In the fall of 1609, Hendrik Hudson anchored the "Half Moon" off
Communipaw, and the simple natives met him and said "Behold the Gods
have come to visit us." Little they dreamed of the long sequence of
evil results which would follow his coming and the introduction he gave
them to "rum," the most potent destroyer of their race. When Hendrik
Hudson anchored off Communipaw, where lower Jersey City now stands, it
was largely salt marsh, and the heights above were crowned with heavy
forests.
When he first came within Sandy Hook and gained his first view of
Jersey shores he pronounced it a "very good land to fall in with, and
a pleasant land to see." Later the country about Communipaw he thought
"as pleasant a land as one need tread upon." He found an Indian village
near the shore called Gemoenepa and another at Hackensack. It is said
that Summit Avenue follows a part of the trail or path connecting the
two villages. Hudson found the natives along the west shore, from Sandy
Hook to Weehawken, friendly and generous; they brought him oysters,
corn and fruits. Of the beauty of these people Verrezano, who visited
New York Bay in 1524, was quite enthusiastic and declares of two chiefs
that "they were more beautiful in form and feature than can possibly
be described." He said that "the women greatly resemble the Antique,
of the same form and beauty, very graceful, of fine countenance and
pleasing appearance in manners and modesty." The early writers all
unite in describing these people as "generous, giving away whatever
they had," also as "being sumptuously clothed in embroidered deer skins
wrought in damask figures," and that the women wore more ornamental
clothing than the men.
Van Der Donck says that the "wampum with which a woman's skirt was
embroidered was frequently worth from one to three hundred guilders."
They wore, also, wampum embroidered caps and head bands, the latter
worn across the forehead and tied behind in a "beau's knot." Many
earrings and curiously wrought necklaces and bracelets, with various
colored feathers in their hair were worn by both men and women. Wampum
and "seawant" as it was also called, were the Indian terms for beads
made from clam shells. By the primitive methods of the Indians the
beads were difficult to make, being ground down on grooved stones, and
pierced by a sharp splinter of flint fastened in one end of a reed, the
other end being slowly revolved upon the right thigh while the bead
to be pierced was held between the thumb and forefinger of the left
hand. The beads were usually from 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch in length,
and because of the difficulty of manufacture they became one of the
most valuable Indian possessions and to a certain extent a standard
of value. Long Island, called by the Indians Sewan-hackey--land of
shells--which was inhabited by branches of the Lenni Lenape family was
the great center of wampum manufacture. There were specialists who
devoted their time to making wampum. It was largely used by all of the
eastern Indians, not alone for embroidery and ornamentation, but in
record belts which were used in their treaties. The two colors, white
and purple, being wrought into figures which were mnemonic and enabled
the "wampum keepers" to remember the words of the speech which were
"talked into" the belt presented at the time. It was used in bunches
of strings, strung in a certain manner, to represent the hereditary
Chieftain name, and from the convenience of carrying it, it had become
nearer to being a recognized currency than anything else of value among
the Indians. Therefore it was used among the white colonists all along
the coast, not only for the Indian trade but among themselves until
late in the 18th century. They gave it a corresponding value to their
own currency. At one time four black and eight white beads equalled a
stiver, but in 1673 the Governor and Council of New Jersey decreed that
henceforth three purple and six white wampum beads should equal one
stiver or an English penny; twenty stivers, a guilder. As currency it
was usually carried in strings, one hundred and fifty in a string, a
"fathom of wampum" is often mentioned by early writers, and it was also
used loose. The following list will show the value in "seewan" of the
kinds of money mostly received by the Deacons of Bergen:
=st=.
A piece of eight was worth f12.00 in seewan
A realtje, about 1.10 "
A loan dollar 11.00 "
An £ English 40.00 "
so that $1 American was worth 8.00 "
The Dutch early manufactured wampum at Hackensack, turning it upon a
lathe; this manufacture was continued until late in this century.
During the French and English war the Delawares joined the French.
In 1776 they joined the Federal cause and fought with us in the
Revolutionary war. In their relations with Penn's colonists "they
showed" to quote Dr. Brinton, "a sense of honor and regard for pledges
equal at least to that of the white race." From 1782 to 1795 there
was a bitter war between the white people and the Lenape owing to
the desire of the whites to possess the Indian lands, which resulted
in three cruel massacres of Christian Indians, and of the removal of
the Lenape, first to Ohio, next to Kansas, and last to the Indian
Territory. "In this long contest," as Dr. Brinton says, "the history of
the relations of the white race with the Lenape is not one calculated
to reflect glory upon the superior civilization and Christianity of the
white race." In the war of 1863-65, one-half of the adult population
of the Lenape officered by their own men were in the volunteer service
of the United States. "No State in the Union furnished so many men for
our armies from the same ratio of population as did the Lenape nation."
The old men, women and children worked the farms and while the men
were away fighting for the Union their white neighbors stole from them
$20,000 worth of stock.
Of our Indian predecessors in this region the only trace remaining is
in a few corrupted names of localities:
HACKENSACK, FROM ACKENSACK--low land.
SECAUCUS, FROM SISKAKES OR SIKAKES--the place where the snake hides.
The Indian name for Snake Hill, now transferred to the upland
between Pinhorne Creek and Hackensack river.