[Peter Cutul (2025)] Land Heist in the Highlands: Chief Daniel Nimham and the Wappinger Fight for Homeland Researched and written by Peter Cutul, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation or the Hudson Highlands Land Trust. Although many residents of the Highlands are familiar with Last of the Mohicans, surprisingly few have heard of Chief Daniel Nimham. Nimham has been described “as the most prominent American Indian associated with the Hudson Valley in the second half of the 18th century.” 1 A member of the Wappinger tribe residing in what today would be Putnam and Dutchess counties, according to American Indian scholar, Larry Hauptman, Nimham was a “diplomat, soldier, and sachem” who chose diplomacy over the sword in an age when his white counterparts rebelled violently against overreaching and overbearing landlords. Daniel Nimham is believed to have born in 1726 and reportedly was baptized in 1745 when he likely received his Christian name Daniel. 2 One of his allies was a pioneering and intrepid woman named Catheryna Brett, who, as a widow, ran a mill, managed thousands of acres of land in Fishkill, and set up the first produce cooperative in the Hudson River Highlands. 3 Catheryna was friends with Nimham’s grandfather and may have taught Daniel how to speak English. Her boys and the chief may have even grown up playing together. 4 As Lenape scholar Robert Grumet suggests, “Daniel Nimham was a man caught between two worlds. He grew up at a time when missionaries and farmers began moving to the Highlands in increasing numbers. A bright and articulate youth, he learned to speak English by listening to his new neighbors. When he was cast later in life into a lion's den of war and intrigue, his multicultural skills ultimately took him to the halls of government in New York and London in pursuit of land and justice for his people. He became notorious among supporters and enemies alike as the energetic and assertive defender of his people's land rights... Betrayed and abandoned by Crown officials appointed to look after his interests, he subsequently took common cause with colonists struggling to free themselves from royal authority.” 5 Nimham’s Fight for His People and Their Homeland In 1687, two Dutch traders, Jan Roelof Sybrandt and Lambert Dorland purchased a license from New York Governor Benjamin Fletcher for 15,000 acres along the eastern Hudson River shore of today’s 1 Laurence M. Hauptman, “The Road to Kingsbridge: Daniel Nimham and the Stockbridge Indian Company in the American Revolution,” American Indian Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Fall 2017). 2 Thomas F. Maxon, Mount Nimham: The Ridge of Patriots, Historical Timeline (New York: Thomas Maxon, 2009), 22. 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_Brett_Homestead 4 Thomas F. Maxon, Mount Nimham: The Ridge of Patriots, Historical Timeline ( New York: Thomas Maxon, 2009), 20. 5 Robert S. Grumet, The Nimhams of the Colonial Hudson Valley, 1667- 1783, Hudson Valley Regional Review (September 1992), 9.2: 80-99 Putnam County, with the stipulation that an Indian deed be acquired by June 2, 1688 and letters patent by July 1, 1688. 6 The property was described as a strip of land along the Hudson shore in the Highland, “beginning at the north side of a hill called Anthony’s Nose at a marked Red Seader Tree, and along said River Northerly to the Land belonging to Stephanus Van Cortlandt and the Heirs of Francis Rhombout and G. Verplanck, and Eastwards in the Woods as far along the said Lands of Stephanus Cortland and Co. aforesaid to a marked tree...” 7 Because the Eastern boundary was never clearly defined, the Governor at the time did not grant a patent, waiting for a more detailed survey. 8 Further, although required by the Governor to obtain an Indian deed for the parcel by 1688, Sybrant and Dorland did not manage to acquire a deed for the 15,000 acre tract until 1691. 9 Nonetheless, on June 16, 1697 Adolph Philipse, the son of land baron, slave trader, mill owner, and owner of almost one third of Westchester County, Fredrick Philipse, bought the property from Sybrant and Dorland. 10 Amazingly, the next day Adolph received a royal patent from Governor Fletcher extending the eastern boundary approximately an additional 190,000 acres to the CT border! 11 Adolph’s cozy relationship with the governor more than likely facilitated the transaction. Taking advantage of the hazy description of the eastern boundary, one story even suggests that Philipse cut down the tree marking the eastern border, rode all day and remarked a tree near the CT border. 12 Although Adolph Philipse managed to acquire a patent for the enlarged property, no deed was ever recorded