A recently uncovered 1738 American Indian Deed by Historic Huguenot Street for the land and creek called Packanasinck provides ethnohistorical material for a discussion of the Native participants mentioned. Twelve of the Natives listed, comprising several families, are known individuals with documented histories in colonial Ulster County. The evidence presented suggests Packanasinck was the location of a Native community, one of a few Esopus communities that persisted in the heart of the Ulster County settlements into the eighteenth century. 

J. Michael Smith is a native of Beacon in Dutchess County, New York, and a retired media specialist with Vermont PBS. As an independent ethnohistorian he has documented the cultural histories of Munsee peoples and relevant individuals in the mid-Hudson River Valley. He is a contributing author to the New York State Museum bulletins of the Native American Institute Seminar Papers and has published various articles in the Hudson River Valley Review. He is co-editor with Kees-Jan Waterman of Munsee Indian Trade in Ulster County, New York, 1712-1732 (Syracuse University Press, 2013).

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The preservation and digitization of these documents has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The translation of Dutch language documents is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.

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