Konaande Kongh was a Lenape settlement of the Reckgawawanc located near what is now 98th Street and

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...

in East Harlem near

Carnegie Hill Carnegie Hill is a neighborhood within the Upper East Side, in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Its boundaries are 86th Street on the south, Fifth Avenue (Central Park) on the west, with a northern boundary at 98th Street that continue ...

. The settlement rested on what was once

high ground High ground is an area of elevated terrain, which can be useful in combat. The military importance of the high ground has been recognized for over 2,000 years, citing early examples from China and other early-dynastic cultures who regularly engag ...

, connected to the main path 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 ...

island by a branch that left the main path near 95th Street and crossed Fifth Avenue near 96th Street. The settlement was occupied until 1669, when it was transferred to the expanding Dutch colony 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 P ...

. It has been referred to as both a major settlement, village and a

campsite A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using te ...

Etymology

The name of the settlement has been interpreted as meaning in the Lenape language, "the hill near which they fish with nets," referring to what was the popular fishing area of what is now

Hell Gate Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City. It separates Astoria, Queens, from Randall's and Wards Islands. Etymology The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch phrase ''Hellegat'' (it first appeared on ...

History

Encroachment

The village was a popular settlement of the Lenape for nearby hunting and fishing. The chief of the area by the mid-1600s was Rechewack. The people of the area were referred to in historical documents as ''Reckgawawanc'', and faced attacks from the north of their territory by 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 ...

. However, although they were at war with Mohawk, historian

James Riker James Riker (New York City, May 11, 1822 – 1889) was a New York historian and genealogist. His father, James Riker (Snr) was a merchant and landowner descended from early Dutch settlers. Riker left school at the age of sixteen to work in his f ...

noted "war asonly on their persons or goods, but not on their lands, so that their title

o land O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...

still held." At the same time, Dutch settlements of

were moving northward from the southern areas of Manhattan island in the mid-1600s. The Dutch increasingly sought title to lands that included Konaande Kongh. Other nearby Lenape settlements to the south had already been abandoned, such as

Sapohanikan Sapohanikan was a Lenape settlement of the Canarsee now located in close proximity to where Gansevoort Street meets Washington Street near the Hudson River in Manhattan. The people of the settlement were violently displaced under Dutch Governor ...

in the 1630s and

Nechtanc Nechtanc ("sandy point") was a Lenape settlement of the Canarsee located in what is now Two Bridges, Manhattan or the Lower East Side where the East River begins to turn north. In 1643, the settlement was the site of a massacre of Lenape people, ...

, being the site of a massacre in 1643. The Dutch had also gained title to nearby land in northern Manhattan in 1647.

Transfer of title

In 1669, the land on which the settlement rested was transferred to Jean Mousnier de la Montagne, a political leader in the expanding Dutch colony that now included the area that is now

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

, extending from

to the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyt ...

, by Rechewack, who had held onto it until then amid surrounding pressures. The settlement was mentioned in the transfer of title as a locale near "the Point named Rechwanis."{{Cite book , last=Miller , first=Sara Cedar , url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1260693719 , title=Before Central Park , date=2022 , isbn=978-0-231-54390-3 , location=New York , format=eBook , oclc=1260693719 In 1675, the Dutch ordered the Lenape "to remove within a fortnight to their usual winter quarters within Hellgate upon this island anhattan" indicating that nearby areas were still being frequented by the people, possibly as hunting grounds.

References

Former Native American populated places in the United States History of Manhattan New Netherland Lenape people