TheNavesink, orNavisink, (or Nave Sinck)[1] were a group ofLenape who inhabited theRaritan Bayshore nearSandy Hook andMount Mitchill in eastern New Jersey in theUnited States.
Their territory included the peninsula, as well as the highlands south of it, where they lived along its cliffs and creeks. Archeological artifacts have been found throughout this area. The Navesink shared thetotem, a turtle, and spoke the same Lenape dialect,Unami, as their neighbors, theRaritan, and other groups such as theHackensack andTappan.[2]
EarlyEuropean contact was in the 16th and 17th centuries. The explorerHenry Hudson, anEnglish sea captain first had contact with the Navesink amongNative Americans, as recorded in journals from his ship, theHalve Maen on September 3, 1609. When crew went off the ship, they were attacked by Navesink.John Colman was killed and was said to be buried at what is now calledColeman's Point.[3]
Cornelius Van Werckhoven, an investor inNew Netherland purchased a tract calledNevesings in November 1651. At the time of the surrender of theDutch provincial colony ofNew Netherland to the British in 1664, the Navesinksachem, or chief, wasPassachquon.[2] In 1668, English settlers led byRichard Hartshorne bought the whole peninsula from the Navesink Lenape and called it Portland Poynt.[4]
Middletown Township, New Jersey is one of the oldest sites of European settlement in New Jersey.,[5] originally formed on October 31, 1693.
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