Wecquaesgeek

The Wecquaesgeek resided along the southeastern banks of the Hudson River and fished local streams and lakes with rods and nets.{{cite book|last=French|first=Alvah P.|title=History of Westchester County, New York|date=1925|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|location=New York|oclc=3554289|ol=22135974M|lccn=25018271}}

The Wecquaesgeek faced numerous conflicts with Dutch and English colonists. In 1609 two dugout canoes were sent from the Nipinichsen settlement to threaten Hendrik Hudson's ship in on his return trip down the river.{{Cite web|date=2015-03-28|title=How Manhattan Island of New York City was Named.|url=https://www.revolutionarywarjournal.com/manhattan-name-sources/|access-date=2021-12-16|website=Revolutionary War Journal|language=en-US}}

In the 1640s, the Wecquaesgeek settled the Raritan River and Raritan Bay after the Sanhicans migrated west.{{cite web |last1=Wright |first1=Kevin W. |title=Native Americans in Bergen County |url=https://www.bergencountyhistory.org/nativeamericans-in-bergen-county |website=Bergen County Historical Society |access-date=24 February 2023}} Once they settled there, colonists called them the Raritans.

Like other Wappinger people, the Wecquaesgeek suffered losses in Kieft's War between Dutch colonists and Indigenous tribes. Around half of the military-aged men remaining to the tribe died fighting on behalf of the American Revolutionary Army, though none was granted citizenship after victory.

Wicker's Creek in what is now called Dobbs Ferry was the last known residence of the tribe, which they occupied through the 17th century.{{Cite web|title=Focus On—Dobbs Ferry|url=https://beelocalbuzz.net/beelocalbuzz/articles/focus-on-dobbs-ferry|access-date=2021-12-18|website=Bee Local—The Neighborhood Buzz|language=en-US}}

The following settlements have been documented in historical accounts:{{Cite web|title=Wappinger|url=https://www.dickshovel.com/wap.html|access-date=2021-12-16|website=www.dickshovel.com}}

• Alipkconk – Meaning 'a place of elms', now known as Tarrytown.{{Cite web|title=Explore-The Bridge Path-Tides of Tarrytown {{!}} Mario Cuomo Bridge|url=https://mariomcuomobridge.ny.gov/explore-bridge-path-tides-tarrytown|access-date=2021-12-24|website=mariomcuomobridge.ny.gov|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=T.|first=Pritchard, Evan|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1126217912|title=Native New Yorkers : the Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York.|date=2019|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1-64160-389-8|oclc=1126217912}} It was burned by the Dutch in 1644.{{Cite web|title=A- New York Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements {{!}} Access Genealogy|date=13 July 2011 |url=https://accessgenealogy.com/native/a-new-york-indian-villages-towns-and-settlements.htm|access-date=2021-12-18|language=en-US}}
• Nappeckamak – One of the main Weckquaesgeek settlements, which flanked the then Saeck Kill—today's Saw Mill River—at its confluence with the Hudson River in present-day Yonkers{{Cite web|title=Wappinger Indian Divisions {{!}} Access Genealogy|date=9 July 2011 |url=https://accessgenealogy.com/connecticut/wappinger-indian-divisions.htm|access-date=2021-12-16|language=en-US}}
• Nipinichsen – a fortified settlement at the north bank of Spuyten Duyvil Creek
• Rechouwakie – now known as Rockaway
• Rechtauck (Rechgawawank, Reckawawana) – in Lower East Side. In 1643, 40 Weckquaesgeek of all ages and genders were murdered here in the Massacre at Corlears Hook.
• Weckquasguck – a settlement{{Cite journal|last=Graves|first=Arthur Harmount|date=1930|title=Inwood Park, Manhattan|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40596696|journal=Torreya|volume=30|issue=5|pages=117–129|jstor=40596696|issn=0096-3844}} located in what is now known as Dobbs Ferry{{Cite web|date=2019-09-25|title=BUCKHOUT FAMILY BACKGROUND|url=https://www.bedofnailz.com/MeetTheBuckhouts.html|access-date=2021-12-16|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2010-07-22|title=Hudson River Historian Lectures in Wysquaqua, er, Dobbs Ferry|url=https://patch.com/new-york/rivertowns/hudson-river-historian-lectures-in-wysquaqua-err-dobbs-ferry|access-date=2021-12-16|website=Rivertowns, NY Patch|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=the weckquaesgeek - Ardsley Historical Society|url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60282a51705ea36f1bff1555/t/602da3da8f32a15e1a441fec/1613603806108/weckquaesgeek_doris_darlington_cohen.pdf}} and Hastings-on-Hudson{{Cite web|date=2020-06-22|title=Hastings' Hidden Waterway|url=https://hastingshistoricalsociety.org/2020/06/22/hastings-hidden-waterway/|access-date=2021-12-15|website=Hastings Historical Society|language=en-US}} where numerous artifacts have been found.{{Cite web|last=Heltzel|first=Bill|date=2017-11-22|title=Conservationists, condo group battle over access to Dobbs Ferry Indian site|url=https://westfaironline.com/96352/conservationist-and-condo-association-battle-over-access-to-indian-site-in-dobbs-ferry/|access-date=2021-12-15|website=Westfair Communications|language=en-US}} The settlement ran along the Wysquaqua stream, now known as Wicker's Creek.{{Cite web|title=Dobbs Ferry Village Historian, Notable Quotations|url=https://www.villagehistorian.org/NotableQuotes.htm|access-date=2021-12-24|website=www.villagehistorian.org}}

The Weckquaesgeek territories were bordered by the Sintsink to the north, below today's Ossining, and inland toward Long Island Sound to that of the Siwanoy, both related Wappinger bands.

To the south their range included the western part of today's Bronx along the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, and included the upper three-quarters of Manhattan island,[https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/05/archives/melville-depicted-city-of-manhattoes-lured-by-the-sea.html Moby Dick, Herman Melville, Chapter 1], reprinted in "Melville Depicted City of ‘Manhattoes’ Lured by the Sea,", New York Times, July 5, 1976, p. 13[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6202415_001/ldpd_6202415_001.pdf "Brooks, ponds, swamps, and marshes characterized other portions of the island of the 'Manhattoes'"], The Memorial History of the City of New York, James Grant Wilson, New York, 1892 which they did not permanently occupy but used as a hunting ground.[http://www.americanheritage.com/24-swindle "The $24 Swindle"], Nathaniel Benchley, American Heritage, 1959, Vol. 11, Issue 1 Effectively it was their land that the Canarsee people of today's Brooklyn, who only occupied the very southern end of Manhattan island, an area known as the Manhattoes, sold to the Dutch.

The Dutch ended up with the island, and the Wecquaesgeek being called the "Manhattoe" or "Manhattan" Indians.

Today's Broadway follows one of their original trails, named "Wickquasgeck", after the "birch bark country" that lined it.{{cite news|last=Dunlap|first=David|author-link=David W. Dunlap|date=June 15, 1983|title=Oldest Streets Are Protected as Landmark|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/15/nyregion/oldest-streets-are-protected-as-landmark.html|access-date=December 21, 2015|issn=0362-4331|ref=none}}{{cite news|last=Shorto|first=Russell|author-link=Russell Shorto|date=February 9, 2004|title=The Streets Where History Lives|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/opinion/the-streets-where-history-lives.html|access-date=April 10, 2020|issn=0362-4331|quote=And what about a marker for the Wickquasgeck Trail, the Indian path that ran the length of the island, which the Dutch made into their main highway and the English renamed Broadway?}}{{Cite book|last=Hodge |first=Frederick Webb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WouVBgAAQBAJ|title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico Volume 4/4 T-Z|date=July 2003|publisher=Digital Scanning Inc|isbn=978-1-58218-751-8|language=en}}

As was common practice early in the days of European settlement of North America, a people came to be associated with a place, with its name displacing theirs among the settlers and those associated with them, such as explorers, mapmakers, trading company superiors who sponsored many of the early settlements, and officials in the settlers' mother country in Europe.

Numerous variants of are found on historical maps and in period documents. These include: Wiechquaeskeck, Wechquaesqueck, Weckquaesqueek, Weekquaesguk, Wickquasgeck, Wickquasgek, Wiequaeskeek, Wiequashook, and Wiquaeskec. The meaning of the name has variously been given as "the end of the marsh, swamp or wet meadow", "place of the bark kettle", and "birch bark country".{{cite web|last1=Cohen|first1=Doris Darlington|title=The Weckquaesgeek|url=http://www.ardsleyhistoricalsociety.org/assets/pdf/weckquaesgeek_doris_darlington_cohen.pdf|publisher=Ardsley Historical Society|access-date=2019-03-06|archive-date=2020-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023020024/https://ardsleyhistoricalsociety.org/assets/pdf/weckquaesgeek_doris_darlington_cohen.pdf|url-status=dead}}{{cite book |last=Trumbull |first=James Hammond |title=Indian Names of Places, Etc., in and on the Borders of Connecticut: With Interpretations of Some of Them |publisher=Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company |year=1881 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JS8TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA81 |page=81}}

Just as a name of one of their trails, the Wickquasgeck, was given to the people so another conflation by white settlers further confounded their identity, when they were mistakenly referred to as the Manhattoes after a place of that name on the southern tip of Manhattan Island.[https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/files/5913/8016/5529/Correspondence_1647-1653.pdf Letter from Stephen Goodyear to Peter Stuyvesant], 19 July 1652, addressed to him at "The Manhattoes", Correspondence 1647-1653, Charles Gehring, The New Netherlands Institute, p. 189[https://nava.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/icv24martucci.pdf The Standards of the Manhattoes, Pavonia, and Hell-Gate], David B. Martucci, 2011, p. 786 Compounding this was that the Manhattoes was the only part of Manhattan not occupied by the Wecquasgeek;[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6202415_001/ldpd_6202415_001.pdf "Brooks, ponds, swamps, and marshes characterized other portions of the island of the 'Manhattoes'," The Memorial History of the City of New York, James Grant Wilson, New York, 1892] it was a seasonal ground of the Canarsee, a Metoac people who lived across the East River in today's Brooklyn.

• Canarsee, the Native American band that sold Manhattan to the Dutch

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.academia.edu/5478481/The_Dutch-Munsee_Encounter_Introduction_ The Dutch-Munsee Encounter, Introduction: "The Dutch-Munsee Frontier", Paul Otto]

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Category:Native American tribes in New York (state)

Category:Algonquian peoples

Category:Algonquian ethnonyms

Category:People from New Netherland

Category:Putnam County, New York

Category:Westchester County, New York

Category:Wappinger

Category:Extinct Native American tribes