[Peter Cutul (2025)] unravel a whole network of questionable land claims throughout the region based largely on short dealings with the Native Americans and underhanded tactics. The trial ended in a strangely ironic twist with the head of the Council asking Mr. Spalding if the Council had not given the Wappinger a fair trial. Receiving no official ruling, Spalding, Nimham and the Wappinger returned home. Not long after, Nimham saw the Council’s verdict published in the local press and in at least one New York City newspaper on March 11, 1767: “Upon the whole Matter, his Excellency the Governor and the Council, are unanimously of the Opinion, and do declare, that the Indians now living of the Wappinger Tribe, have no Right, Title, or Claim to the Lands granted as aforesaid by Letters Patent to the said Adolph Philipse...” 47 Despite the guidance of Secretary Shelburne and the Lords of Trade, the verdict was in; a summary and conclusive dismissal of the Wappinger and their claim. Adding insult to injury, Beverly Robinson was declared to be “a man of Character, of Prudence, and of undoubted Loyalty.” 48 Nimham was forced to move the rest of his tribe to Stockbridge, MA and relinquish all claims to the Wappinger ancestral homeland. Pockets of resistant occupation may have remained in remote, rugged deep backwoods areas like Mount Nimham (Putnam County), but the bulk of the tribe (numbering less than two hundred fifty at this point) now had to retreat to Stockbridge, joining the Mohican community there. 49 The American Revolution: One Last Chance for Justice In April of 1775, a final opportunity for justice for Nimham and the Wappinger appeared with the arrival of the Revolutionary War. Having been betrayed by the Crown’s corrupt bureaucratic network, the Wappinger had one last chance to win back their lands and freedom. As early as the spring of 1775 Nimham traveled to Boston to declare his loyalty to the Patriot cause. 50 Joined by his son Abraham, both joined the Stockbridge Militia Company, a Native American military unit comprised of Munsee, Mohican and Wappinger largely from the Stockbridge area. As early as 1774, Native Americans from Stockbridge had met at the Red Lion Inn (later made famous in Norman Rockwell’s 1967 Home for Christmas painting of the Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas) pledging their loyalty to the American cause: “Wherever your armies go, there we will go; you shall always find us by your side; and if providence calls us to sacrifice our Lives in the field of battle, we will fall where you fall, and lay our bones by Henry Noble MacCracken, Old Dutchess Forever! The Story of An American County (New York: Hastings House), 298 48 Henry Noble MacCracken, Old Dutchess Forever! The Story of An American County (New York: Hastings House, 1957), 299 49 Thomas F. Maxon, Mount Nimham: The Ridge of Patriots, Historical Timeline (New York: Thomas Maxon, 2009), 32. 50 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). 47 yours. Nor shall peace ever be made between our nation and the Red-Coats until our brothers -the white people- lead the way.” 51 The unit served with distinction in two iterations: first in the siege of Boston and the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, and second, as a reformed company in 1777 making significant contributions in the battles of Saratoga and Monmouth. The unit even earned the praise and respect of George Washington, who personally asked the company to assist Major General Sullivan in his expedition against the Iroquois. 52 Daniel Nimham’s son Abraham became a Captain in the unit. In a dramatic and unfortunate twist of fate, however, the unit’s success was to be short lived. On Aug. 31, 1778, while on a scouting expedition in what is today Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, Daniel Nimham and the Stockbridge were ambushed by not one but two of the British army’s most notorious units, the Queens Rangers and Tarleton’s Dragoons. Led by the infamous Captain Simcoe and the much feared Banastre Tarleton, respectively, the mounted Loyalist units surrounded and proceeded to cut down the Stockbridge Company with sabers. The Stockbridge put up a fierce defense which impressed the seasoned British officers. Simcoe commented that “the Indians fought most gallantly”, even “pulling more than one of the cavalry from their horses.” 53 Tarleton was pulled off his horse and could have been easily killed if the Native American that had him in his clutches had a bayonet. In the ferocious struggle that ensued, the overwhelming British force outnumbering the natives five to one, however, proved to be too much. 54 Estimates suggest that the Stockbridge lost anywhere between 17 to 40 men, including Chief Nimham