KINGSTON – As settlers moved into the region in the 1600s, there were conflicts with Native Americans, two of whom were women who were killed for eating fruit from an Esopus apple tree, which resulted in more bloodshed.
“One of the Esopus wars,” said Paul Tobin, is what followed next. “There was a few of them.”
Tobin helped organize festivities and a commemoration to honor a peace treaty that was signed on October 7, 1665, six years after the hostilities started due to those fateful bites of an apple.
There were 13 renewals of the treaty from 1669-1745, and the recent commemoration, which included tree plantings and ceremonies with Native Americans, is the result of efforts by Tobin and others about decade ago.
“This grew out of the Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign, which we did about 10 years ago,” he said.
