Wappinger

Wappinger

Wappinger territory, from 1685 reprint of a 1656 map
Total population
(Extinct as a tribe)
Regions with significant populations
United States ( New York)
Languages
Eastern Algonquian languages, probably Munsee
Religion
traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Other Algonquian peoples

The Wappinger were an Eastern Algonquian-speaking tribe from New York and Connecticut. They lived on the east bank of the Hudson River south to the Connecticut River Valley.

In the 17th century, they were primarily based in what is now Dutchess County, New York, and their territory included the east bank of the Hudson along both Putnam and Westchester counties all the way to Manhattan Island to the south, the Mahican territory bounded by the Roeliff-Jansen Kill to the north, and extended east into parts of Connecticut.

They were most closely related to the Lenape, both being members of the Eastern Algonquian-speaking subgroup of the Algonquian peoples. The Lenape and Wappinger spoke using very similar Delawarean language. They are close enough that a Wappinger speaking in the Munsee Delaware tongue and a Lenape would mostly understand each other.

Their nearest allies were the Mahicans to the north, the Montauketts to the south, and the remaining New England tribes to the east. Like the Lenape, the Wappinger were not organized into cohesive tribes for most of their history; instead, they formed approximately 18 loosely associated bands.

The first contact with Europeans came in 1609, during Henry Hudson's expedition.

The total population of the Wappinger Confederacy has been estimated at about 13,200 individuals at the beginning of European contact. Their settlements included camps along the major rivers with larger villages located at the river mouths. Despite references to villages and other site types by early European explorers and settlers, few Contact period sites have been identified in southeastern New York (Funk 1976).