plained of the deer and wild turkeys that broke in and destroyed their crops."
The
Indians that lived in and around Greater New York at the beginning of
the seventeenth century are described as " a branch of the great
Algonkin-Lenapi family of aborigines," and are called the Manhattos or Manhattans. The
Hacken-sacks and Raritans were on the west and south, the
Week-queskucks, Tankitikes, Packaniles, northward, and the Canar-sees,
Rockaways, Menikokes, Massapeagues, Mattinecocks, Missaqueges,
Conchaugs, Secatauges, and Shinnecocks are given by Todd as their Long
Island neighbors. Again, north of all were the more formidable Mohawks
and Mohicans. Mr. Edward Manning Ruttenber tells us that Hudson met the
Wappingers or Wapanachki, and they were of the sub-tribe of the
Reckgawawanes. He further narrates: " The point of land from which
their attacks were precipitated was on the north shore of the
Papiriniwen, or Spuyten Duyvil Creek, where their castle or palisaded
village, called by them Nipini-chan, was located. This castle commanded
the approach of their inland territory from the Mahicanituck on the
south, while a similarly fortified village at Yonkers, at the mouth of
the Neparah, or Sawmill Creek, and known as Nappeckamak, commanded the
approaches on the north. Their territorial jurisdiction extended on the
east to the Bronx and East Rivers, and on the south included Manhattan
Island, which, however, was only temporarily occupied during the
seasons of planting and fishing, their huts there constituting their
summer seaside resorts, and remaining unoccupied during the winter."
The
succession of the sub-tribal organizations, given by Ruttenber to the
north and east of Manhattan, were the Weckquaesgecks, the Sint-Sinks,
the Tankitekes, the Kitcha-wongs. On the east were the Siwanoys and the
Sequins. The Siwanoys " extended from Hell Gate twenty-four miles east
along the Sound to Norwalk, Connecticut, and thirty miles into the
interior." The Weckquaesgecks had a village near
