Esopus Wars The first believed interaction between colonists and the Esopus people was recorded in 1609. Historian Herbert C. Kraft believes some Esopus joined with some
Wappinger people after
Kieft's War in 1643. In 1652, the Esopus tribe sold 72 acres of land to European colonists through the Thomas Chambers land deed in
Kingston, New York. It is unknown whether the two Esopus sachems at the time, Kawachhikan and Sowappekat, understood the transaction, as in addition to a language barrier, their culture had foundational differences in understanding money, ownership, and legal transactions. Evidently, Kawachhikan had a different understanding of the transaction because seventeen years later, in September 1669, he formally complained about non-payment for the land but relented when the original bill of sale was presented. This deed began dispossession of their homeland which continued through the Peter Stuyvesant Stockade of 1658, the Fisher/Rutgers Land Deed of 1682, and land conveyances throughout the eighteenth century. The tribe fought a series of conflicts against settlers from the
New Netherland colony from September 1659 to September 1663, known as the
Esopus Wars, in and around Kingston. At the conclusion of the conflict, the tribe sold large tracts of land to French
Huguenot refugees in
New Paltz and other communities. The Esopus Wars devastated many Lenape communities in what is now
Ulster County. Populations dwindled through warfare with Dutch and French settlers, in addition to widespread disease, with smallpox being the most deadly. Intertribal warfare exacerbated casualties.
Esopus people today After the Esopus wars, many
Stockbridge-Munsee moved to Western New York near
Oneida Lake. They were eventually pushed off these lands by the
Indian Removal Treaties in the 19th century, and eventually forced to settle on “inhospitable land” in Wisconsin by the 1830s. Today, descendants of the Esopus now live on the
Stockbridge-Munsee Community reservation in
Shawano County, Wisconsin and among the
Munsee-Delaware Nation of
Ontario, Canada. ==See also==