Later the Indians were classed from language into two general
divisions--the Algonquins and the Iroquois--terms given them by the
Jesuit missionaries. The Iroquois occupied central and western New
York, including the Mohawk River, the headwaters of the Delaware, the
Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. The Algonquins included all
the Indians of Eastern New York, Eastern Canada, New England, New
Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Eastern Virginia. Several tribes in
the west Hudson River counties constituted the Lenni-Lenape nation,
which held its council fires on the site of Philadelphia. Some of
their names were Waoranecks, Haverstroos, Minisinks and
Waranawonkongs. When Hudson came the Lenapes were the head of the
Algonquin nations, but wars with the Iroquois and the whites so
weakened them that they became the subjects of the Iroquois
confederacy for eighty years previous to 1755. Then they rebelled,
allied themselves with other tribes, became the head of the western
nations and successfully contested nearly all the territory west of
the Mississippi. During the period of their subservience they were
known as the Delawares. The Mohawks were the most eastern nation of
the Iroquois, and were called Maquas by the Dutch, and a branch on
the Delaware, Minquas. The Iroquois, first known as the Five Nations,
later received the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, who removed to New
York, and with the Cherokees and other southern Indians became the
sixth nation of that great Indian confederacy, to which they also
were related by language.
Both the Algonquin and Iroquois confederacies were divided into
tribes and sub-tribes of families, each with a head who was the
father or founder. These combined for mutual defense and the heads
elected one of their number chief sachem, regarding themselves as a
nation to make laws, negotiate treaties, and engage in wars, the wars
being mostly between the Algonquins and Iroquois.
The Esopus Indians occupied parts of Orange and Ulster Counties, and
their war dances were held on the Dans Kamer, a high promontory
north of Newburgh. Their rule extended to other families east and
west of the Hudson, but their territory cannot be clearly defined.
Regarding Indian character, there have been presented by our
historians some contrasting but not wholly irreconcilable views.
E. M. Ruttenber, in his valuable contribution to the History of
Ulster County, edited by Hon. A. T. Clearwater, says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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