Raritan (Native Americans)

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Raritan territory included Staten Island

Raritan was the name given to the Lenape Native American by Europeans who colonized the region around the Raritan River and its bay in northerneastern New Jersey and Staten Island, New York, in the seventeenth century.

It is generally believed that the name comes from one of the Lenape languages (among the languages in the Algonquian language group), though there are a variety of interpretations as to its meaning. It may be a derviation of Naraticong [1]meaning river beyond the island or Roaton or Raritanghe, a name of a group which had come from across the Hudson[2] and displaced the previous population known as Sanhicans.[3] (who moved to farther into the interior).[4] Alternatively, Raritan is a Dutch pronunciation of wawitan or rarachons meaning forked river or stream overflows.[5]

The Raritan had early contact with settlers to the colony of New Netherland. In a extermination policy established by William Kieft, the Raritan were chosen to set an example for other natives in the region, wrongly accused of the crime of stealing pigs from a homestead on Staten Island. It was one event that lead to Kieft's War.[6][7]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "The Origin of New Jersey Place Names" (PDF). New Jersey State Library Commission. Federal Writers' Program. 1938. http://www.njstatelib.org/NJ_Information/Digital_Collections/Place_Names/PLACE.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-06. 
  2. ^ Munsee language. (2009, October 16). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:19, November 1, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Munsee_language&oldid=320237567
  3. ^ http://www.bergencountyhistory.org/Pages/indians.html Indigenous Population:Between 1628 and 1640, the Sanhicans were driven away from the west shore of Raritan Bay by a band of Wisquaskecks, known as the Roaton or Raritanghe, who removed from their territory north of Manhattan across Staten Island and into the lower Raritan Valley. By July 1640, the Raritans were described as "a nation of savages who live where a little stream [the Raritan River] runs up about five leagues behind Staten Island." At a peace conference with the Dutch in 1649, Pennekeck, sachem of Achter Col (Newark Bay), "said the tribe called Raritanoos, formerly living at Wisquaskeck had no chief, therefore he spoke for them, who would also like to be our friends..." Their intrusion was apparently contested unsuccessfully by Sawanoos (Southern) Lenape and Sanhicans. Consequently, the Hackensacks were separated from other Sanhican communities.
  4. ^ http://trentonhistory.org/His/colonial.htm
  5. ^ Troeger, Virginia, B. and McEwen, Rbert, James Woodbridge, 2002, Charlestown, SC: Acadia Publishing, p18
  6. ^ Shorto, Russell (2004). The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. Random House. ISBN 1-4000-7867-9. 
  7. ^ http://www.fulkerson.org/1tienhov.html A Tale of Tienhoven]


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