Home / Ruttenber, E.M. History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River; their origin, manners and customs; tribal and sub-tribal organizations; wars, treaties, etc., etc. Albany: J. Munsell, 1872. / Passage

History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River

Ruttenber, E.M. History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River; their origin, manners and customs; tribal and sub-tribal organizations; wars, treaties, etc., etc. Albany: J. Munsell, 1872. 278 words

lands, which they had reserved in their various agreements with the whites, and the legislature promptly directed

the payment to them of two thousand dollars in full relinquishment of their claims. 1

The application was made by Sha<wuskukhkung or Wilted Grass, a chief of the Delawares, who had been educated at Princeton at the expense of the Scotch At the time of Missionary Society. making the application he was seventysix years of age. His address to the legislature, on the occasion, was as fol lows

:

* MY BRETHREN. I am old, and weak, and poor, and therefore a fit representa You are young, and tive of my people. strong, and rich, and therefore fit repre sentatives of your people. But let me '

beg you for a moment to lay aside the recollection of your strength and of our weakness, that your minds may be pre pared to examine with candor the subject of our claims.

" Our tradition informs

us, and I believe

it

corresponds with your records, that the

right of fishing in all the rivers and bays

south of the Raritan, and of hunting in all unenclosed lands, was never relin quished, but on the contrary was expressly reserved in our last treaty, held at Crosswicks, in 1758.

"

Having

myself

been

one

of the

the sale, I believe in 1801, I know that these rights were not sold or parted with.

parties

to

" We now offer to sell these

privileges

New Jersey. They were once of great value to us, and we appre hend that neither time nor distance, nor the non-use of our rights, has at all to the state of