokesman for Native American concerns and valiant soldier, <a href="/facts/Daniel_Nimham/Jp8svNN9">Daniel Nimham</a> had traveled to Great Britain in the 1760s to argue for a return of tribal lands, and served in both the <a href="/facts/French_and_Indian_Wars/9tEgL8qG">French and Indian Wars</a> (on behalf of the English) and <a href="/facts/American_Revolution/zy1F0LxK">American Revolution</a> (in support of the Colonists). He died with his son Abraham in a slaughter of the <a href="/facts/Stockbridge_Militia/3gRkKgg9">Stockbridge Militia</a> at the <a href="/facts/Stockbridge_Militia/3gRkKgg9">Battle of Kingsbridge</a> in 1778.
Following the war, what was left of a combined <a href="/facts/Mohican/LDFS6XfH">Mohican</a> and Wappinger community in <a href="/facts/Stockbridge,_Massachusetts/VAMJ2P4t">Stockbridge, Massachusetts</a> left for <a href="/facts/Oneida_County,_New_York/7gbWn5o1">Oneida County</a> in western New York to join the <a href="/facts/Oneida_people/eLajN94F">Oneida people</a> there. There they were joined by the remnants of the <a href="/facts/Munsee/0HwcSHuR">Munsee</a>, forming the <a href="/facts/Stockbridge-Munsee/TPhYQIoU">Stockbridge-Munsee</a> tribe.
From that time, the Wappinger ceased to have an independent name in history, and their people intermarried with others. Their descendants were subsequently relocated to a Stockbridge-Munsee reservation in <a href="/facts/Shawano_County,_Wisconsin/3NP774E5">Shawano County, Wisconsin</a>. The tribe operates a casino there, and in 2010 was awarded two tiny parcels suitable for casinos in New York State in return for dropping larger land claims there.
The <a href="/facts/Totem/I9YJhRSr">totem</a> (or emblem) of the Wappinger was the "enchanted wolf," with the right paw raised defiantly. By one account, they shared this totem with the Mohicans.

Wappinger open-in-new

Wappinger