The Esopus tribe was a tribe of Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans who were native to Upstate New York, specifically the region of the Catskill Mountains. Their lands included modern-day Ulster and Sullivan counties.

The tribe fought a series of conflicts against settlers from the New Netherland colony from September 1659 to September 1663, known as the Esopus Wars, in and around Kingston, New York. At the conclusion of the conflict, the tribe sold large tracts of land to French Huguenot refugees in New Paltz and other communities.

Descendants of the Esopus tribe now live on the Stockbridge-Munsee Community reservation in Shawano County, Wisconsin, and among the Munsee Delaware of Ontario, Canada. Historians believe surviving Esopus joined with the Ramapough Mountain Indians of New Jersey following the wars, as well as some Wappinger people after Kieft’s War in 1643.

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, April 22). Esopus people. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:14, November 3, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Esopus_people&oldid=893571961

 

November is Native American Heritage Month! Take some time to browse through our Native American Heritage Month display at the Circulation Desk–we are thrilled have our first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo.

To learn more, you can also check out these titles available on Films on Demand:

Anywhere but Washington: Arizona (FULL VIDEO)

Native America (SERIES)

In Jesus’ Name: Shattering the Silence of St. Anne’s Residential School (FULL VIDEO)

Trail of Tears (FULL VIDEO)

Southwest American Indian Art: World Indigenous Art (FULL VIDEO)

Moyers & Company: American Indians Confront “Savage Anxieties” (FULL VIDEO)

Our Fires Still Burn: The Native American Experience (FULL VIDEO)

Kind Hearted Woman (SERIES)

Kentucky: an American Story – the Land (FULL VIDEO)

A Hidden America: Children of the Plains (FULL VIDEO)

TEDTalks: Aaron Huey—America’s Native Prisoners of War (FULL VIDEO)

We Shall Remain: America Through Native Eyes (SERIES)