USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 9
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THE ABORIGINES
Their rhetorical figures were mostly suggested by natural objects, at times rising to flights of genuine eloquence. At a conference with the whites, in 1649, Pennekeck, the "Chief behind the Col," that is, of the Hackensack Indians, said the tribe called the Raritanoos, formerly living at Wiquaess- keck, had no Chief, therefore he spoke for them, in the Indian tongue. "I wish you could see my heart," he exclaimed, as he threw down two beavers, "then you would be sure that my words are sincere and true." At a confer- ence held at Easton, in 1757, Teedyescung, Chief Sachem or King of the Dela- wares, said: "By this Belt of Wampum I take you by the hand and lead you up to our Council Fire, and desire you will not listen to the singing of Birds in the Woods,"-that is, give no heed to the tales of enemies. In 1758 Governor Francis Bernard, of New Jersey, persuaded the Minisink Indians to come to Burlington for a conference, instead of to Easton as was their wont. The spokesman for the dusky statesmen told the Governor: "It is not agreeable to Our Chief Men and Counsellers to have a new Council fire kindled or the Old one removed to this side of the River from Pennsylvania, where it hath always been kept Burning. The Reason is this: we know the Strength of the Water, and that when the Wind and tide is strong it Roars that we cannot hear ; so that it is proper we should have the Council fire on the other Side of the River nearer to us." The Indians were fond of refer- ring to the "covenant chain" between them and the whites. "Since a Chain is apt to rust, if it be not oiled or greased, we will grease it with Bevers grease or Fatt yt the smell thereof will endure for a whole year." The Delawares having in 1725 become subordinate to the Five Nations, were not allowed to make war without the consent of the latter; wherefore they were called "women." When they won their independence, there was a curious cere- mony, "the taking off of the petticoat," in 1756 and again in 1795.
Bishop Ettwein tells us that the "Chief of the Tortoise is the Head." He was commonly spoken of by the whites as the "King" of the Delawares. The earliest Chief who stands out preeminent above his fellows is Tamanend or Tamanee, whose name first appears in a deed dated the 23rd day of the 4th month (June), 1683, for lands in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. In 1694 he was present with other Delaware Indians at a meeting of the Governor and Council of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, when he said, as quaintly recorded in the official minutes : "Wee and the Christians of this river Have allwayes had a free rode way to one another, & tho' sometimes a tree has fallen across the rode yet wee have still removed it again, & keept the path clean, and wee design to Continou the old friendshipp that has been between us and you." Three years later (June 5, 1697) he joins in a deed for a tract of land near Neshaminy, "Extending in Length from the River Delaware, so farr as a horse can Travel in Two Summer dayes." The instrument be- gins thus : "Know all Men That we Taminy Sachimack and Wehcelano my Brother and Weheequeckhon alias Andrew, who is to be king after my death, Yaqueekhon alias Nicholas, and Quenameckquid alias Charles my Sonns," etc. Although these are the only actual glimpses we have of the man, tradi- tion supplies all that would else be lacking, and declares that he "never had
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his equal. He was in the highest degree endowed with wisdom, virtue, pru- dence, charity, affability, meekness, hospitality, in short with every good and noble qualification that a human being may possess. He was supposed to have had an intercourse with the great and good Spirit ; for he was a stranger to everything that is bad." Countless legends have grown up about his name, and, in a spirit of drollery, he has been dubbed a Saint, in emulation of foreign heroes with less claim to a place in the calendar, and as "St. Tam- many" is the first of his race to be thus honored. Having attained to a great age-he was spoken of as "the Tamanend of many days"-he is believed to have found a final resting place at or near Doylestown, Bucks county, Penn.
In 1716 Sheekokonickan was the Chief of the Nation, and is the second mentioned as such in the early records. It does not appear when, where or how he died, but in 1718 the honor was borne by one whose name is variously written Allomabi, Allummapees, Alomipas, Olomipas, Olumpies, who was also called Sassoonan, "one who is well wrapped up." He was even an old man, and sickly, and probably wore extra clothing on that account. In 1731, as already stated, he stabbed and killed his nephew, in a drunken brawl. His grief and remorse were so great that he refused to eat for a time, and his life was in danger. For many years he represented his people in their con- ferences with the English, by whom he was held in high esteem. His death, in 1747, seems to have made quite a stir not only among the Delawares, but among the Six Nations and the whites as well.
Teedyescung or Tadeuskund was born near Trenton about the year 1700, one of a family of spirited sons. About 1730 they located at the forks of the Delaware, going further west until they joined their kinsmen, the Munseys. Coming under the Christian influence of the Moravian Brethren. he was baptized in 1750. But in 1754 the Munseys came down and urged him to become their King and lead them to war. After the defeat of Brad- dock, amid the general uprising of the savages, Teedyescung was swept into the war by an irresistible impulse of race pride, patriotism and ambition, and during 1755 and 1756, as King of the Delawares and Munseys, led his dusky warriors in many a destructive foray upon the white settlements. In July, 1756, he attended a Council at Easton, with the Governor of Pennsylvania. At this time he declared that he represented not only the Delawares, as their King, but the Six Nations and three others, making ten in all. This was explicitly contradicted, however, by the Six Nations, at Easton, in 1758. In February, 1758, he attended a conference held "in the Great Meeting House at Crosswicks. N. J., between the Government of New Jersey, and the Indians inhabiting within the same," when the Cranbury, Crosswicks, Ancocus, Rari- tan, "Southern" and "Mountain" Indians presented their claims for lands then occupied by the whites. He was a brave warrior and a sagacious coun- sellor, impatient of control, yet a subject of the Indian's worst enemy-the "fire water" of the whites, and died a miserable death, being burned in his lodge, April 19, 1763. There were those who believed his wigwam was pur- posely set on fire by the Iroquois, who hated him for his influence with the English, and who also feared he might restore the Lenape to their pristine
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THE ABORIGINES
dignity and power. It was a curious coincidence that he had been baptized Gideon, and that as he went to and fro with his retinue of warriors he was often styled the "War Trumpet." He was the last of the Delaware Kings east of the Allegheny mountains.
An amusing but very important feature of the conferences with the Indians was the exchange of presents. The wily savages saw no sense in giving valuable skins of beaver, otter or deer without receiving a correspond- ing return. If their presents were not reciprocated they quietly picked them up and carried them off-whence the expressive phrase, "Indian giver." The authorities soon learned the full significance of the custom. When an Indian ambassador from his tribe presented a bundle of furs in token of his good faith, he naturally expected the whites to give a like token of their sincerity. So it came to be a regular practice at such conferences for the Governor to cause the value of the Indians' gift to be carefully computed, and then to make them a present of like or greater worth.
When the Delawares went to war, they were painted hideously, to strike the utmost terror into their enemies. How then could they distinguish friend from foe, when thus disguised? By their totems. "The totem is a symbolic device, generally an animal, which represents that all those having it have descended from one common ancestor. It has developed into the heraldic device of the family." The practice seems to have been universal among North American tribes, if indeed it was not prevalent throughout the world. When an Indian built a hut he painted on the outside in a conspicuous place a rude figure of his totem, and any passing Indian of the same tribe (and hence of the same totem) was privileged to claim aid as of a brother. Their bodies were painted or tattooed with the same symbol, and so were their war-clubs. Among the Delawares, "the Turtle warrior draws either with a coal or paint here and there on the trees along the war path, the whole ani- mal carrying a gun with the muzzle projecting forward, and if he leaves a mark at the place where he has made a stroke on his enemy, it will be a pic- ture of a tortoise. Those of the Turkey tribe paint only one foot of a turkey, and the Wolf tribe, sometimes a wolf at large with one leg and foot raised up to serve as a hand, in which the animal also carries a gun with the muzzle forward."
The three principal tribes of the Lenape inhabiting New Jersey were subdivided into very many smaller tribes or clans, who generally settled along the rivers and bays, and were usually called by the whites after the streams on which they were located, instead of by any proper tribal or family desig- nation. Hence the names which have come down to us are descriptive of localities rather than of tribes. Some of these sub-tribes mentioned by early writers and in the old records are as follows: Kechemeches, 500 men, above Cape May. Manteses, 100 bowmen, twelve leagues above the former (Doubtless the Mantas or Mantes, on Salem creek). Sikonesses, six leagues higher up. Asomoches, 100 men. Eriwoneck, 40 men. Ramcock, 100 men, five miles above the last. (Probably living on Rancocas creek). Axion, 200
P-8
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
men, four miles higher up. (Probably Assiscunk creek). Calcefar, 150 men, "tenne leagues over land." Mosilian, 200 men, below the Falls. Raritans, Raritanoos, Raritangs, 1200 men, with two sachems. This tribe formerly lived at Wiquaesskeck (near Dobbs's Ferry, Westchester county, New York), but we have no account of why or when they removed to the fertile valleys of Central New Jersey. They were a warlike people, difficult to placate. In 1634 the Dutch made a treaty of peace with them, but hostilities broke out at intervals, and in 1640 the savages attacked a sloop sent up their river with supplies, and tried to kill the crew and capture the vessel and cargo. Foiled in this attempt, they made a raid on Staten Island, killing four tobacco planters and firing the buildings. The exasperated Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam thereupon passed an ordinance (in 1641), offering the other Indians ten fathoms of wampum for every Raritan's head, and twenty fathoms for the head of each of those who had killed the Staten Island planters. Perhaps another reason for this barbarous act of reprisal was the greed of the whites for the fertile fields and meadows of the Indians, a writer in 1650 declaring that "the Raritanys had the handsomest and pleasantest country that man can behold; it furnished the Indians with abundance of maize, beans, pumpkins and other fruits." Harassed by the Manhattans and the Dutch, and tempted by the offers of would-be purchasers, the thrifty savages seem to have sold their fair domain in 1650 and again in 1652, to two different parties.
Neighbor to the Raritans were the Newsinghs, also called Na-ussins, Newasons, Neversinks or Navesinks, who were said to own the land from Barnegat to the Raritan. In 1650 they were but few in number; their Sachem then was Ouz-zeech. In 1660 the Dutch demanded the surrender of some Indians accused of murdering the whites, and who had taken refuge with the Raritans and Newesings, but the Sachems replied that "they could not seize and surrender the delinquents, without placing themselves in danger of being massacred by their relations," which was regarded by the Dutch authorities as merely an evasion, but was nevertheless the truth, punishment for murder not being an affair of the tribe, but only of the family or gens, as already shown. The English and the Dutch eagerly sought to buy the lands of the Newesings in 1663, and in December of that year the latter suc- ceeded in persuading the Indians to sell only to the Director-General and Council of New Netherland. This agreement was made by the "chiefs Ma- tanoo, Barrenach, Mechat, brother to and deputed by Pajpemoor, empowered by Pasachynom, Menarhohondoo, Sycakeska and the aforesaid Pojpemoor, all chiefs and owners of the lands in the Newseinghs ;" also Piewecherenoes alias Hans. To this important document Matano, Mechat, "Pieweherenoes, alias Hans the savage," and Barrenach affixed their marks, that of the last- named being a very fair outline of a tortoise, indicating that the chief be- longed to the Unami tribe. There were still a few of the Newesings in their old hunting grounds in 1670.
Naraticons, occupying the southern part of New Jersey.
Sanhicans, inhabiting the country about Trenton. Dr. Brinton says the
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THE ABORIGINES
name is a contraction of assan-hican, a stone implement, referring to the manufacture of such articles so extensively carried on in that neighborhood.
Hackensacks-The Raritan country extended northerly to Weequahick (Bound or Dividing) Creek, the dividing line between Newark and Eliza- beth. The country north of this creek, and from First Mountain to the Hud- son river, was occupied by the Hackensack Indians, who were principally settled along the river of that name. Being in such close proximity to New Amsterdam, they naturally came much in contact with the whites, and we find numerous references to them in the early records. They appear to have been peaceable, for the most part, and were frequently intercessors for the warlike Raritans on the south, and the Esopus, Tappan and other Indians on the north. The first conveyance on record by the Hackensack Indians was made in 1630, for "Hobocan Hacking," the grantors being Arromeauw, Tek- wappo and Sackwomeck. The site of Jersey City ( Ahasimus and Aressick) was sold about the same time by Ackitoauw and Aiarouw, for themselves and the other proprietors, Winym, Matskath and Camoins. These convey- ances were doubtless made by some villagers living on these tracts, as it does not appear that the deeds were authorized by the tribe. The Hackensack Indians seem to have been quiet and comparatively industrious. They raised large quantities of provisions, probably manufactured wampum, had their principal seat in the neighborhood of the present village of Hackensack, and an important settlement at Gamoenipa (Communipaw), whence they were ready to trade with the Dutch, or to make war upon Manhattan, whichever the inhabitants of that island preferred. It is not unlikely that they were in the habit of holding their weird "Kinte-Kaey" at Yantacaw, or Third River. (Where the Dutch first saw this Indian dance, up among the Highlands, the place is still known as the Dans Kammer, or dancing hall. Rip Van Winkle was mistaken when he imagined he saw there the ghosts of Captain Kid's pirates ; they were the spirits of departed Indians, revisiting the "pale glimpses of the moon," to indulge once more in their mystic "Kinte-Kaey"). Un- doubtedly the Hackensacks taught the first settlers many things about fishing, hunting, the cultivation of maize and its subsequent utilization in the favorite form of suppaen, which soon became familiar to every Dutch youngster in the land. We may well believe, too, that the thrifty Dutch vrouws learned many a new thing in domestic economy from the squaws, experienced in housewifery peculiar to the New World. The farmers who yearly burn the grass off the Hackensack meadows learned that practice and its benefits from the "Wilden." The cupidity of the early settlers led them to sell liquor to the Indians and countless evils ensued. One day in 1643, over at Pavonia, an Indian who had become intoxicated through the Dutch plying him with liquor, was asked if he could make good use of his bow and arrow in that state? For answer he aimed at a Dutchman thatching a house and shot him lead. An Englishman had been killed a few days before by some of the Indians of the Achter Col village. The whites were exasperated and de- manded the surrender of the murderers, which, of course, was refused, being contrary to the Indian custom. Some of the whites trespassed on the Indians'
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cornfields, and when resisted shot three of the savages dead. A war seemed imminent, and in alarm many of the Indians fled for protection to the neigh- borhood of the Fort on Manhattan Island. The Dutch took advantage of this opportunity, and on the night of February 25, 1643, one party slaugh- tered their unsuspecting guests on the Island, while another party went over to Pavonia and attacked the Indian village there, when the women and chil- dren were asleep. The ferocity displayed by the whites was never exceeded by the savages. Says a contemporary chronicler : "Young children, some of them snatched from their mothers, were cut in pieces before the eyes of their parents, and the pieces were thrown into the fire or into the water; other babes were bound on planks and then cut through, stabbed and miserably massacred, so that it would break a heart of stone; some were thrown into the river, and when the fathers and mothers sought to save them, the soldiers would not suffer them to come ashore, but caused both old and young to be drowned. Some children of from five to six years of age, as also some old infirm persons, who had managed to hide themselves in the bushes and reeds, came out in the morning to beg for a piece of bread and for permission to warm themselves, but were all murdered in cold blood and thrown into the fire or water." As the total result of the night's butchery, about eighty Indians were killed and thirty made prisoners. Eleven tribes arose to avenge this cruel slaughter, but were no match for the well-armed whites, and a thousand Indians were slain. Peace was concluded April 22, 1643, "Orata- min, Sachem of the savages living at Achkinhes hacky, who declared himself commissioned by the savages of Tappaen, Rechgawawanc, Richtawanc [Sleepy Hollow] and Sintsinck," answering for the Indians. The ink was scarcely dry on this paper before Pachem, "a crafty man" of the Hacken- sacks, was running through all the villages urging the Indians to a general massacre. More trouble followed, but in 1645 another treaty was made be- tween the whites and the savages, Oratamy, chief of Achkinkehacky, making his mark thereto. Pachem and Pennekeck joined in its execution. In 1649 a number of leading Indians made further propositions for a lasting peace, the principal speaker being Pennekeck, "the Chief behind the Col," in the neighborhood of Communipaw-probably a considerable village of the Hack- ensacks. The Chief Oratamin was present, but said nothing. However, his superiority was recognized by the gift of some tobacco and a gun, while the "common savages" received only "a small present worth about twenty guilders." During the ten years, 1645-55, there were occasional encounters between Indians and whites, ten or fourteen of the latter being killed in that period in the vicinity of New Amsterdam. The whites were continually encroaching on the natives, and in the neighborhood of Pavonia a consider- able settlement of Dutch had grown up. The Indians became restive as they saw their lands slipping away from them, and finally seem to have planned the extirpation of the invaders. Very early on the morning of September 15, 1655, sixty-four canoes, filled with five hundred armed savages, landed on Manhattan island, and the warriors speedily scattered through the village. Many altercations occurred between them and the Dutch during the day.
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Toward evening they were joined by two hundred more sa ages. Three Dutchmen and as many Indians were killed. The savages then crossed over to Pavonia and to Staten Island, and in the course of three days destroyed buildings and cattle, killed about fifty whites and carried off eighty men, women and children into captivity. In this outbreak the Indians of Hacken- sack and Ahasimus were conspicuous actors. It was the last expiring effort of the natives near New York to check the resistless advance of the Swanne- kins, as they called the Dutch. However, for a time the Indians believed they had the advantage, and proceeded to profit by it with great shrewdness. They brought some of their prisoners to Pavonia, and treated with the whites for their ransom, demanding cloth, powder, lead, wampum, knives, hatchets, pipes and other supplies. Pennekeck, chief of the Indians of Achkinkeshaky, finally sent fourteen of his prisoners over to the Dutch authorities, and asked for powder and lead in return ; he got what he wanted, and two Indian pris- oners besides. The negotiations continued, until Pennekeck had secured an ample supply of ammunition, and the Dutch had received most of their people back again. To the credit of the savages it should be said that no complaint was made of the treatment of their captives, and they kept all their promises. The authorities of New Netherland were greatly disturbed by this brief but destructive war, and as a precaution against the recurrence of such an event advised the erection of a blockhouse of logs, in sight of the Indians, near Achkinheshaky. Affairs seem to have gone smoothly between the Dutch and the Hackensacks thereafter.
On March 6, 1660, the treaty of peace was renewed with the Indians on the west side of the Hudson, Oratamy, chief of the Hackinkasacky, taking part in the negotiations. He was also present May 18, 1660, when peace was concluded with the Wappings, and a few weeks later interceded for the Esopus Indians, and had the satisfaction of attending at the conclusion of a peace with them, on which occasion he was accompanied by Carstangh, another Hackensack chief. Naturally enough, the Esopus Indians looked upon him as their friend, and when, a year later, some of their people who had been sent to Curacao, had now been recalled, they asked that they "might be delivered at their arrival to Oratam." On March 30, 1662, Oratam, chief of Hackinghesaky, complained to the Dutch authorities of the illicit sale of brandy to the savages in their country, and thereupon he and Metano were empowered to seize the brandy so offered for sale, and the traders having it. On June 27, 1663, these two chiefs were called to a conference with the whites, who were then at war with the Esopus Indians, and agreed to keep the peace, but declined to accede to some dishonorable proposals made by the authorities. "Oratam said, he was very glad, that we would keep quiet here and that the war would only be made at the Esopus ; he had not a single spark in his heart, that was bad." All the accounts we have of him go to prove the truth of this simple declaration. Two weeks later, the chiefs of several tribes north of the Hackensacks came to New Amsterdam, at the summons of Oratam, who was again accompanied by Karstangh. The new comers ratified all that had been said and done by the aged chief of the Hack-
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
ensacks, thereby manifesting the respect and confidence in which he was held by his neighbors. The whites were still crowding the Indians, but in view of former experiences the authorities preferred to acquire the land of the Indians peaceably, if possible, and so urged the Hackensacks to sell the hook of land behind the Kil van Kol. Oratam gave the politic reply that "most of the young men of the tribe were out hunting, so that he had not been able to speak with them, but he had talked with the old warriors, who said that they would not like to sell, preferring to keep a portion of it to plant, for they dared not go further inland for fear of being robbed by their enemies." "He said further, that there was land enough both for the Dutch and the Indians, divided by the Kil, and that it was as good as the land on the Esopus." The reference is probably to the land west of the Passaic river, for which some New England people had been negotiating since 1661, with a view to settling on the site of the present city of Newark. In his office of peacemaker, Ora- tamy again appeared at Fort Amsterdam the following month (August 15, 1662), with three Minisink chiefs, who protested their wish to live quietly. In November of the same year he asked for peace with the Wappings and the Esopus savages, with whom the whites were at war. The treaty was delayed, however, by the failure of the Esopus Indians, on one pretext or another, to release their Christian captives. With Kastangh, Hans and others, he was again at Fort Amsterdam on February 23, 1664, in relation to the peace with the Esopus Indians. "He presents an otterskin as a sign that his heart is good, but he does not know yet, how the heart of our [the Dutch] Sachems is." He evidently felt the burden of his great age, for "he gives another otterskin and says Hans shall be sachem after him over the Hacking- kesack and Staten Island savages. If after his, Oratamy's death, we had anything to say to the savages, we should send for Hans, as we now send for Oratam. He asks for a small piece of ordnance, to be used in his castle against his enemies." His "castle" was doubtless a palisaded hut, on the banks of the Hackensack river. The long-wished-for peace with the Esopus Indians was at length concluded, May 16, 1664, and Oratamy, chief of Hackingkesacky and Tappaen, and Matteno, chief of the Staten Island and Nayack savages, became securities for the peace, and pledged themselves and their men to go to war with either party who should violate it.
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