Penhawitz and wampage and the seventeenth-century world they dominated

Abstract

Archaeological finds made nearly a century ago in New York City provide a unique opportunity to reshape the traditional, self-congratulatory stories of settler colonial society. This essay focuses on the major roles two Native leaders, Penhawitz and Wampage, and their descendants played in the development of New Amsterdam and New Netherland. By including their forgotten stories and analyzing archaeological sites found in their territories, a more complex view of the crucial inter-cultural economic and political alliances that marked the Dutch colony emerges. Finally, the significance of Native human remains found on Ellis Island to this reshaping of New York's history is discussed.