The Esopus Wars were two conflicts between the
Esopus tribe
The Esopus tribe () was a tribe of Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans who were native to the Catskill Mountains of what is now Upstate New York. Their lands included modern-day Ulster and Sullivan counties.
The Lenape originally resided in the De ...
of
Lenape Indians (Delaware) and
New Netherlander
New Netherlanders were residents of New Netherland, the seventeenth-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the northeastern coast of North America, centered on the Hudson River and New York Bay, and in the Del ...
colonists during the latter half of the 17th century in
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster.
History
...
. The first battle was instigated by settlers; the second war was the continuation of a grudge on the part of the Esopus tribe.
Background
Before European colonization, the Kingston area was inhabited by the
Esopus people
The Esopus tribe () was a tribe of Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans who were native to the Catskill Mountains of what is now Upstate New York. Their lands included modern-day Ulster and Sullivan counties.
The Lenape originally resided in the D ...
, a Lenape tribe which was estimated to number around 10,000 people living in small village communities by 1600.
In 1609,
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States.
In 1607 and 16 ...
explored
the river which was named after him, leading to the first contact between the Esopus people and Europeans. Dutch settlers built a
factorij
Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, ...
(trading post) in
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with the New York metropolitan area around Manhattan by the United ...
in 1614. The Esopus tribe used the land for farming, and they destroyed the post and drove the settlers back to the south. Colonists established a new settlement in 1652 at Kingston, but the Esopus drove them out again.
The settlers returned once again in 1658, as they believed the land to be good for farming. They built a stockade (at ) to defend the village and named the colony ''Wiltwijck''. Skirmishes continued, but the Esopus were not able to repel the settlers, and they eventually granted the land to them.
First Esopus War
The First Esopus War was a short-lived conflict between Dutch settlers and the Esopus Indians from September 20, 1659 and July 15, 1660. An incident occurred where a group of Dutch settlers opened fire on a group of Esopus around a campfire, who had been celebrating with brandy given as payment for farm work. Esopus reinforcements raided Dutch settlements outside the stockade, destroying crops, killing livestock, and burning buildings. The war party later besieged the walled settlement of Wiltwijck.
The colonists were outnumbered and had little hope of winning through force, but they managed to hold out and make some small attacks, including burning the Indians' fields to starve them out. They received reinforcements from
New Amsterdam. The war concluded July 15, 1660, when the Indians agreed to trade land for food. Tensions remained between the Esopus and the settlers, however, eventually leading to the second war.
Second Esopus War
Emissaries from the colony contacted the tribe on June 5, 1663 and requested a meeting in hopes of making a treaty. The Esopus replied that it was their custom to conduct peace talks unarmed and in the open, so the settlers kept the gates open into ''
Wiltwijck''. The Esopus arrived on June 7 in great numbers, many claiming to be selling produce, thereby infiltrating deep into the town as scouts. Meanwhile, Esopus warriors completely destroyed the neighboring village of ''Nieu Dorp'' (
Hurley, New York) unbeknownst to the colonists in Wiltwijck. The Esopus scouts had spread themselves around the town and suddenly began their own attack. They took the settlers completely by surprise and soon controlled much of the town, setting fire to houses and kidnapping women before being driven out by the settlers.
The attackers escaped, and the settlers repaired their fortifications. On June 16, Dutch soldiers transporting ammunition to the town were attacked on their way from
Rondout Creek
Rondout Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, United States. It rises on Rock ...
, but they repelled the Esopus.
Throughout July, colonial forces reconnoitered the
Esopus Kill. They were unable to distinguish one tribe from another, and they captured some traders from the ''
Wappinger
The Wappinger () were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut.
At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutches ...
'' tribe, one of whom agreed to help them. He gave them information about various Indian forces and served as a guide in the field. In spite of his help, the colonists were unable to make solid contact with the Esopus, who used guerilla tactics and could disappear easily into the woods. After several unproductive skirmishes, the colonists managed to gain the help of the
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
* Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
* Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...
, who served as guides, interpreters, and warriors. By the end of July, the colonists had received sufficient reinforcements to march for the Esopus stronghold in the mountains to the north. However, their ponderous equipment made progress slow, and the terrain was difficult. They recognized their disadvantage and burned the surrounding fields in the hope of starving them out, rather than making a direct attack on the Esopus force.
For the next month, scouting parties went out to set fire to the Esopus fields but found little other combat. In early September, another colonial force tried to engage the Esopus on their territory, this time successfully. The battle ended with the death of Chief Papequanaehen and several others. The Esopus fled, and the colonists led by Captain
Martin Cregier pillaged their fort before retreating, taking supplies and prisoners. This effectively ended the war, although the peace was uneasy.
Outcome
The Dutch settlers remained suspicious of all Indians with whom they came into contact and expressed misgivings about the intentions of the Wappingers and even the Mohawks, who had helped them defeat the Esopus.
Colonial prisoners taken captive by the Indians in the Second Esopus War were transported through regions that they had not yet explored, and they described the land to the colonial authorities who set out to survey it. Some of this land was later sold to French
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
refugees who established the village of
New Paltz
New Paltz () is an incorporated U.S. town in Ulster County, New York. The population was 14,003 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The town is located in the southeastern part of the county and is south of Kingston. New Paltz contains a village, also wit ...
.
In September 1664, the Dutch ceded New Netherland to the English. The English colonies redrew the boundaries of Indian territory, paid for land that they planned to settle, and forbade any further settlement on the established Indian lands without full payment and mutual agreement. The new treaty established safe passage for both settler and Indians for purposes of trading. It further declared "that all past Injuryes are buryed and forgotten on both sides," promised equal punishment for settlers and Indians found guilty of murder, and paid traditional respects to the ''
sachems
Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Algon ...
'' and their people.
Over the course of the next two decades, Esopus lands were bought up and the Indians moved out peacefully, eventually taking refuge with the Mohawks north of the
Shawangunk mountains Shawangunk ( ) may refer to:
In New York
* Shawangunk, New York, a town in Ulster County
*Shawangunk Correctional Facility, in Ulster County
*Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge, in Ulster County
*Shawangunk Kill, a tributary of the Wall ...
.
References
The definitive and most detailed history of the Esopus Indian Wars (First Esopus War and Second Esopus War, as they're known) can be found in chapters 3-6 of The Early History of Kingston & Ulster County, N.Y. by Marc B. Fried (published 1975). This book is still in print.
{{Authority control
Wappinger
17th-century conflicts
Wars involving the Netherlands
Colonial American and Indian wars
Military history of the Thirteen Colonies
History of Ulster County, New York
New Netherland
1659 in the Thirteen Colonies
1663 in the Thirteen Colonies
Battles involving Native Americans