Tamanend was the chief
of the Lenni Lenape tribe who made the first treaties with William Penn.
He is remembered as a
man of honor.
The name Tamanend means
“The Affable.”
Born: about 1628
Sons: Yaqueekhon and
Quenameckquid
Died: 1698
Tamanend’s name
Tamanend’s name is
sometimes spelled Tamanent, Tammany, or Tamine. The name Tamanend means “the
affable.” The word “affable” means pleasant, courteous, and easy to talk to.
The Lenni Lenape
The Native Americans
who lived in the area where William Penn made his settlement were known as the
Lenni Lenape. The Europeans called them the Delaware, after the English name
for the nearby river.
The Lenni Lenape tribe
had three clans. They were the Minsi, the Unami, and the Unalachtigos. The
Unami (Turtle) clan was the head clan. The chief of the Unami was the leader of
all of the Lenni Lenape people. Tamanend became the chief of the Unami some
time before 1683.
Tamanend and His People
We do not know anything
about Tamanend’s early life. We know that he lived along the banks of the
Neshaminy creek. His tribe lived in families in small villages. They hunted
deer and beaver. They planted corn, beans, and squash.
One man who wrote about
Tamanend was Rev. John Heckwelder. He was a Moravian missionary. He never met Tamanend,
but he learned about him from some of the early settlers and the older native
people. He 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 known… All 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 and good spirit, for he was a stranger to everything that is bad.”
William Penn Comes to
America
The King of England
gave William Penn land in the New World. William Penn was a Quaker. The Quakers
were persecuted in England. Penn wanted to make a place where people could
worship freely. He decided to make Pennsylvania that place. He arrived in
Pennsylvania on October 29, 1682.
William Penn respected
the Native Americans. He visited them and asked for their friendship. He tried
to learn their language. When he wanted land, he made an agreement to pay for
it. He also made it a rule that any Native Americans on land that he had bought
should not be disturbed. He believed that the settlers and the native people
could live together in peace.
Meetings with William
Penn
William Penn visited
Tamanend in Perkasie (where Silverdale is today) in May of 1683. Tamanend and
his son Yaqueekhon offered him a feast of venison. Penn joined in with the
dancing that followed. William Penn had many meetings with the local chiefs.
On June 23, 1683,
Tamanend and some other chiefs came to Philadelphia to meet with William Penn.
Penn asked to buy four pieces of land. He had made deeds to show that he was
buying the land. The interpreter read
the deeds to the Native Americans. Tamanend and the other chiefs signed the
four deeds. These men each had their own mark. Tamanend’s mark was a coiled
snake.
William Penn paid for
the land with different kinds of goods.
He gave Tamanend 2 guns, 20 bars of lead, 25 pounds of powder, 6 coats,
8 shirts, 5 hats, 5 pairs of stockings, 5 caps, 20 handfuls of wampum, 144
pipes, 10 tobacco boxes, 10 tobacco tongs, 2 kettles, 5 hoes, 6 axes, 16
knives, 100 needles, 2 blankets, 38 yards of duffields, (woolen cloth) 4 yards
of stroudswater, (woolen cloth) 10 glasses, 7 half-gills, and four handfuls of
bells.
Tamanend divided these
things among his people.
Shakamaxon
Around this same time
several chiefs, including Tamanend, met William Penn at Shakamaxon. This was a
meeting place where a huge old elm tree grew. The elm became known as the
“Treaty Elm.”
Tamanend and Penn made
speeches. William Penn said,
“We have come here with
a hearty desire to live with you in peace… We believe you will deal kindly and
justly by us, and we will deal kindly and justly by you…We will be as one
heart, one head, one body; that if one suffers, the other suffers; that if
anything changes the one it changes the other. We will go along the broad
pathway of good will to each other together.”
Tamanend, through an
interpreter, said:
“We will live in love
with William Penn and his children, as long as the creeks and rivers run, and
while the sun, moon, and stars endure.”
Tamanend gave Penn a
belt of wampum. It had pictures of two men on it. The men’s hands were clasped
together. One was a man in a hat, (Penn) the other a Native American. This belt
was a symbol of friendship.
William Penn returned
to England in 1683.
Later Meetings
In May 1692 Tamanend
went to the officials in Philadelphia. He complained that he had not been paid
enough for his land. He might not have had enough of some items to distribute
them equally. He asked for 9 guns, 10 matchcoats (woolen jackets with no
sleeves) and 10 blankets. Eventually he was given 6 guns, 10 blankets, 10
kettles, some bread, and some beer.
Tamanend attended two
more councils. The first was in 1694. The second was held on July 5, 1697. At
this time Tamanend agreed to sell the land between the Pennypack Creek and the
Neshaminy Creek, as far as a horse can travel in two summer days. For this
agreement, Tamanend received more goods, and a horse.
Ownership of Land
When William Penn and
his agents said that they were buying land, they meant that it belonged to
them. Penn could sell the land to other people. Whoever owned the land had the
right to that land. This was a different way of thinking than the Native
American way. The native peoples thought that they were giving rights to share
the land to the settlers. They did not understand that the settlers were taking
it away. Even though William Penn insisted that the native people be allowed to
share the land, as time went on people did not respect this rule. After Penn
died, the leaders who followed him did not have the same generous and peaceful
ways.
Tamanend’s Death
It is believed that
Tamanend died in 1698. There is no record of him after this time. He attended
no more councils. A letter sent to England by the Lenape chiefs in 1701 did not
have his signature on it.
No one is sure where
Tamanend is buried. Some people believe that he was buried in the “Tammany
Burial Ground” near Chalfont, Pa. Henry Mercer once researched the site, and
planned to put a monument on Tamanend’s grave. He later changed his mind. He
was not sure that Tamanend was buried there at all.
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