Wecquaesgeek

The Wecquaesgeek (also Manhattoe and Manhattan) were a Munsee-speaking band of Wappinger people who once lived along the east bank of the Hudson River in the southwest of today's Westchester County, New York, and down into the Bronx.

The Wecquaesgeek resided along the southeastern banks of the Hudson River and fished local streams and lakes with rods and nets.

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.

In the 1640s, the Wecquaesgeek settled the Raritan River and Raritan Bay after the Sanhicans migrated west. 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.

In his influential Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant (Description of New Netherland; 1655), large local landowner Adriaen van der Donck provided detailed information about the culture of local Native Americans. He wrote that their custom was to occupy fortified settlements (or "castles" as the Dutch colonists called them) in cold months and move to riverside villages for the summer. Sleepy Hollow historian Henry Steiner cites a 1642 description of one of these "castles" by an anonymous reporter: "...thirty Indians could have stood against two hundred soldiers since the castles were constructed of plank five inches thick, nine feet high, and braced around with thick balk full of port-holes."

The following settlements have been documented in historical accounts: