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Tappan (Native Americans)
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Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
people who inhabited the region radiating from Hudson Palisades and New York – New Jersey Highlands in at the time of European colonialization in the 17th century.
The name is likely a derivation of a word or phrase from the Algonquian language
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
as used by settlers to New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
, who spelled it as Tappaen. Vriessendael
Vriessendael, New Netherland
Vriessendael was a patroonship on the west bank of the Hudson River in New Netherland, the seventeenth century North American colonial province of the Dutch Empire...
, one of the first "bouwerie
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
s", or homesteads, built in the territory was sometimes called Tappan.
It is not certain what the Tappan called themselves, but there are a variety of interpretations for the word. One suggestion is that it possibly comes from tuphanne meaning cold water
It related to contemporary petapan meaning dawn or petapaniui meaning at the break of dawn, and relates to their kin across the river, the Wappinger
Wappinger
The Wappinger were an American tribe native to eastern New York. The term "Wappinger" may also refer to:* Wappinger, New York, the Town of Wappinger named for the tribe...
, whose name is derived from the Algonquian people of the east or easterners. (Contemporary: Wapaneu meaning easterly and Wapanke meaning to-morrow.)
The Tappan were a seasonally migrational people, who farmed (companion planting
Companion planting
Companion planting is the planting of different crops in proximity , on the theory that they assist each other in nutrient uptake, pest control, pollination, and other factors necessary to increasing crop productivity...
), hunted, fished, and trapped. Like the other natives who circulated in the region and whose territory overlapped, the Hackensack, Acquackanonk
Acquackanonk (Native Americans)
The Acquackanonk were a Lenape group whose territory was on the Passaic River in northern New Jersey. They spoke the same dialect and shared the same totem as the neighboring Hackensack, Tappan and Rumachenanck ....
and Rumachenanck
Rumachenanck (Native Americans)
The Rumanchenank were a Lenape people who inhabited the region radiating from Palisades in New York and New Jersey at the time of European colonialization in the 17th century...
(later called the Haverstraw)., the Tappan were of the Turtle Clan and spoke the Unami
Unami
Unami may refer to:*the Lenape language, or its sublanguage the Unami language*Unami Creek*the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq *the Unami Lodge...
dialect of Lenape. They, as well as the Raritan, Wappinger, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, were collectively known as the River Indians. Those groups living in the adjoining highlands
New York - New Jersey Highlands
The New York – New Jersey Highlands is a geological formation composed primarily of precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock running from the Delaware River near Musconetcong Mountain, northeast through the Skylands Region of New Jersey along the Bearfort Ridge and the Ramapo Mountains, Sterling...
to the west and north have become known as the Munsee.
Vriessendael, New Netherland
Vriessendael was a patroonship on the west bank of the Hudson River in New Netherland, the seventeenth century North American colonial province of the Dutch Empire...
(Edgewater
Edgewater, New Jersey
Edgewater is a borough located along the Hudson River in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 census, the borough had a population of 11,513...
) and, who living among them, became an advocate of learning more about indigenous culture. It was an early Director of New Netherland, William Kieft, who attempted to exact tribute from them (but was ignored), and later allowed a number of them to be slaughtered after they had sought safety at Pavonia
Pavonia, New Netherland
Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland in what would become today's Hudson County, New Jersey.-Hudson and the Hackensack:...
(1643), beginning a Kieft's War
Kieft's War
Kieft's War, also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between settlers of the nascent colony of New Netherland and the native Lenape population in what would later become the New York metropolitan area of the United States...
.
The Tappan are recalled throughout their former terrritory: Lake Tappan
Lake Tappan
Lake Tappan is a reservoir that was formed by the Tappan Dam placed on the Hackensack River in 1967. It straddles the border between River Vale and Old Tappan, New Jersey...
is a reservoir on the Hackensack River
Hackensack River
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City just west of the lower Hudson River,...
; the Tappan Zee
Tappan Zee
The Tappan Zee is a natural widening of the Hudson River, about 3 mi across at its widest, in southeastern New York in the United States. It stretches about 10 mi along the boundary between Rockland and Westchester counties, downstream from Croton Point to Irvington...
, widening of the Hudson River and the bridge
Tappan Zee Bridge
The Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge, usually referred to as Tappan Zee Bridge, is a cantilever bridge in New York over the Hudson River at one of its widest points; the Tappan Zee is named for an American Indian tribe from the area called "Tappan"; and zee being the Dutch word for "sea"....
crossing it; Old Tappan
Old Tappan, New Jersey
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 5,750 people. The population density was 1,725.7 people per square mile. The racial makeup of the borough was 74.8% Caucasian, 22.2% Asian, 0.7% African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.6% from other races, and 1.5% from two or more races. Hispanics...
in Bergen County; Tappan
Tappan, New York
Tappan is a hamlet in the Town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Old Tappan, New Jersey; east of Nauraushaun and Pearl River; south of Blauvelt and west of Palisades and Sparkill...
in Rockland County.
Some descendents of the Tappan may have become part of the Ramapough Mountain Indians
Ramapough Mountain Indians
The Ramapough Mountain Indians, also known as Ramapo Mountain Indians or the Ramapough Lenape Nation, are a group of approximately 5,000 people living around the Ramapo Mountains of northern New Jersey and southern New York. Their tribal office is located on Stag Hill Road on Houvenkopf Mountain in...
.