SKINNER, INDIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND 41 



bears his name, he was attacked by Indians in birch or dug-out (?) canoes 

 at the mouth of Spuyten Duyvil Creek. These Indians were a sub-tribe of 

 the Wappingers or Wapanachki called the Reckgawawancs." l This 

 name seems to have been given to the Indians who inhabited Manhattan 

 Island, while the term Manhattans as already stated was a classification of 

 dialect only. Ruttenber says that the Reckgawawancs were named after 

 their chief Rechgawac; 2 and the name also seems to have been applied to 

 part of the island for Riker says that, — "The Indians still [in 16G9] laid 



claim to portions of the Harlem lands one of the tracts being their old 



and favorite haunt Rechewanis, or Montague's Point. The chief claimant 

 was Rechewack, the old Sachem and proprietor of Wickquaskeek, who, as 

 far back as 1G39, had been a party to the sale of Ranachqua and Kaxkeek." 3 



Not much is known of their habits and customs beyond what has been 

 inferred from the relics to be seen in this exhibit, but Mr. Bolton writes: 



" We are not without detailed description of our primeval predecessors 

 upon the island of Manhattan, for the Hollanders recorded many of their 

 impressions of aboriginal peculiarities. We may assume that they pos- 

 sessed the usual characteristics, the stolid demeanor, the crafty methods, and 

 revengeful nature of the Indian, all of which were exhibited in their dealings 

 with the White intruders. These local bands appear to have had, in addition, 

 some particular local habits. They painted their faces with red, blue, and 

 yellow pigments, to such a distortion of their features, that, as one sententious 

 Dominie expressed it, 'They look like the devil himself.' Their depend- 

 ence on supplies of game and fish caused their removal from one place to 

 another, semi-annually, and we read of their removal to a summer 'hunting- 

 ground' in Westchester, whence the band returned to 'Wickers Creek,' 

 for the winter shelter, and to resume their occupation of oystering and fishing 

 in the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil Creek. 



"As for dress, 'They go,' said Juet, 'in deerskins, loose well-dressed, 

 some in mantles of feathers, and some in skins of divers sorts of good furres. 

 They had red copper tobacco pipes, and other things of copper they doe 

 weare about their neekes.' 



" No copper objects have been found in upper Manhattan, probably their 

 metallic stock was bartered away with the early colonists, for in 1625, De 

 Laet described their use of 'Stone pipes for smoking tobacco.' 



" As regards their food, the evident abundance and size of the local oyster 

 shells shows that they possessed in them a ready source of subsistence. As 

 soon as Hudson's ship reached the neighborhood of Greenwich, where the 



' Ibid., p. 46. 



2 Ruttenber, op. cit., p. 78. 



3 History of Harlem, p. 2S7. 



