'Bled by Our Side'

The combination of the new Ken Burns documentary on the American Revolution and the rosy image of the first Thanksgiving led me to recall a 1778 event that exemplifies the true relationship between the white settlers and the Indigenous population. And that relationship spread west as the settlers did.

During the war, the Stockbridge Mohicans, along with the Oneida, Tuscarora and a handful of other Indigenous nations, allied with the American colonists in their struggle for independence from Britain. Many of these communities hoped that their military support would ensure recognition of their sovereignty and protection of their lands.

Instead, the outcome was often betrayal, displacement and profound cultural loss.

The Stockbridge Militia was an Indigenous infantry unit made up of Mohican, Wappinger and Munsee men from western Massachusetts. Known for their discipline and courage, they fought in some of the most important campaigns of the Revolutionary War, beginning with Bunker Hill.

Their military service reflected both a commitment to the Patriot cause and a naive desire to protect their own communities and homelands from colonial encroachment.

The militia’s leader was Daniel Nimham, the last hereditary sachem of the Wappinger people. Nimham had long fought for Indigenous land rights, even traveling to England to petition the Crown for justice. In the war, he joined the Continental Army with his son, Abraham, and fought with distinction.

Born in approximately 1726, Daniel Nimham grew to stand as a protector of his fellow Indians in the Hudson River Valley. A master of adapting, Nimham had encountered settlers of the valley as a young man, kept friendly relations with them, and likely learned English from those same settlers.

However, a land grab gone awry left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Wappinger: A sizable portion of their land was taken out from under them while about 300 Wappinger men had been serving with the British during the French and Indian War.

This unjust occurrence fueled Nimham to contest the validity of the action and give his account of the audacious expansion claimed by the Philipse family, who functioned as the Wappingers’ landlords. It was petitioned before the king and eventually brought before the New York Common Council in 1765. Yet, with a questionable deed presented by the defendant and hesitance to set an adverse precedent, the council ruled against Nimham and the Wappinger.

But their battle was not over.

Upon the outbreak of the American Revolution, Nimham came to see the value of the Patriot cause and the potential to negotiate the return of Wappinger land if he was to fight alongside the colonists.

Eventually, Nimham was given a commission as a captain in the Continental Army and became a recruiting force, working to bring Indian communities in Canada and the Ohio Valley to fight for the plight of the Patriots.

His son, Abraham, was placed in command of the Stockbridge Indian Company. A Stockbridge fighter’s typical uniform and accoutrements included hats of bast, body-length shirts of coarse linen, long linen trousers down to their feet, and deerskin shoes, with a musket, a quiver of about 20 arrows, and a short battle ax or tomahawk.

They were sent to the Hudson Valley’s White Plains in the summer of 1778 to serve under General Charles Scott. With New York City remaining in British hands, White Plains was a port city that was viewed as essential in maintaining northern war efforts.

But in terms of the land surrounding today’s Yonkers and south to the Bronx border, there existed a dangerous stretch of land claimed by neither side. With this placement, the 60-man Stockbridge Company was given the task of patrolling land on the northern border of New York City and gathering intelligence on enemy movement.

It was during this time that the Battle of Kingsbridge, otherwise known as the Stockbridge Indian Massacre, unfolded — on August 31, 1778, to be exact.

Having set a trap on Cortlandt’s Ridge on the Bronx side of the border with Westchester County, the British collided with Daniel Nimham and the Stockbridge Company when Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe’s infantry struck and hit their left flank. The attack took place in what today is Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and the battlefield is recognized as the “Indian Field.”

Besieged and outnumbered by the British, the Stockbridge Company engaged in hand-to-hand combat. According to a journal entry from Simcoe, Daniel Nimham proclaimed to his force that “he was old and would stand and die there.” The supposed words turned out to be foretelling, as the sachem of the Wappinger was slain by British cavalryman Private Edward Wight in battle that day.

It got worse for the native warriors: The ruthless Banastre Tarleton’s light cavalry entered the fray and ensured total victory through appalling practices. Estimates of the dead were as high as 40 warriors. Three Stockbridge warrior-soldiers were captured, and a fleet-footed few escaped over Tibbetts Brook.

After the war, General George Washington wrote that the Stockbridge “remained firmly attached to us and have fought and bled by our side; that we consider them as friends and brothers.”

But despite this claim, their service did little to improve conditions following the war.

With many Stockbridge men lost, growth was difficult. The survivors and families of those killed were excluded from the bounty lands offered to white Patriots. Extreme land pressures continued, which led to their seeking refuge in central New York’s Oneida Country, and then — with the construction of the Erie Canal — their migration to Michigan Territory.

Today, the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians are a federally recognized American Indian nation, based in Bowler, Wisconsin. But a longstanding powwow continues in their Hudson Valley homeland and is dedicated to the Wappingers’ great sachem, Daniel Nimham. He is also honored with a memorial and historical marker in the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park.