Tamanend: Lenni Lenape Chief, Statesman, Saint, Legend
Posted: Friday, December 03, 2010
by Jack H. Schick
Tamanend "the Affable" (1628-1698), was an important Unami (Turtle Clan) Lenni-Lenape leader at the time William Penn acquired his property in America. Often called Tammany, the chief is remembered as a lover of peace and friendship. He was the prominent Indian representative at the signing of the Great Treaty in 1683. His posthumous fame grew to mythical proportions among Natives and colonists. Because of his wisdom and adherence to peace and justice many people in the colonies before the Revolution called him the Patron Saint of America.
There is no record of Tamanend's early life. The only information available on this great chief and friend of Pennsylvanians is found in fourteen documents produced by the Pennsylvania provincial government between 1683 and 1697. His death is speculated to have been in about 1698, because when Penn returned to America in 1699, Tamanend was gone.
William Penn's first meeting with Tamanend was in May, 1683. Penn, at age 39, rode a white horse through the wilderness north of the City to meet with the already famous chief at the Indian village of Perkasie in Upper Bucks County (near the current location of Silverdale). He met in council with the Chief and his son Yaqueekhon. Penn was provided a feast of venison, roast acorns and boiled hominy. He enthusiastically joined in the activities of leaping and dancing to Indian singing and drum beating. The Natives developed a great respect for the Proprietor and appreciated the similarities between the Lenape and Quaker Way.
Tamanend visited Penn in Philadelphia on June 23, 1683 and spent a few days. The chief attended a Meeting at the Friends Meetinghouse at Front and Sansom Streets in the City. It was on this visit that the Great Treaty was signed. There is debate as to whether the treaty was ever written down, but a description of Tamanend's signing exists. His 'mark' was a drawing of a coiled snake. He was required to fill his pen several times to complete his "signature."
Through Swedish translators, Tamanend's words were transcribed and Indian women, brought for that purpose, committed the words to memory to maintain the Lenape oral history. Tamanend is reputed to have said:
" I Tamanen doe grant and dispose of all my lands lying betwixt Pemmapecka and Neshaminehs Creeks and all along Nechaminehs Creeks to William Penn Proprietor and Governor of Pennsylvania, etc his heirs and assigns for ever." (Southampton.com-Tamanend)
In exchange for signing the treaty it is reported Tamanend received and distributed to his people: 2 guns, 20 bars of lead, 25 pounds of powder, 6 coats, 8 shirts, 5 hats, 5 pair of stockings, 20 hands full of wampum, 1 peck of pipes, 10 tobacco boxes, 10 tobacco tongs, 2 kettles, 5 hoes, 6 axes, 16 knives, 100 needles, 2 blankets, 38 yards of duffields (cloth), 4 yards of (blue and red woolen cloth), 10 glasses, 7 half gills, 4 hands full of bells.
Unfortunately settlers did not restrict themselves to the areas covered by the treaty. They continued migrating inland following streams and rivers in search of vacant and fertile land. In other areas some colonist's pig pens and corrals had been built blocking old Indian paths. There was much debate and argument. In 1684 a second payment was made to settle the dispute. Tamanend demanded: 9 guns, 10 match coats (sleeveless jackets he had a particular liking for), and 10 blankets. He settled for 6 guns, 10 kettles, 10 Dutch blankets, 2 dozen rolls and 2 gallons of rum.
Due to the amiable relationship between Penn's colonists and the Lenape, it was not considered dangerous or illegal to give the Indians guns and powder as it was in other colonies. It was illegal to give them rum, but many Philadelphia businessmen had already become deeply involved in the rum trade and promoted use of the commodity.
Tamanend met in council with Pennsylvania officials several more times after the Proprietor had returned to England. In 1692, he affirmed peace and mutual respect with the colonists. The inland extent of the land purchases was established at that time. All land sold to Penn by the Lenape was to extend "backward from the Delaware River two days journey by horse," and was agreed upon to be about 75 miles. This distance came into much dispute four decades later at the time of the Walking Purchase.
In 1697, at a council at Philadelphia, Tamanend reinforce his agreements with Pennsylvania authorities and his respected friend William Penn. He made the following statement:
" We and the Christians of this river have always had a free roadway to one another, and though sometimes a tree has fallen across the road yet we have still removed it again and kept the path clear and we design to continue the old friendship that has been between us and you." (Southamptonpa.com-Tamanend)
This is the last time Tamanend appears in the records of colonial Pennsylvania . He soon became a legend in the memory of both Indians and 'whites.' Many years later Moravian missionary, Rev. John Heckwelder who was working among the displaced Lenape in western Pennsylvania wrote:
The name of Tamanend is held in the highest veneration among the Indians. Of all the chiefs and great men which the Lenape nation ever had, he stands foremost on the list. But although many fabulous stories are circulated about him among the whites, but little of his real history is knownAll we know about Tamanend, therefore, is that he was an ancient Delaware chief who never had his equal. He was in the highest degree endowed with wisdom, virtue, prudence, charity, affability, meekness, hospitality, in short with every good and noble qualification that a human being may possess. He was supposed to have had an intercourse with the great good spirit, for he was a stranger to everything that is bad. (AGQTC.org-Tamanend)
Ninety years after Tamanend's death, the Continental Congress sent Colonel Morgan out West to try to win the support of the remaining Lenape Indians against the British in the Revolutionary War. Morgan made such a good impression on the Delaware people of Ohio that they said he was a "Tamanend." The name had come to mean honorable, fair dealer.
Tamanend's fame grew among the 'whites' as well. During the lead up to the Revolutionary War colonists were searching for anything exclusively American. They latched onto the legend of Tamanend. Many Catholics and others dubbed him Saint Tammany, Patron Saint of America. Soon there was an annual St. Tammany Festival in Philadelphia on May 1st celebrating freedom for the common man.
In 1777, John Adams was in Philadelphia as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He wrote a letter home to wife Abigail:
" This is King Tammany's Day. Tammany was an Indian King, of this part the Continent, when Mr. Penn first came here. His court was in this town. He was friendly to Mr. Penn and very serviceable to him. He lived here among the first settlers for some time and until old age.The people here have sainted him and keep his day." (Adams Family Correspondence; Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1963- 1973, II, pp. 229-230)
While camped at Valley Forge on May 1, 1778 , General Washington and the Continental Army held a Tammany festival. George Ewing says in his Military Journal that the "men spent the day in mirth and jollity in honor of King Tammany." After the Revolutionary War, Tammany celebrations spread across America , as far from his original homelands as Savannah , Georgia . Many calendars of the period list May 1st as Saint Tammany's Festival Day.
Tammany celebrations were of great importance. In 1785 George Washington attended one in Richmond, Virginia with Governor Patrick Henry. Tammany Societies sprang up all over the new nation. The most famous being the one that met in New York City at Tammany Hall and gained political power in the city. As far off as Louisiana the great chief, now considered a saint was honored. The State has nine parishes (counties) named for saints. The only one not named for a Roman Catholic is Saint Tammany Parish.
Legend has it that Tamanend was buried near the confluence of the North and West branch of the Neshaminy Creek in present day Chalfont. The exact site is unknown. In the early 20th Century, Henry Mercer, famous architect from Doylestown, claimed to have found Tamanend's grave site and wanted to construct a red concrete turtle the size of a house to mark the spot. He could not convince historians of his theory nor the residents of Chalfont to approve the monument.
Tamanend the Affable, the greatest Chief of the Lenni-Lenape, signer of the Great Treaty, remains an American hero today. The records of legislative action by the Government of Pennsylvania contain the following document:
The General Assembly of Pennsylvania
House Resolution
No. 160 Session of 2005
March 21, 2005 Introduced as Noncontroversial Resolution
Under Rule 35,
A Resolution Designating May 1, 2005 , as "Tamanend's Day" in Pennsylvania .
Whereas, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, in 1777, set aside the first day of May for the annual honoring of the Lenape sachem Tamanend, who made the Great Treaty with William Penn at the founding of Pennsylvania; and whereas, this action of the Continental Congress was duly ratified and supported by the Constitutional Assembly of Pennsylvania, established in 1776; and whereas the Delaware (Lenape) Nation was the first to recognize and treaty with the United States of America in 1778, and in other ways contributed to this country and this Commonwealth; therefore be it resolved, that the House of Representatives designate May 1, 2005, as "Tamanend's Day" in Pennsylvania, for recognition of this great man and this great people.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Thanks for this fascinating history lesson, Jack. Tamanend sounds like an amazing man.Thanks for reading and commenting. I've got 250 pages of stuff like that from the project I've been on since spring. Friend Jack
Love the history , Jack , thank you.Thanks for being a busy reader.
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