Siwanoy

{{Short description|Native American subtribe in New York (state)}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = | native_name = | native_name_lang = |popplace = United States (New York) |languages =Munsee |religions = Indigenous religion | image = {{OSM Location map | coord = {{coord|41.0|-73.789}} | zoom = 9 | width = 240 | float = left | mark-size1 = 7 | mark-coord1 = {{coord|40.849086|-73.800647}} | label1 =  | mark-coord2 = {{coord|40.876154|-73.789317}} | label2 =  | mark-coord3 = {{coord|40.897635|-73.769999}} | label3 =  | mark-coord4 = {{coord|40.971879|-73.662968}} | label4 =  | mark-coord5 = {{coord|40.782440|-73.925128}} | label5 =  | mark-coord6 = {{coord|41.269176|-73.7019527}} | label6 =  | mark-coord7 = {{coord|41.0961307|-73.4976031}} | label7 =  | mark-coord8 = {{coord|41.0261994|-73.7897053}} | label8 = }} | image_caption = Map showing approximate location of known Siwanoy settlements | flag = | flag_caption = | total =  | total_year =  | total_source =  | total_ref =  | genealogy = | regions =  | related_groups = Wappinger, Lenape, Wecquaesgeek, Mahican | footnotes = }} The '''Siwanoy''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|aɪ|w|ə|n|ɔɪ}}) were an Indigenous American band of Munsee-speaking people,<ref name=gotham>{{cite book |last1=Cantwell |first1=Anne-Marie E. |last2=Wall |first2=Diana diZerega |title=Unearthing Gotham: The Archaeology of New York City |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, CT |isbn=9780300097993 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-b3IU_iWZ6kC}}</ref> who lived in Long Island Sound along the coasts of what are now The Bronx, Westchester County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut.<ref name="Cook">{{cite book | last= Cook | first= Sherburne Friend | title=The Indian Population of New England in the Seventeenth Century | year = 1976 | publisher = University of California Press | page = 60 | isbn = 0-520-09553-7 }}</ref> They were one of the western bands of the Wappinger Confederacy.<ref name="Pelliana" /> By 1640, their territory (Wykagyl) extended from Hell Gate to Norwalk, Connecticut, and as far inland as White Plains;<ref name="Hodge 3" /> it became hotly contested between Dutch and English colonial interests.<ref name="Bolton">{{cite book |last= Bolton |first= Robert |title= History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WdYpAQAAMAAJ |publisher=Chas. F. Roper |access-date = 2020-06-08 |location= New York |year = 1881 }}</ref>{{rp|28}}

== Name == [[File:Excerpt from Map-Novi Belgii Novæque Angliæ (Amsterdam, 1685).jpg|thumb|The Siwanoy are listed in southern Westchester County, New York, and westernmost Fairfield County, Connecticut on this excerpt of ''Novi Belgii Novæque Angliæ'' (Amsterdam, 1685).]] The origin of the name ''Siwanoy'' is unknown. It appears at least as early in that spelling on the 1685 revision of a 1656 Dutch map, ''Novi Belgii Novæque Angliæ'' ("New Netherland and New England", and also parts of Virginia, by Petrus Schenk the Younger from an original by Nicolaes Visscher I.

The name ''Siwanoy'' may be a corruption of ''Siwanak'', "salt people".<ref name="Hodge 3" />{{rp|585}}

== Language == The Siwanoy spoke Munsee, a Delaware language, which was an Eastern Algonquian language.<ref name="Goddard">{{cite encyclopedia | last = Goddard | first = Ives | editor-last = Bruce G. | editor-first = Trigger | encyclopedia = Handbook of North American Indians | title = Delaware | year = 1978 | publisher = Smithsonian Institution | volume = 15: Northeast | location = Washington, DC | isbn = 978-0160045752 | pages = 213–214 }}</ref> Nohham Cachat-Schilling of the Massachusetts Ethical Archaeology Society writes that the Siwaony might not have spoken Munsee but instead may have spoken Paugusset or another dialect.<ref>{{cite web|title=Decolonizing Our Story, Indigenous Peoples of the Great Rivers Intervale: an Onomastic and Identity Review |last=Cachat-Schilling |first=Nohham |work=Osoa:ah Foundation |url=https://www.academia.edu/60153097| page=31 |date=June 2022}}</ref>

== Culture == Like the greater Lenape, women typically wore their hair loose, whereas men would often remove all hair but a long forelock.<ref name="Ohea" />{{rp|5}} They frequently painted their bodies and faces (black, red, yellow, blue, and white) for ceremonial rites, war, and festive occasions, or to mourn the dead.<ref name="Ohea" />{{rp|5}} Wampum jewelry and belts were worn as a symbol of social status.<ref name="Ohea" />{{rp|5–6}} The Siwanoy no doubt ate all varieties of fish and shellfish, as the shore had numerous fishing stations and a rich aquatic life; and the interior provided fruits, nuts, and animal life.<ref name="Ohea" />{{rp|5}}

Their closest allies were the Lenape to the west and the Mahicans to the north, with whom they shared a totem (or emblem) – the “enchanted wolf”, with the right paw raised defiantly.<ref name="Ruttenber">{{cite book |last=Ruttenber |first=E. M. |title= History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River |publisher=J. Munsell |location= Albany, N.Y. |year = 1872 |page=50 }}</ref><ref name="Pelliana" />{{rp|27–28}} They were also allied and shared a common lifestyle with the Wecquaesgeek.<ref name="Ohea" />{{rp|3}} Like other tribes of the area, the Siwanoy were loosely organized into several groups, each with a sagamore (chieftain) and a somewhat-defined territory.

== Settlements == The Siwanoys' largest village in 1640 was Poningo, located near modern-day Rye.<ref name="Hodge 3">{{Cite book| title= Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico |volume=3| author= Hodge, Frederick Webb | author-link= Frederick Webb Hodge | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8qWVBgAAQBAJ&q=siwanoy | access-date=2020-07-14 |isbn=9781582187501|date=1912|publisher=Digital Scanning}}</ref>{{rp|279}} They also had stockade settlements at Ann Hook's Neck, Hunter Island, and Davenport Neck (''Shippan''), and “winter quarters” farther south at Hell Gate.<ref name="Pelliana" />{{rp|27}} They referred to the area surrounding Ann Hook's Neck and Hunter Island as ''Laaphawachking'' ("place of stringing beads"),<ref name="Bolton" />{{rp|37}} because of the large quantities of wampum produced there.<ref name="Ohea" />{{rp|6}}

The village of Nanichiestawack, or Nawchestaweck ("place of safety"), located near present-day Woods Bridge at Muscoot Reservoir,{{efn|Although the village of Nanichiestawack was located north of the traditional extent of Siwanoy territory, between 500 and 700 Siwanoy and Wecquaesgeek people were killed there during the Pound Ridge massacre.<ref name="NYT" /><ref name="Mount Nimham" />}} was destroyed during the Pound Ridge massacre in 1644.<ref name="NYT" /><ref name="Mount Nimham">{{cite book |last= Maxson |first= Thomas F. |title= Mount Nimham: The Ridge of Patriots |year=2009 |publisher=Robert Sterling Publishing |location=Molokai, Hawaii |pages=16–17 |isbn= 9780578025810 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5udvAgAAQBAJ&q=siwanoy }}</ref> [[File:Wpdms terra throgs neck.jpg|thumb|The geographic feature Throggs Neck, shown in red, in the Bronx]] In the early 20th century, Alanson Skinner unearthed the Throgs Neck site, on the peninsula Throggs Neck, and sites at Clasons Point in the Bronx, which he identified as being once occupied by Siwanoy, as well as other peoples.<ref name=gotham/> Native people attacked a European ship from this site in 1619.<ref name=gotham/>

== Religion == Two glacial erratic boulders named ''Grey Mare'' and ''Mishow'', located on Hunter Island, were spiritually significant to the Siwanoy.<ref name="Ohea">{{cite web |title=Native Americans |last=O'Hea Anderson |first=Marianne |publisher=Administrator's Office, Van Cortlandt & Pelham Bay Parks, City of New York Parks & Recreation |url=http://pelhambaypark.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Native-Americans.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920123626/http://pelhambaypark.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Native-Americans.pdf |archive-date=2020-09-20 |date=June 1996 |pages= 5–6}}</ref> Here the Siwanoys practiced their sacred ceremonies, and two sachems are believed to be buried at ''Mishow''; the Siwanoys believed the boulders to have been placed there by their guardian Manitou (the spiritual, omnipresent life force that manifests itself in everything).<ref name="Bolton" />{{rp|37–38}} Many Siwanoys likely became Christianized; the Siwanoy sagamore Wampage I was one of these, taking John White as a baptismal name.<ref name="Pelliana" />{{rp|38}}

== 17th-century history == ===Conflict with European colonists=== {{further|Kieft's War|Pound Ridge massacre}} The western bands of the Wappinger, including the Siwanoy, were at war with the Dutch from 1640 to 1645.<ref name="Hodge 4" />{{rp|913}} Part of this period is often referred to as Kieft's War, and is said to have cost the lives of some 1,600 Wappinger refugees.<ref name="Hodge 4" />{{rp|913}} Thus, tensions between the colonists and the indigenous people of the area were extremely high at this time.

A group of Siwanoy, led by Wampage I, killed Anne Hutchinson, six of her children, and nine others in August 1643,<ref name="Shorto">{{cite book |first=Russell|last=Shorto|title=The Island at the Center of the World|location=New York|publisher=Doubleday/Vintage|year=2004|isbn=1-4000-7867-9|pages=160, 384}}</ref> near Split Rock, an ancient landmark. The only survivor was Hutchinson's nine-year-old daughter, Susanna - possibly spared because of her red hair - who "became the wife of an Indian Chief, residing in a settlement near the Split Rock".<ref name="Barr">{{cite book |last= Barr|first= Lockwood |title= Ancient Town of Pelham, Westchester County, New York |publisher=Dietz Press|location=Richmond, Va.|page=13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RywXAAAAIAAJ |year=1946}}</ref> It has been written that Wampage himself was the murderer of Hutchinson and that he adopted the name of Anhōōke due to a Mahican custom of taking the name of a notable person personally killed.<ref name="Bronxville">{{cite book |last= Mays |first= Victor |title= Pathway to a Village: A History of Bronxville |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5e9OAQAAMAAJ |publisher=Nebko Press |year=1962 |page=14 }}</ref><ref name="Bell">{{cite book |last= Bell |first= Blake A. |title=Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak |year=2004 |publisher=iUniverse |location=New York }}</ref>{{rp|18}}

In February 1644, the entire village of ''Nanichiestawack'' was wiped out by 130 Dutch mercenaries under Capt. John Underhill. The surprise attack, known as the Pound Ridge massacre, took place while a large number of Siwanoy and Wecquaesgeek people were gathered together for a corn festival. The Dutch forces slaughtered between 500 and 700 indigenous people, including women and children, who were forced into their homes and burned alive.<ref name="Mount Nimham" /><ref name="NYT">{{cite news |last=Kriss |first=Gary |date=1982-10-31 |title=As Darkness Descends, Wraiths Arise |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/31/archives/as-darkness-descends-wraiths-arise.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=2020-09-09}}</ref>

===Treaty with Thomas Pell=== On June 27, 1654, sagamores Shāwānórōckquot (Shanarockwell), Poquōrūm, Anhōōke (Wampage I), Wawhāmkus, and Mehúmōw deeded to Thomas Pell 9,160 acres of land east of the Hutchinson River northward to Mamaroneck, including modern day Pelham, New Rochelle, The Pelham Islands, and portions of The Bronx.<ref name="Barr" />{{rp|13}}<ref name="Bell" />{{rp|1}} The parties signed a treaty under the Treaty Oak near Bartow-Pell Mansion in Pelham.<ref name="Bell" />{{rp|18–20}} New Netherland authorities did not recognize his title, accusing the New Englanders of continued encroachment upon Dutch territory. In September 1664, the British Navy, supported by a militia invasion force consisting largely of City Island colonists and led by Pell himself, entered New Amsterdam and forced Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor of New Netherland, to surrender.<ref name=TownHistory>{{cite web|url=http://www.townofpelham.com/history.htm |title=Town of Pelham History |access-date=March 24, 2021 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016155932/http://www.townofpelham.com/history.htm |archive-date=October 16, 2020}}</ref>

===Merger and removal=== Following the 1654 treaty, the Siwanoys remained in the area around Westchester County for another hundred years, until they eventually "melted away" by intermarriage with the English settlers.<ref name="Pelliana">{{Citation | last =Pell | first =Robert T. | title =Thomas Pell II (1675/76-1739): Third Lord of the Manor of Pelham | journal =Pelliana: Pell of Pelham | volume =New Series, vol. I | issue =3 | pages =25–48 | date =1965 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LF9JAAAAMAAJ }}</ref>

== 18th- to 19th-century history == Some continued to reside along the shore in Westchester County until 1756, when most of the Wappinger and Mahicans remaining in the area joined the Nanticoke, then living under the protection of the Iroquois, and with them were eventually merged into the Lenape. Some of them joined the Stockbridge Indians, a Lenape people who were forcibly removed to Wisconsin in the 1830s.<ref name="Hodge 4">{{Cite book| title= Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico |volume=4| author= Hodge, Frederick Webb | author-link= Frederick Webb Hodge | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WouVBgAAQBAJ&q=Siwanoy&pg=PA669 | access-date=2020-06-06 |isbn=9781582187518|date=1912|publisher=Digital Scanning}}</ref>

== Descendants == The Stockbridge Munsee Community is a federally recognized tribe based in Wisconsin.<ref name="fr2022">{{cite journal |title=Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs |journal=Federal Register |date=January 28, 2022 |volume=87 FR 4636 |pages=4636–41 |url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/01/28/2022-01789/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of |access-date=2 October 2022}}</ref> The Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians are both federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma.<ref name="fr2022"/> New York, New Jersey, and Delaware have state-recognized tribes that identify as Lenape descendants.<ref>{{cite web |title=State Recognized Tribes |url=https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/quad-caucus/list-of-federal-and-state-recognized-tribes.aspx#State |website=National Conference of State Legislatures |access-date=2 October 2022 |archive-date=25 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221025051136/https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/quad-caucus/list-of-federal-and-state-recognized-tribes.aspx#State |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Notable Siwanoys== * Wampage I, Anhōōke (died ca. 1680), chieftain at Ann Hook's Neck and present-day Hunter Island * Wampage II (Ninham-Wampage/Ann Hook), chieftain on present-day Hunter Island circa 1700<ref name="Pelliana" /><ref name="Saunders">{{cite book |last= Saunders |first= James B. |title= The Pelham Manor Story, 1891-1991 |year=1991 |pages=28–29 }}</ref> * Ponus, chieftain at present-day Rye, New York, circa 1640; possible namesake of ''Poningo'', the Siwanoy village located at Rye<ref name="Bolton" />{{rp|127}}<ref name="Stamford">{{cite news |last=Carella |first= Angela |date=2020-07-22 |title=Hatchets, hoes and mirrors: Deed shows how colonists bought Stamford |url=https://www.ctinsider.com/local/stamfordadvocate/article/Hatchets-hoes-and-mirrors-Deed-shows-how-15427158.php |work=Stamford Advocate |location=Stamford, Connecticut |access-date=2020-09-28}}</ref> * Shanarockwell (Shāwānórōckquot), chieftain at present-day Rye circa 1660<ref name="Bolton" />{{rp|127}} * Cokenseko, chieftain circa 1680; namesake of Kensico, New York * Wappaquewam, chieftain at present-day Mamaroneck, New York, in 1661<ref name="NYT2">{{cite news |last=Markowitz |first=Dan |date=1999-11-21 |title=A Village Here, A Village There. But Why?; For Many in Mamaroneck, It Is Still the 'Place Where We Gather' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/21/nyregion/village-here-village-there-but-why-for-many-mamaroneck-it-still-place-where-we.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=2020-09-10}}</ref> * Mayn Mayano (Mianus), chieftain at present-day Greenwich, Connecticut circa 1640<ref name="Greenwich">{{cite news |last=Marchant |first=Robert |date=2015-02-21 |title=Born in conflict, a town called Greenwich emerges |url=https://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Born-in-conflict-a-town-called-Greenwich-emerges-6094442.php |work=Greenwich Time |location=Greenwich, Connecticut |access-date=2020-09-10}}</ref> * Wascussee, chieftain at Shippan (present-day Davenport Neck) in 1640<ref name="Stamford" /> * Anna, daughter of Wampage II, who married Thomas Pell II, 3rd Lord of Pelham Manor (son of Sir John Pell)<ref name="Pelliana" /><ref name="Barr" />{{rp|34–35}}

== Notable Siwanoy descendants == *Claiborne Pell, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island; direct descendant of Wampage I<ref name=congress66>1966 ''Congressional Record'', Vol. 112, Page {{URL|https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_january-10-january-27-1966_112/page/606/mode/2up|S606}} (1966-01-19)</ref> *Herbert Claiborne Pell IV, a candidate for Governor of Rhode Island; direct descendant of Wampage I<ref name=congress66/>

==See also== {{Portal|Connecticut|New York City}} *Siwanoy Country Club

==Footnotes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist|1}}

==External links== * [https://www.mohican.com/ Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians], * [https://www.delawarenation-nsn.gov/ Delaware Nation] * [https://delawaretribe.org/ Delaware Tribe of Indians] * [http://www.siwanoynation.org Siwanoy Nation Incorporated], an unrecognized tribe and nonprofit organization based in Tampa, Florida<ref>{{cite web |title=Siwanoy Nation Incorporated |url=https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_fl/N21000010470 |website=OpenCorporates |access-date=2 October 2022}}</ref> * {{cite web |title=Siwanoy historical documents at the Mapping Early New York Encyclopedia |url=https://nahc-mapping.org/mappingNY/encyclopedia/node/7273 |publisher=New Amsterdam History Center}}

Category:Algonquian ethnonyms Category:Algonquian peoples Category:Extinct Native American tribes Category:History of the Bronx Category:History of Fairfield County, Connecticut Category:Lenape Category:Native American tribes in Connecticut Category:Native American tribes in New York (state) Category:People from New Netherland Category:Wappinger