An examination of the 1677 Esopus Indian land agreement with French-speaking Protestant settlers digitized as part of the online New Paltz Historic Documents Project by Historic Huguenot Street, and a second period copy of the agreement in the New York State Archives, offers new insight into the Native participants cited. Sixteen of the twenty-four Esopus individuals have documented histories in colonial Ulster County. A comparison of the slightly differing New Paltz and Albany manuscripts is discussed, providing a glimpse into the lives of relevant Munsee-speaking Natives in the region during the late seventeenth century. 

This program will be presented entirely online via a link sent after registration.

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-Delaware 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, Albany, and has published various articles in the Hudson River Valley Review, Marist College, Poughkeepsie. He is co-editor with Kees-Jan Waterman, of Munsee Indian Trade in Ulster County, New York, 1712-1732, Syracuse University Press, 2013.

 
$8 General Access

$5 Discounted Access for HHS members, seniors, students, active military personnel and their families, and veterans

 This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.