The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Munsees

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MUNSEES, Monseys, or Minsis, a tribe of American Indians formerly residing on the upper Delaware and the Minisink. In 1663 they aided the Esopus Indians in attacking the Dutch post, and were chastised by Kregier. They claimed all the land from the Minisink to the Hudson, the head waters of the Delaware and Susquehanna, and south to the Lehigh and Conewago. Settlers began to encroach on them early in the 18th century, and they fell back to the Susquehanna. The Moravians drew some to their missions, but the main body were discontented; moving westward through the Iroquois country, they joined the French at Niagara, and were with difficulty gained over by Sir William Johnson. After the fall of the French, some listened to the Moravians, but in the revolution most of the tribe, under Capt. Pipe, retired to Sandusky and joined the English, and even after the war remained hostile, rejecting terms in 1793, and not making peace till 1805. In 1808 a part settled on Miami land at White river. Some years later they joined the Stockbridge Indians near Green bay. Most of the Munsees, under a treaty in 1839, removed to Kansas. They are now nearly extinct, being represented in Wisconsin by a single family of half a dozen souls, and in Kansas by part of a band of 56 Chippewas and Munsees. Their language was an Algonquin dialect closely allied to the Delaware.