WAPPINGER

a confederacy of Algonquian-speaking Indians in eastern North America who early in the 17th century lived along the east bank of the Hudson River from Manhattan Island to what is now Poughkeepsie and eastward to the lower Connecticut River valley. They were semisedentary, moving seasonally between fixed sites as food resources required. They depended largely on corn (maize)-cultivated by women-for their subsistence; this was supplemented by hunting and fishing. The tribes were divided into bands, each governed by a sachem (chief) and a council of elders. Pressure from white settlers caused the Connecticut Wappinger to sell their lands and join other Algonquian-speaking tribes elsewhere, in what is today the United States or in Canada. The western bands took part in a war with the Dutch between 1640 and 1645, in which they suffered severe losses. In 1756 the majority of the Wappinger remaining in Westchester county joined the Nanticoke at Chenango, N.Y., and then finally merged with the Delaware; others joined various other Indian groups.