Daniel Nimham is believed to have born in 1726 and reportedly was baptized in 1745 when he likely received his Christian name Daniel. 2 One of his allies was a pioneering and intrepid woman named Catheryna Brett, who, as a widow, ran a mill, managed thousands of acres of land in Fishkill, and set up the first produce cooperative in the Hudson River Highlands. 3 Catheryna was friends with Nimham's grandfather and may have taught Daniel how to speak English. Her boys and the chief may have even grown up playing together. 4

As Lenape scholar Robert Grumet suggests, "Daniel Nimham was a man caught between two worlds. He grew up at a time when missionaries and farmers began moving to the Highlands in increasing numbers. A bright and articulate youth, he learned to speak English by listening to his new neighbors. When he was cast later in life into a lion's den of war and intrigue, his multicultural skills ultimately took him to the halls of government in New York and London in pursuit of land and justice for his people. He became notorious among supporters and enemies alike as the energetic and assertive defender of his people's land rights... Betrayed and abandoned by Crown officials appointed to look after his interests, he subsequently took common cause with colonists struggling to free themselves from royal authority." 5

Nimham's Fight for His People and Their Homeland In 1687, two Dutch traders, Jan Roelof Sybrandt and Lambert Dorland purchased a license from New York Governor Benjamin Fletcher for 15,000 acres along the eastern Hudson River shore of today's