Hackensack was the
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...
given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the
Lenape, or ''Lenni-Lenape'' ("original men"), a
Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the
Lenape word for what is now the region of
northeastern New Jersey along the
Hudson and
Hackensack rivers. While the Lenape people occupied much of the mid-Atlantic area, Europeans referred to small groups of native people by the names associated with the places where they lived.
Territory and society
The territory of the Hackensack was variously called Ack-kinkas-hacky, Achkinhenhcky, Achinigeu-hach, Ackingsah-sack, among other spellings (translated as "place of stony ground"
or "mouth of a river") and included the areas around the
Upper New York Bay,
Newark Bay,
Bergen Neck, the
Meadowlands, and the
Palisades.
A
phratry of the Lenape, the Hackensack spoke the
Unami dialect, one of the two major dialects of the Lenape, or Delaware, languages, which were part of the
Algonquian language family. ''Unami'' meant the "people down river".
Other bands of Unami speakers in the area included the
Raritan on
Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...
/
Raritan Bay, the
Acquackanonk on the
Passaic River, the
Tappan along the Palisades and
Pascack Valley, and the
Pompton people along the
Passaic River and
Saddle River tributaries. These groups, along with the
Wappinger in the
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...
, and
Canarsee and
Rockaway on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...
, were sometimes collectively called the
River Indians.
[Indian Tribes of Hudson's River; Ruttenber,E.M.; Hope Farm Press, 3rd ed, 2001, ]
The Lenape engaged in agriculture and seasonally migrated, cultivating
companion planting at their campsites to supplement
foraging,
hunting
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
,
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...
,
trapping, and
shellfishing. The terrain they inhabited was diverse: wide
tidal flats and oyster beds, forested mountains, and level land that could be cultivated. The Hackensack would relocate their semi-permanent village every several years to allow the land to renew itself.
[Our story begins with ... Native Americans ? BC - 1664]
, Bogota, New Jersey. Retrieved September 19, 2008. It was usually sited between
Tantaqua and the middle reaches of the Hackensack River.
Their summer encampment and council fire was located at ''
Gamoenpa'',
(the "big landing-place from the other side of the river"). At
Hopoghan Hackingh (meaning "land of the tobacco pipe"), they collected
soapstone from which to carve
tobacco pipes.
The Hackensack identified themselves with the
totem of the turtle ("Turtle Clan"). Those with the totem of the turtle were held in great esteem by Lenape groups, particularly as peacemakers. The society of the Hackensack (and all Lenape) was based on governance by consensus. A ''
sachem
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 Al ...
'', or ''sagamore'', ("paramount chief"), though influential, was obliged to follow the decisions of the council made up of leaders among the tribe. The word ''caucus'' may come from the Algonquian ''caucauasu'' meaning "counselor".
In the 17th century, the Hackensack numbered about one thousand, of whom 300 were warriors.
An important sachem of that time was
Oratam (born circa 1576
[). He was likely also the sagamore of the Tappan, a distinct but closely related Lenape group.] It has also been written that the Tappan and the Hackensack were one tribe, the evidence for this being the many land deeds signed by men who were sachems of both tribes at the same time.
New Netherland and province of New Jersey
After 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 ...
first explored the area, sailing up the river now named for him, anchoring at Weehawken Cove in September 1609, the Dutch claimed Hackensack lands as part of the colonial province of New Netherland
New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva ...
. Living close to what became the province's capital, New Amsterdam, at the tip of Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, the Hackensack had early and frequent contact with the New Netherlanders. They traded beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...
, pelts, and sewant
Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western No ...
for manufactured goods, including firearms, gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). T ...
, and alcohol. The Hackensack also "sold" their land, which became sites for the Dutch settlements at Pavonia, Communipaw, Harsimus, Hoboken, Weehawken
Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197. , Constable Hook, Achter Col, and Vriessendael.
In 1658, Peter Stuyvesant, the Director-General of New Netherland, negotiated the purchase of all the land from "the great rock above Wiehacken", west to Sikakes, and south to Konstapels Hoeck. The area became collectively known as Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...
with the founding of a village at Bergen Square in 1661. In 1666, the Hackensack sold the land that would become the city of Newark to Robert Treat.
In 1669, Oratam deeded a vast tract of land (2200 acres), between Overpeck Creek and the Hackensack River, to Sara Kiersted, who had mastered the Lenape language and acted as interpreter. He also brokered other land sales, and treaties, between the native and colonizing peoples, including those that ended Kieft's War
Kieft's War (1643–1645), also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between the colonial province of New Netherland and the Wappinger and Lenape Indians in what is now New York and New Jersey. It is named for Director-General of New Ne ...
and the Esopus Wars.
In a series of essays published in 1655, David Pietersen de Vries, who had established a homestead at Vriessendael, gave his observations of the Hackensack.
The British takeover of New Netherland, between 1663 and 1674, coincided with Oratam's death (he was said to have lived into his 90s). The government of the newly formed province of East Jersey quickly surveyed, patented, or deeded lands throughout Hackensack, Tappan, and Raritan territory. In most cases, the Lenape were compensated for sale of the land. Both the land at Newark Tract
Newark has long been the largest city in New Jersey. Founded in 1666, it greatly expanded during the Industrial Revolution, becoming the commercial and cultural hub of the region. Its population grew with various waves of migration in the mid ...
and Horseneck Tract were sold to English-speaking settlers by the Hackensack.
Decline during European colonization
In 1600, the Lenape population may have numbered as many as 20,000. Several wars, at least 14 separate epidemics of new infectious diseases ( yellow fever, smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, influenza, encephalitis lethargica, etc.), and disastrous over-harvesting of the animal populations reduced the Lenape population to around 4,000 total by 1700. The Lenape people, like all Native Americans, had no immunity
Immunity may refer to:
Medicine
* Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease
* ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press
Biology
* Immune system
Engineering
* Radiofrequence immunity de ...
to Eurasian diseases, which had been endemic in European cities for centuries after arriving from Asia; and they suffered high fatality rates from the diseases.[Penn Treaty Museum](_blank)
/ref>
As the Lenape population declined and the European population increased, the history of the area was increasingly defined by the new European inhabitants. The Lenape Indian tribes played an increasingly secondary role.
By the mid-18th century, the English colonists referred to the Lenape people generally as the Delaware, in recognition of their major territory along that river and around the bay it feeds, both of which they named for Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr
Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr ( ; 9 July 1577 – 7 June 1618), was an English merchant and politician, for whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, a Native American people and U.S. state, all later called "Delaware", were named. He was ...
, governor of the Jamestown Colony. Some Lenape had migrated west out of the area of English colonization.
In the eighteenth century, the Lenape were signatories to the Walking Purchase agreement in Pennsylvania, and Treaty of Easton. The British were trying to gain control of lands they had "acquired" from the French after the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...
(1754-1763), and the Native Americans were trying to prevent further European encroachment into their territory. Today Lenape groups are dispersed around the United States."Native Americans: Lenape"
Penn Treaty Museum.
See also
* Elizabethtown Tract
* Esopus
* Great Trail
* Horseneck Tract
* Haverstraw Indians
* Lenape Trail
*Minisink Archeological Site
Minisink Archeological Site, also known as Minisink Historic District, is an archeological site of 1320 acres located in both Sussex County, New Jersey and Pike County, Pennsylvania.
* Patroon
* Toponymy of Bergen, New Netherland
* Economy of the Iroquois
References
External links
Delaware Indian Tribe Clans
* ttp://www.delawareindians.com/ Delaware Indian/Lenni Lenapebr>Delaware Tribe of Indians
Bergen County History
*
{{authority control
Algonquian ethnonyms
Hackensack, New Jersey
Lenape
New Netherland
People of New Netherland
Native American tribes in New Jersey
Native American history of New Jersey