Algonquian, Lewis Bowman, Catoneras, Cornelis Van Slyck

I am a proud citizen of the eastern Algonquian speaking, Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation (Band #1101). At the time of colonial contact in the early 1600s, the Algonquian-speaking peoples living in what is now New York State included several distinct nations primarily in the Hudson River Valley, Long Island, and surrounding regions. These groups were linguistically related but politically independent, each with their own territories, leadership, and identities. Key Algonquian nations in the region included:

Munsee Lenape: Lived in the lower Hudson Valley, northern New Jersey, and parts of eastern Pennsylvania. They were among the first to encounter Dutch settlers.
Wappinger: Inhabited the east bank of the Hudson River from modern Putnam County north into Dutchess County, with close ties to the Munsee.
Mahican (Mohican): Occupied the upper Hudson Valley and western Massachusetts. Though Algonquian-speaking, they were often in conflict or alliance with the Iroquois.
Montaukett, Shinnecock, and other Long Island groups: These Algonquian peoples inhabited eastern Long Island and had extensive maritime traditions.
Western Abenaki (including the Schaghticoke and Sokoki): Lived in the upper Hudson and Hoosic River valleys, the Lake Champlain basin, and along the Connecticut River in what is now Vermont, western Massachusetts, and eastern New York. While the term Abenaki became more commonly used in the 18th century, many of these communities were already interconnected through language, kinship, and alliance by the early 1600s.

All of these groups were part of the Eastern Algonquian language family and maintained seasonal subsistence patterns, intertribal trade, and complex kinship networks. Their societies were deeply impacted by Dutch and later English colonization, warfare, disease, land loss, and forced displacement.

As I first shared in Bowman’s Store: A Journey to Myself (1997), my great-grandfather Lewis Bowman, born in 1844 in an Abenaki enclave in Brome-Missisquoi, Quebec, came from an undocumented family line. Like many Abenaki and Mohawk families of his time, he moved between Canada and the U.S., first settling in the Abenaki communities of Missisquoi and Winooski in Vermont, and by 1860, in Troy, New York. In 1864, he joined the 69th New York Infantry, fought for the Union in the Civil War, and became a U.S. citizen. After the war, he moved to Cole Hill—part of the Fox Hill Indian enclave—where he married my great-grandmother, Alice Van Antwerp., a Dutch Indian woman descended from both Iroquoian and Algonquian ancestors.

The name of my direct ancestor, Catoneras, echoes throughout my maternal family tree—nearly every branch extends to her. These Algonquian ancestral lines converge first in Brooklyn, then Westchester, Albany, Schaghticoke, Saratoga, Vermont, Quebec, and finally in Greenfield Center, New York, where I was born and raised. Our kinship to Catoneras—carried through the Berg, Buckhout, Cole, Conklin, Cornelissen, Devoe, DeWitt, Douw, Dunham, Fonda, Foster, Glen, Janse, Jones, Kinderhook, Koning, Mann, Manning, Palmer, Putnam, Rice, See, Storm, Teunis, Van Antwerp, Van Den Bergh, Van Der Volgen, Van Ness, Van Slyke, Van Tassel, Van Valkenburgh, and Van Wart families—reveals a resilient, richly interwoven legacy. Many of these threads have been carefully documented in the work of Daniel Van Tassel of Tarrytown, helping bring this long-shadowed lineage into the light.

My 9th great-grandfather, Broer Antonissen Cornelis Van Slyck—often remembered as the Peacemaker of Early New York—appears multiple times in our family tree, his legacy woven through several interrelated ancestral lines. Born in the area that would later become Breuckelen (Brooklyn), he was of mixed Dutch and Indigenous heritage, possibly the son of Catoneras herself.

Related Blog Posts

In Search of Catoneras: Long Island’s Pocahontas

John A. Strong, James Van Tassel and Rick Van Tassel

Department of History Southampton College

Abstract: This article focuses on an aspect of colonial history that is often avoided by historians. With the exception of the iconic marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, sexual unions between white men and Indian women were seldom mentioned by historians unless the union was sanctified by Christian ritual. Among the several references to interracial liaisons in the colonial records relating to Long Island, there is one concerning a Dutch settler named Cornelis Jansen Van Tassel and an Indian woman named Catoneras, who is described as a “Sunksquaw” (female sachem). The couple had a son, Jan Cornelissen, whose descendants have spent a great deal of time and energy researching the story of Catoneras and Cornelis. This article discusses the historical context of the relationship and the quest to discover more about Catoneras, Long Island’s Pocahontas. FULL ARTICLE>

Marion Dunham and Jesse Bowman in their home in Greenfield Center, where they raised Joseph Bruchac.

Who Was Catoneras?

Catoneras (also spelled Catinery or Katonah) is an Indigenous woman remembered primarily through oral traditions and colonial land petitions as a Canarsee or Montaukett Lenape woman of "noble lineage." She is described as the daughter or close kin of a Canarsee Sôgemô (Chief).

The Canarsee and Their Historical Context

The Canarsee were a Munsee-speaking band of the Lenape people who lived in western Long Island and parts of what became Brooklyn.
Their land was strategically important in the early Dutch colonial period, but by the late 1600s, much of it was lost to colonial expansion.
The Canarsee had matrilineal inheritance customs, so land and kinship often passed through women.
They are related culturally and linguistically to neighboring groups like the Montaukett, Shinnecock, and the larger southern Lenape family.

Indigenous-Dutch Settler Connections

Early Dutch settlers—like the Van Tassel, Van Slyck, and Cornelissen families—formed unions with Indigenous women, creating lasting Dutch-Indigenous lineages. The Van Tassels were closely tied to families such as Koel, See, Storm, Conklin, and Van Slyck, with roots across the lower and mid-Hudson Valley.
These families lived in areas like Saratoga, Westchester, Dutchess, and Albany Counties. In 1771, Elizabeth Storm married Mathyas Van Tassel, and Abraham Storm married Lea Van Tassel—both unions linked to the Catoneras legacy.

The 1700 Land Petition and “Catinery’s Neck”

Early 18th-century land petitions were sometimes filed by descendants of Indigenous or mixed Indigenous-Dutch families asserting ancestral land rights.
The petition concerning “Catinery’s Neck” near Canarsie (in what is now Brooklyn/Queens, Long Island) refers to an “Indian grandmother” whose lands were claimed to have been wrongfully taken.
This petition is mentioned in genealogical narratives directly connected to Van Tassel, Storm, See, and Cole family descendants.

[Riker, James. Annals of Newtown (1852) — includes background on early Dutch and Indigenous families around Long Island and land disputes] [Long Island Genealogy — Van Tassel and related families — details connections between Indigenous women and Dutch settlers, including petitions about lands near Canarsie]

Broer (Brother) Van Slyck / Van Slyke and His Ancestry

Broer Van Slyck (also Van Slyke or Van Slyck) was born in Brooklyn in close proximity to the Canarsee between 1618-1620. He became an interpreter for the Mahican and Mohawk and played a diplomatic role in the Hudson and Mohawk Valley.
His mother’s identity remains unknown or uncertain, but genealogical research and oral traditions strongly suggest she was an Indigenous woman, plausibly Catoneras.

Supporting Evidence & Sources

The 1700 land petition (New York State Archives) identifies Catoneras as an Indigenous woman whose descendants claim land rights.

[Petition of Cornelius Van Tassel and others concerning land in Queens County (1700), New York State Archives.][Robert Gordon Clarke, Early New Netherland Settlers, genealogical records of Van Tassel and Cornelissen lines]

Anthropological and historical texts on the Canarsee and neighboring groups provide cultural context for matrilineal descent and alliances.

[John A. Strong, The Montaukett Indians of Eastern Long Island (Syracuse University Press, 2001)][E.M. Ruttenber, Indian Tribes of Hudson’s River to 1700 (original 1872; reprint 1992)]

Early Dutch Settlers and Indigenous Intermarriage

Edward Manning Ruttenber, History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River (1872)
Discusses Dutch settlers intermarrying with Indigenous peoples around New Netherland, including alliances and kinship.
Barbara Alice Mann, Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas (2000)
Provides cultural context on Indigenous women’s roles in diplomacy and kinship, including marriages with European settlers in the Mohawk and Hudson Valley.

Van Tassel, Van Slyck, Cornelissen Families and Indigenous Connections

Jonathan Pearson, History of the Schenectady Patent (1862)
Contains detailed genealogies of Dutch families in New Netherland and documents marriages and land claims involving Indigenous women, including references to Van Slyck and Van Tassel families.
Schenectady Digital History Archive — Van Slyck Family
Focuses on early settler families with Indigenous ties, including intermarriages and the role of these families as intermediaries.
Philip J. Deloria, Indians in Unexpected Places (2004)
Explores mixed Indigenous-European families’ cultural roles in colonial and early America.

Catoneras as Matriarch and Indigenous Maternal Lineage

James Riker, Annals of Newtown (1852)
Mentions “Catinery” (Catoneras) as an Indigenous woman whose descendants claimed land in Queens County, and her role as an ancestor to early Dutch-Indigenous families.
Clark University Genealogical Reports (D. Joyce)
Document Catoneras and her descendants, connecting to families like Van Tassel, Storm, See, and Cole.

Summary

These sources collectively support the idea that early Dutch settlers, such as the Van Tassel, Van Slyck, and Cornelissen families, intermarried with Indigenous women and played vital cultural and political roles bridging communities.