Map of Long Island and Adjacent Areas of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey
Robert Ryder, Map of Long Island and Adjacent Areas of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, 1670. New-York Historical Society Library.
Quashawam was born around the year 1640 in Montauk Village, the central settlement of the Montaukett people of eastern Long Island. Her father Wyandanch was the sachem, or leader, of the Montaukett.
During Quashawam’s childhood, the Montaukett, Shinnecock, Niantic, English, Dutch, and others competed for control of eastern Long Island, which made life in the area very unstable. Wyandanch made an alliance with the English, and in return, the English named him the alliance chief for all Native American communities on eastern Long Island. Not every sachem accepted Wyandanch’s oversight, but with the well-armed English settlers behind him, he had a lot of power. Quashawam grew up watching her father balance these complex relationships.
In 1653 Montauk Village was raided by the Niantic, an Indigenous community from Rhode Island that wanted the Montaukett to pay them tribute. Thirty men were killed in the raid, and Quashawam was taken prisoner. Wyandanch called on the English for help, and together they forced the Niantic to return Quashawam for a ransom payment. This episode showed her firsthand how important it was to have powerful allies.
Wyandanch died in 1659. Quashawam’s younger brother was named sachem in his place, but he was too young to lead. Wyandanch’s widow and an Englishman ruled in his name, but the Montaukett lost some of their authority with neighboring Native American communities during this time. Quashawam’s mother and brother both died during a 1662 smallpox outbreak, leaving Quashawam as Wyandanch’s only heir. She was named the sunksquaw, or female sachem, of the Montaukett.
As sunksquaw, Quashawam worked hard to re-establish the Montaukett as the most powerful community in eastern Long Island. In January of 1664 she appears to have sent two representatives to meet with Peter Stuyvesant, the leader of the nearby Dutch colony. The men asked Peter to support Quashawam in a disagreement over land with English colonists. By asking the Dutch to get involved, she was trying to create a situation where two of the forces trying to control the region (in this case the Dutch and English) would be in opposition. If they were occupied fighting each other, Quashawam could influence both sides to get the best outcome for her people. As a sign of her goodwill, she warned Peter Stuyvesant that the English were planning to invade his colony. This demonstrates that she was an informed and politically savvy leader. But Peter was not interested in working with Quashawam. The Dutch government did not even mention her name in their record of the meeting, referring to her only with the offensive description “the savage woman.”
Quashawam’s agreement with the English and Shinnecock reveals that she was a master politician and diplomat.
Quashawam did not let the Dutch dismissal break her resolve. She was already in talks with the English and the Shinnecock on a different treaty, which she signed within a month of her outreach to the Dutch. In this agreement, the Shinnecock recognized Quashawam as their leader, and promised to support her if members of the Montaukett tried to overthrow her rule. Once again, Quashawam pitted two powers against each other to neutralize a threat. In return, Quashawam agreed to represent Shinnecock interests in her dealings with the English, and to protect them from neighboring rivals. She also outlined a list of successors who would become sachem if she died. This kind of succession planning was not typical for Native American communities in the Long Island region, but would have made Quashawam’s English allies happy, because it would ensure stability if she died suddenly. Quashawam’s agreement with the English and Shinnecock reveals that she was a master politician and diplomat.
On the same day she signed the Shinnecock agreement, Quashawam named an Englishman as her representative in all land sales and transactions moving forward. At first glance, it seems Quashawam was giving up a lot of power. But by choosing an Englishman as her representative, she made it possible for her people to settle future land disputes in the English courts, something they could not have done otherwise. With this move, Quashawam created an opportunity for the Montaukett to use the laws of the colonists against them.
Quashawam’s last known major act as sunksquaw secured the short-term safety of her people. In September 1664, the English took over New Netherland, the very invasion Quashawam had tried to warn Peter about. In the fall of 1665, Quashawam met with the new governor of New York to settle a land disagreement she had with local English settlers. In this negotiation, Quashawam got the governor to officially recognize the boundaries of Montaukett land. He also decreed that English colonists should pay the Montaukett for the right to graze cattle on Montaukett lands. These two concessions protected the Montaukett from rapidly spreading English farms for two hundred years.
Quashawam died shortly after this final victory, probably during a 1666 smallpox outbreak. But in her role as sunksquaw, she demonstrated how a smart and savvy leader could play competing powers off one another to improve the status and the security of their community.
Vocabulary
- alliance: An agreement between countries or communities to work together.
- Montaukett: An Indigenous community that has lived on Long Island, New York for hundreds of years.
- New Netherland: The Dutch colony in North America, which encompassed land between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers, and up the Hudson River to present-day Albany, New York.
- Niantic: An Indigenous community that, in the 1600s, lived in an area known today as Connecticut and Rhode Island. Today, there is a Niantic community in Rhode Island.
- ransom: A payment made to free a person who has been kidnapped.
- sachem: Name for a leader in Indigenous communities in the lands known today as the Northeastern United States.
- Shinnecock: An Indigenous community that has lived on Long Island, New York for hundreds of years.
- sunksquaw: A term for women who became leaders of Indigenous communities in the lands known today as the Northeastern United States.
- tribute: Payment made to a ruler.
Discussion Questions
- What challenges did Quashawam face as sunksquaw of the Montaukett?
- Why did Quashawam negotiate with other Native American and European communities? Why was this a successful strategy for preserving her community?
- What steps did Quashawam take to improve the status and security of the Montaukett community? What do these steps reveal about the world Quashawam lived in?
Suggested Activities
- APUSH Connection: 2.5: Interactions between Native Americans and Europeans
- Include this life story in a lesson about the history of Indigenous communities in the area that became New York State. This story exemplifies the complicated negotiations between various Native American communities and European colonists. How did Quashawam negotiate to protect the Montaukett?
- Teach Quashawam’s life story in conjunction with Dutch Interpreter and Catalina Trico, Founding Mother to consider the Dutch colonists’ interactions with local Native American communities.
- Pair this life story with Life Story: Cockacoeske and consider how two Native American women led their communities during colonization.
- Indigenous people across North and South America had a variety of responses to the arrival of European colonizers. Combine Quashawam’s life story with any of the resources below, and ask the students to consider the differences in each woman’s engagement with European colonizers and the outcomes they achieved:
- In Quashawam’s lifetime the Shinnecock were subordinate to the Montaukett, but today the Shinnecock are a federally recognized tribe, and the Montaukett are fighting to achieve the same recognition. Invite students to research the history of the two Native American communities to learn how this reversal of status came to be.
Themes
POWER AND POLITICS; AMERICAN IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP
