Hackensack was the exonym given to a band of Lenape, a Native American people is a European derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers.
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A phratry of the Lenape, the Hackensack spoke the Unami dialect, a member of the Algonquian language family. They were part of a group known as the people down river,[1] and identified themselves with the totem of the turtle ("Turtle Clan")[2] Their territory has been variously spelled Ack-kinkas-hacky, Achkinhenhcky, Achinigeu-hach, Ackingsah-sack (among others) and translated as place of stony ground [3] or mouth of a river. It included the areas around the Upper New York Bay, Newark Bay, Bergen Neck, the Meadowlands, and the Palisades and overlapped that of other Unami: the Raritan on Staten Island/Raritan Bay, the Acquackanonk on the Passaic River, and the Tappan along the Palisades and Pascack Valley.[4] These groups, along with the Wappinger in the Hudson Valley and Canarsee and Rockaway on Long Island were sometimes collectively called the River Indians.[5]
In the 17th century the Hackensack numbered about a thousand,[6] of whom 300 were warriors,[5] and their sachem (or high chief) was Oratam [7] (born circa 1576[8]). It is likely that he was also sagamore of the Tappan, a distinct but intimately related group.[5] A seasonally migrational people, the Hackensack set up campsites and practiced companion planting to supplement foraging, hunting, fishing, trapping, and shellfishing. The terrain was quite diverse: massive tidal flats and oyster beds, forested mountains, and level land that could be cultivated. Ackensack, their semi-permanent village, would be relocated every several years to allow the land to renew itself.[8] Its locations mostly remained between Tantaqua and the middle reaches of the Hackensack River.[3] Their summer encampment and council fire was located at Gamoenpa,[5] the big landing-place from the other side of the river.[9] At Hopoghan Hackingh, or land of the tobacco pipe, they collected soapstone to carve tobacco pipes.[10]
The society of the Unami was based on governance by consensus. A sagamore, though very influential, was obliged to follow decisions of the council. Those with the totem of the turtle were held in great esteem by Lenape groups, particularly as peacemakers. The word caucus may come from the Algonquian caucauasu meaning counselor.[11]
| New Netherland series | |
|---|---|
| Exploration | |
| Fortifications: | |
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• De Wal |
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| Settlements: | |
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• Wiltwyck • Bergen • Pavonia |
• Rustdorp • Midwout • Boswyck |
| The Patroon System | |
| Directors of New Netherland:
Cornelius Jacobsen May (1620-25) Willem Verhulst (1625-26) Peter Minuit (1626-32) Sebastiaen Jansen Krol (1632-33) Wouter van Twiller (1633-38) Willem Kieft (1638-47) Peter Stuyvesant (1647-64) |
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| People of New Netherland | |
| Flushing Remonstrance |
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Hackensack lands became part of the colonial province of New Netherland after the first exploration of the area by Henry Hudson, who had sailed up the river which bears his name, anchoring at Weehawken Cove in September 1609. Living close to the province's capital, New Amsterdam (at the tip of Manhattan), the Hackensack had early and frequent contact with the New Netherlanders, with whom they traded beaver, pelts, sewant, manufactured goods, including firearms, gunpowder and alcohol. They also "sold" the land for settlements at Pavonia, Communipaw, Harsimus, Hoboken, Weehawken, Constable Hook, Achter Col, Vriessendael. In 1658, Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant re-negotiated the purchase of all the land from "the great rock above Wiehacken", west to Sikakes and south to Konstapels Hoeck.[12] The area became collectively known as Bergen with the founding of a village at Bergen Square in 1661. In 1666, the Hackensack sold the land that would become the city of Newark to Robert Treat and in 1669, Oratam deeded a vast tract of land (2200 acres) to Sara Kiersted (who had mastered the Lenape language and acted as interpreter) between Overpeck Creek and the Hackensack River. He also brokered many land sales, and treaties between the native and colonizing peoples, including those that ended Kieft's War and the Esopus Wars.[5] In a series of essays published in 1655, David Pietersen de Vries, who had established a homestead at Vriessendael, described his observations of the Hackensack.[13]
The British take-over of New Netherland between 1663 and 1674 coincided with Oratam's death (who is said to have lived into his 90s). The government of the newly formed province of East Jersey quickly surveyed, patented, or deeded lands throughout Hackensack, Tappan, and Raritan territory. In most cases, the Lenape were compensated for sale of the land. Both the land at Newark Tract[14] and Horseneck Tract were sold to English-speaking settlers by the Hackenack.[15]
In 1600 the Lenape population may have numbered as many as 20,000.[16][17] Several wars, at least 14 separate epidemics (yellow fever, small pox, influenza, encephalitis lethargica, etc...) and disastrous over-harvesting of the animal populations reduced their population to around 4,000 by 1700. Since the Lenape people, like all Native Americans, had no immunity to European diseases, when the populations contacted the epidemics, they frequently proved fatal.[18] Some Lenape starved to death as a result of the over harvesting of mostly beavers. Others were forced to trade their land for goods such as clothing and food. As the Lenni Lenape population declined, and the European population increased, the history of the area was increasingly defined by the new European inhabitants and the Lenape Indian tribes played an increasingly secondary role.[19] It appears by the lack of their being mentioned in documents after that period that the Hackensack had died, removed themselves, integrated into European settler society, or became tributary to other groups such as the Ramapough Mountain Indians[20] and Munsee. By the mid-18th century most Lenape had become known as the Delaware Indians, after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr and governor of the Jamestown Colony[21][22] or had been dispersed further west.[23] They were signatories to the Walking Purchase agreement in Pennsylvania, and Treaty of Easton, an attempt by the British to control lands they had gained in the French and Indian War, as well as an attempt by the Native Americans to restrict further European migration inland.[24] Current Lenape groups are dispersed around the USA.[25]