Why Did Local Wiechquaeskeck Natives Sell Their Land to Thomas Pell in 1654?

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In 2009, the Bronx County Historical Society Journal published an article by this author on the identities and biographical data of Thomas Pell and the New Englanders who signed the Pell Deed acquiring lands from local Wiechquaeskeck Natives on June 27, 1654.  See Bell, Blake A., The New Englanders Who Signed Thomas Pell's 1654 Agreement Acquiring Much of Today's Bronx and Lower Westchester Counties From Native Americans, The Bronx County Historical Society Journal, Vol. XLVI, Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 25-49 (Spring / Fall, 2009).

Since then, the author's research has focused on the identities and biographical data of the Natives who signed the Pell Deed.  See, e.g.:

Fri., Jun. 15, 2018:  Who Was Shawanórõckquot, a Native American Sachem Who Signed the Pell Indian Deed on June 27, 1654?

Tue., Jun. 19, 2018:  What Do We Know About "Cockho," a Native American Who Signed the Pell Indian Deed on June 27, 1654?  

As such research has progressed, interesting light has been shed on the possible motives behind the decision of local Wiechquaeskecks to sell their land to Thomas Pell in 1654.  Today's Historic Pelham Blog article collects a little of that research and presents a hypothesis.

There is evidence to suggest that at the time Thomas Pell purchased the land for 500 pounds sterling on June 27, 1654, news that the April 5, 1654 Treaty of Westminster ending the First Anglo-Dutch War had not yet reached Thomas Pell and his compatriots.  See Bell, Blake A., The New Englanders Who Signed Thomas Pell's 1654 Agreement Acquiring Much of Today's Bronx and Lower Westchester Counties From Native Americans, The Bronx County Historical Society Journal, Vol. XLVI, Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 25-49 (Spring / Fall, 2009).  Indeed, New Englanders were in the midst of preparing for an assault against New Netherland and Fort Amsterdam when news of the Treaty of Westminster finally reached them.  See id.  

It is possible, therefore, that local Wiechquaeskecks viewed the sale to Thomas Pell as a way to align themselves with New Englanders rather than the Dutch of New Netherland in the event the First-Anglo Dutch War enveloped the region as feared.  Indeed, it seems that local Wiechquaeskecks were very unhappy with Dutch authorities and their diplomatic "incompetence" in their dealings with Natives.  Moreover, Shawanórõckquot (the Wiechquaeskeck sachem who was listed as the first "Saggamore" who signed the Pell Deed) had a long, unpleasant history with the Dutch authorities of Fort Amsterdam further supporting the hypothesis that local Natives sold their land to Pell to spite the Dutch and align themselves with the New Englanders.

For years Director of New Netherland Willem Kieft had bullied local Natives and even savaged some Native settlements.  The Wiechquaeskecks in the Pelham region had grown to detest the Dutch.  Indeed, in August 1643, local Natives descended on settlers who had planted on today's Throggs Neck and in the region of today's Pelham Bay Park and massacred many including Anne Hutchinson and most of her family who were authorized by the Dutch authorities to settle in the region.

One scholar recently has described how the Wiechquaeskecks of the region had grown to hate the Dutch authorities in connection with long conflict between 1636 and 1645 that included both the Pequot War and Kieft's War:

"For the more independent Munsee-speaking democracies to the west [i.e. nearer New Netherland], war with colonists led first to a sense of solidarity between between sachems, but that cohesion faded the longer the war dragged on.  Some powers, particularly the Raritans and Esopus, were defiant throughout the conflict and remained dismissive of Dutch authority in the years following.  Other powers that had long sought peaceful dealings with New Amsterdam -- the Wiechquaesgeeks, Hackensacks, Tappens, Tankitekes, and Canarsies -- were at first frustrated at the Dutch director's incompetence in diplomacy and then became enraged at his provocation. . . ."

Source:  Lipman, Andrew, The Saltwater Frontier:  Indians and the Contest for the American Coast, p. 130 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015).

Although the Dutch, the English, and the Natives were brutal during the long conflict, the Dutch killed far more Natives than the English who also, when the brutality finally ended, had far more "Indian partners" than the Dutch.  According to Lipman:

"Yet even in these wars of domination, diplomacy was essential.  English governors' attention to -- and sometimes deliberate manipulation of - Algonquian rules of alliance was in sharp contrast to the Dutch leadership's indifference to Native peacemaking protocols.  The English, who killed far fewer of their enemies than the Dutch, would end up claiming more territory  and more Indian partners, while the grueling Dutch war with their Munsee neighbors ended with the colonists in the same position as when they began."

Source:  Id., p, 129.  

Moreover, the great Wiechquaeskeck sachem Sawenaroque who signed the Pell Deed via his mark and is referenced in that document as "Shawanórõckquot" had a long and unpleasant history with local Dutch authorities.  For example, some have suggested that in his younger days, Shawanórõckquot was a great "warrior chief" who fought the Dutch as Dutch authorities sought to massacre peaceful Native American bands in the lower Hudson River Valley during Kieft's War (1643-1645), also known as the Wappinger War. See, e.g. Smoke Signals, Bound Vols. 7-9, p. 20 (NY, NY: Indian Association of America, 1955) ("Faced with extermination at the hands of the sadistic Gov. Kieft who proceeded to massacre peaceful bands in the lower Hudson River area in 1643, the Mohegans under the famous warrior chief Shanorocke or Shenorock found themselves forced into a wholesale war.").

Clearly there was no love lost between the Wiechquaeskeck sachem Sawenaroque and the Dutch.  Indeed, a few years after the sachem signed the Pell Deed, he was imprisoned for unspecified charges by the Dutch in New Amsterdam at the close of the so-called "Esopus Wars" that raged during the 1660s.  Indeed, on March 6, 1660, Dutch officials summoned several local chiefs to Fort Amsterdam to warn them against joining with or assisting the Esopus and Raritan Natives in the ongoing conflict. The five sachems present at the gathering agreed and the agreement was documented as a "Treaty" in the minutes of the meeting. 

Those minutes reflect that at the end of the meeting, the Dutch officials asked the Natives "whether they had anything more to say." The Natives responded by demanding to know "why Sauwenare [i.e., Sawenaroque] was not also present, whereas he was also a chief and their friend." Significantly, the Dutch responded that the Wiechquaeskeck sachem was not present because he was being held in a Dutch prison at Fort Amsterdam "on account of some [unspecified] charges made against him." The Dutch responded that they would immediately bring Sauwenare to the meeting and grant him a release from prison if each of the chiefs present "would engage themselves, that he or his people should do no more harm to us or to ours or in case it should happen, that they would then deliver the evil-doer into our hands." The chiefs agreed and the sachem referenced as Sauwenare was brought to the room. The minutes reflect in detail what happened next: 

"Sauwenar was brought up and informed of the foregoing, whereupon he answered that he was glad, that the peace was renewed, that his heart would henceforth be that of a Dutchman and he would live with them like a brother. Thus they left satisfied and the Sachems engaged themselves, to inform all their savages and it was made known to the neighboring villages by the firing of a cannon." 

Source: Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol. XIII, pp. 147-49 (Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1881).

This incident, of course, suggests that there likely was no love lost between the Wiechquaeskeck sachem "Sauwenar" and the Dutch. He may have informed the Director General that "his heart would henceforth be that of a Dutchman and he would live with them like a brother," but what would he be expected to say as a man hoping to avoid a return to imprisonment and depart with his sachem colleagues?

Given that news of the end of the First Anglo-Dutch War does not seem to have reached the Pelham area before June 27, 1654 and the fact that local Wiechquaeskecks and their sachem Sauwenaroque hated the Dutch, it seems likely that the Natives decided to sell their lands to Thomas Pell as a way of aligning themselves with English settlers in the event fighting began between New Netherlanders and New Englanders in the region as part of the First Anglo-Dutch War.  This also could explain why the lands were sold to Pell despite evidence that the same lands previously were sold to the Dutch at least once (in 1649) if not more than once before.  See Mon., Sep. 07, 2015:  Why Did Native Americans Sell Lands Including Today's Pelham First to the Dutch and then to the English?  See also Wed., Aug. 12, 2015:  Significant Research on the First "Indian Deed" Reflecting the Dutch Purchase of Lands that Included Today's Pelham; Mon., Aug. 31, 2015:  Seyseychkimus, The Native American "Chief" and Signer of 1649 Indian Deed Encompassing Pelham.

Munsee Family Like Munsee-Speaking Wiechquaesgecks Who

Once Inhabited the Region Including Today's Pelham.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

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