1. Teedyuscung worked to establish a permanent Lenape home in eastern Pennsylvania in the Lehigh, Susquehanna, and Delaware River valleys.
18 Facts About Teedyuscung
1. 2.
Teedyuscung participated in the Treaty of Easton, which resulted in the surrender of Lenape claims to all lands in Pennsylvania.
3.
Teedyuscung, whose name means "as far as the wood's edge", was born circa 1700 near present-day Trenton, New Jersey.
4.
Teedyuscung was raised among a group of Lenape who were acculturated to the ways of the colonists by the time he reached adulthood.
5.
The Lenape were driven out of the Trenton area by 1730 and Teedyuscung migrated with his wife and son to a piece of land located near the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers in what is Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
6.
Teedyuscung became a spokesman for the Lenape who were forced to negotiate with the government of Colonial Pennsylvania.
7.
Teedyuscung remained with his fellow Lenape until 1749 or 1750 when he joined the Moravian Church at Lehighton.
8.
Teedyuscung was of two minds, as far as white people were concerned, and what satisfied one offended the other.
9.
Teedyuscung was driven to identify himself with the Europeans by an acute sense of his insecurity and inferiority as a member of the broken Delaware society.
10.
Teedyuscung left the Moravian settlement in 1754 and settled farther north in the Wyoming Valley.
11.
Teedyuscung had turned to the Pennsylvania colonial government for aid.
12.
Ultimately Teedyuscung chose to align his warriors with the western Delaware and French.
13.
At the 1758 negotiations for the Treaty of Easton, Teedyuscung claimed to represent the French allied Delaware Indians and the Six Nations of the Iroquois, the Shawnee, the Mahican, and the Christian Munsee.
14.
Teedyuscung sought a promise from the Pennsylvania government that the lands of the Wyoming Valley would be reserved for the displaced Indians of the area.
15.
Teedyuscung encountered opposition in the talks at Easton and in later talks with the William Penn's family, and the Iroquois Confederacy that he claimed to "represent" in the negotiations.
16.
The Iroquois were not pleased that Teedyuscung claimed to negotiate on their behalf and they refused to recognize the Lenape claim to any lands in the Wyoming Valley.
17.
Teedyuscung was a casualty of the peace that brought about the end of the French and Indian War in Pennsylvania.
18.
Teedyuscung was asleep in his cabin at the time and perished in the blaze.