Land Heist in the Highlands: Chief Daniel Nimham and the Wappinger Fight for Homeland
In the ferocious struggle that ensued, the overwhelming British force outnumbering the natives five to one, however, proved to be too much. 54 Estimates suggest that the Stockbridge lost anywhere between 17 to 40 men, including Chief Nimham and his son. After wounding Captain Simcoe, Nimham was killed by Simcoe's orderly, Private Edward Wight. However, before succumbing, Nimham had wounded Captain Simcoe and was reported by Simcoe to have said, that "he himself was old, and would die there." 55
The results were devastating for the Stockbridge. The four Indians still left in military service a month later went home to their families. 56 In a cruel development, the survivors of the Company and the families of those killed were denied lands promised to soldiers who had fought on the American side. 57 Further, by 1784, those left in Stockbridge (mainly widows) had largely lost their land to land speculators and settlers using unscrupulous means.58
Taking up an Oneida offer to help, by the mid-1780s, most of the Stockbridge Natives moved north to join the Oneida, near Oneida Lake, forming New Stockbridge. Building a school, church, and a sawmill, the community flourished for a number of years. However, the success of the community was to be
Katharine Mixer Abbott, Old Paths and Legends of the New England Border: Connecticut, Deerfield, Berkshire (New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1907) 228- 230. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockbridge_Militia ) Bryan Rindfleisch, "The Stockbridge-Mohican Community, 1775- 1783", Journal of the American Revolution (Feb. 3, 2016), https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/02/the-stockbridge-mohican-community-1775-1783/ . John Graves Simcoe, Simcoe's Military Journal, 86 Robert S. Grumet, The Nimhams of the Colonial Hudson Valley, 1667- 1783, Hudson Valley Regional Review (September 1992), 9.2: 91 John Graves Simcoe, Simcoe's Military Journal, 86 Laurence M. Hauptman, "The Road to Kingsbridge: Daniel Nimham and the Stockbridge Indian Company in the American Revolution," American Indian Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Fall 2017).