Lenni- Lenape to speak Bridgeton News The Lenape Indians managed to hold out in little pockets and would like federal recognition.
Review: 'New Amsterdam' shoots blanks San Francisco Chronicle One of Peter Minuit's flunkies comes back to life in present-day Manhattan in a confusing new TV show.
Manhattan apartment costs are down a bit New York Daily News But $24 still won't get you much.
April 21, 2008
Nearly every semi-attentive schoolkid knows the story: Peter Minuit, Dutch explorer and businessman, steps onto the wild shores of a large, strategically located island in the Hudson River in 1626. He meets a band of natives representing the area's Lenape tribe, hands over $24 worth of beads and trinkets and claims rights to the island to be known forever after by the name of the deed: Manhattan, Lenape for "place where we were cheated."
Except...well, let's start with the $24 in beads and trinkets. Dutch West India Company records show that Minuit did gift a band of Indians with trade goods valued at 60 guilders, which a New York historian in the 1800s calculated to be the equivalent of $24, a number that has resisted inflationary adjustment ever since. But what were those trade goods?
Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, authors of Gotham: A History of New York City, note that a similar trade Minuit executed for Staten Island involved duffel cloth, iron kettles, axe heads, hoes, drilling awls "and diverse other wares." The authors express appropriate shock at the generosity of the booty. "If similar trade goods were involved in the Manhattan arrangement, then the Dutch were engaged in high-end technology transfer, handing over equipment of enormous usefulness in tasks ranging from clearing land to drilling wampum." Perhaps Minuit had other aims, such as encouraging development of what was then mostly a mosquito-infested swamp.
Let us also consider the nature of the transaction. Native Americans at the time had little or no concept of land ownership. At best, they might have thought they were granting limited hunting and fishing rights to the oddly attired gentleman. We don't even know the actual terms of the deal, as the deed, if there ever was one, was promptly lost.
Then there's the matter of the Indians themselves. Legend had it that Minuit dealt with the native Metoac band. But contemporary scholars have concluded he more likely encountered a band of Canarsie, a tribe that lived on Long Island and commuted to Manhattan for periodic hunting expeditions. If true, this means that Minuit may have been the first Times Square rube to fall for a "one-of-a-kind opportunity."
The price may not be as much of a rook as it sounds, either. Financial whizzes have calculated that if those 60 guilders had been invested at 7% compounded interest, the Indians, whoever they were, would have more than $16 trillion now, enough at least to get a really nice townhome.
Finally, let us consider the name "Manhattan," which the Dutch began applying to the island with a 1610 map. Possible Native derivations of the word include:
What, you expected a real estate deal in New York was going to be simple?
A Map of the Republic of New Netherland Strange Maps A new map imagines a landscape where the Dutch held on to their American holdings.
American Colonies: New Sweden History of American Women The Dutch get Manhattan; Sweden gets...New Jersey?
The 2008 Berkshire Letter: "The Joy of Compounding" (?) Reflections on Value Investing Warren Buffett does the math on that legendary $24.
What does "Manhattan" mean?
88% 0% 0% 13%
Mr. Peterman, this is wonderful. Your mention of the inflationary adjustment is well taken.
As for the meaning of "Manhattan," "place of general inebriation" (as I first heard it said) is certainly the most accurate meaning as anyone who has visited our city can attest. Many of the hills have been gone since 1811.
As a New York City tour guide, I tell the story of Minuit's $24 several times each week. In addition to the Lenape and the Canarsie, the Algonquins and Minettas also had a presence on the island. Since they had no say in the deal, it is clear that the Lenapes took Minuit's money for something that was not theirs to sell.
As I always tell my tour groups: The Lenapes swindled Minuit every bit as much as Minuit swindled the Lenapes... AND WE NEW YORKERS HAVE BEEN MERRILY SWINDLING EACH OTHER EVER SINCE!
Try L.A.
Somewhere in the mists of history the Indians lost the land to Spain who gave it to the Missions, then to large Ranchos; then Spain lost it to Mexico, then Mexico lost it to the U.S.
Then the developers subdivided everything. (God Bless them!)
I make my living (and a very, very good one) helping people buy and sell to each other the land and houses, that once belonged to ranchos, Missions, Mexico and Spain and (once upon a time) to the Indians.
What was obtained for free sells for a small fortune today, "bubbles" to the contrary.
"Manhattan"? Doesn't that mean: "the place where the governor made really unfortunate personal decisions?" (That got my vote)
I wonder what "The Donald" thinks?
Is this what people are talking about when they say, "In a New York Minuit?"
Actually, I don't think $24 worth of beads and axe heads has anything to do with the "ownership" of Manhattan. The Dutch did not need anyone's permission to start building stuff on the island. They just gave themselves permission and they went ahead and did it. They had tools, they had ships, they had guns, they had power and they had people. They didn't buy it, they claimed it. They might even say they took it fair and square, but really, they just came in and took over. Who believes that nonsense about "buying Manhattan" for $24 of beads anyway?