Tammany

Tammany, also called Tamanend, was a leader of the Lenape (Delaware) people in the last part of the 17th century. Very little is known about the real Tammany, but stories concerning his purported actions and character converted him into a prominent figure in 18th and 19th century American culture. Among many other manifestations including annual celebrations of "Saint" Tammany, he inspired the foundation of the Tammany Society in New York City in 1789 and he appears in James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans.

What we know of the real Tammany is quite limited. His named appears in no more than a handful of documents produced between 1683 and 1698. As Edwin Kilroe points out, "this brief record of Tammany's dealings with the English settlers … discloses merely a series of business transactions," most of them cessions of land to William Penn. Thus, Kilroe observes, "For fifteen years he was in contact with the Whites, but during that period he did not appear as a chief of extraordinary accomplishments or importance; nor does he seem to have made a profound impression on the white settlers, for there is no record that they were awed by the force of his genius or charmed by his personality."

The legend of Tammany is quite another matter.