The Albany Commissioners for Indian Affairs and the Iroquois Nations, 1691-1755

269 Pages·2017·1.35 MB·English

Lehigh University
Lehigh Preserve
Theses and Dissertations
2016
Creating Borderlands Authorities: The Albany
Commissioners for Indian Affairs and the Iroquois
Nations, 1691-1755
Andrew Thomas Stahlhut
Lehigh University
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Stahlhut, Andrew Thomas, "Creating Borderlands Authorities: The Albany Commissioners for Indian Affairs and the Iroquois Nations,
1691-1755" (2016).Theses and Dissertations. 2823.
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Creating Borderlands Authorities: The Albany Commissioners for Indian Affairs and the
Iroquois Nations, 1691-1755

by

Andrew T. Stahlhut

A Dissertation

Presented to the Graduate and Research Committee

of Lehigh University

in Candidacy for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in

History

Lehigh University

May 23, 2016
©2016 Copyright
Andrew T. Stahlhut

ii
Approved and recommended for acceptance as a dissertation in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Andrew T. Stahlhut
Creating Borderlands Authorities: The Albany Commissioners for Indian Affairs and the
Iroquois Nations, 1691-1755

Defense Date

Jean Soderlund
(dissertation director / co-chair)

Approved Date

Committee Members:

Michelle LeMaster
(co-chair)

John Savage
(committee member)

Jamie Paxton
(external committee member)

iii
This dissertation is dedicated to Madison Berg,

the cat’s meow
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Numerous individuals have contributed to the successful completion of this project
in both direct and indirect ways. Dr. Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe provided me with my first
introduction to history as a field of ideas and understanding instead of a flat narrative of
names and dates. More than anyone she has set me down the path I now follow.
Additionally, my earliest work in the realm of colonial New York was under her tutelage.
Dr. Roger Simon oversaw my first graduate work in colonial New York in a graduate
research seminar, and Dr. Monica Najar and Dr. Christian Koot provided valuable
insights at various stages of this earlier research.
The Lawrence Henry Gipson Institute for Eighteenth-Century Studies provided
valuable research funding as well as funding for conferences that allowed me to share my
ideas and conclusions at multiple conferences. Lehigh University’s history department
provided two teaching fellowships and generous scholarships that helped me maintain my
fiscal solvency. Deans Jane Hudak and Gregg Scully at the Wescoe School at
Muhlenberg College offered unceasing support for me as I finished the last stage of my
degree, as well as continuous employment as adjunct professor that helped keep my body
and soul together. Dr. Donna Smith provided me with a quiet office of my own where
almost all of my research and writing took place – to her I am eternally grateful for such a
privilege. Lois Black and Ilhan Citak at Lehigh University’s Special Collections offered
continual support for many years leading up to my graduation, as did Phil Metzger,
formerly of that same department. Dr. Paul Peucker and Gwyn Michel at the Moravian
Church Archives also showed their interest and support throughout the process.
v
Lehigh University libraries, especially Pat Ward with the interlibrary loan service,
helped me access materials that made this dissertation possible. Chris Swan used his
computer expertise to facilitate access to critical records, in the process making the tasks
of research and writing infinitely smoother. Jim Higgins, before his disappearance into
the forest of the tenure track job search, provided a bedrock of advice based on his own
experiences that helped my dissertation process and my graduate career overall. Laura
Breen has been a tremendously positive influence in both my academic and personal
worlds. My parents, Colin and Suzi Stahlhut, more than anyone, have offered support in
ways too numerous to detail.
My dissertation committee members deserve praise for their work in guiding this
project. Dr. Michelle LeMaster, Dr. John Savage, and Dr. Jamie Paxton have all offered
their respective experiences and ideas to shape my dissertation to make it the best work
possible, and have provided valuable ideas as I work to shape it into a monograph. Dr.
Jean Soderlund deserves special recognition for her roles in both my dissertation and my
larger academic life. She has shaped my understanding of the colonial world more than
anyone else since my first day as a master’s student, and I have benefited immensely
from her attention. I would not be where I am without her.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables viii

Abstract 1

Introduction 3

Chapter 1:
New Netherland History and the Dutch
Core of New York’s Indian Diplomacy 33

Chapter 2:
Conflict, Cooperation, and Authority in the
Early Eighteenth Century Borderlands 72

Chapter 3:
Royal Governors, the Provincial Assembly, and
the Larger Colonial Context to Indian Diplomacy 108

Chapter 4:
Borderlands Diplomacy with other Indigenous
and Colonial Polities 142

Chapter 5:
Albany's Indian Diplomacy Relative to French Canada 178

Chapter 6:
Dutch Commissioners, an Irish Superintendent, and Indian
Diplomacy in the British Empire 211

Conclusion 243

Bibliography 249

Vita 260
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Commissioners for Indian Affairs, 1696-1745 67

Table 2: Tenure and Meetings per Core Member 69

Table 3: Extended Details on Core Members 70
viii
ABSTRACT

This dissertation explores how Albany’s Commissioners for Indian Affairs and
the neighboring Iroquois Nations created and preserved authorities in the New
York/Iroquoia borderlands from the 1690s through the early 1750s, and analyzes how the
effects of this local relationship rippled outwards to influence the indigenous and colonial
world of northeastern North America. Albany’s Commissioners, provincial agents at the
forefront of much of the British Empire’s Indian diplomacy for this time period,
maintained a roster of mostly Dutch colonists despite its existence as a colonial office in
a British colony. This tight web of intermarried Dutch settlers and traders sustained a
continuous conversation with the Iroquois Nations for half a century, relying upon a
shared borderlands diplomatic culture to maintain decorum despite regular friction over
issues such as imperial expansion and trade. These self-created borderlands authorities
established and maintained the New York/Iroquoia borderlands as a primary nexus for
Indian diplomacy in northeastern North America and placed Dutch commissioners and
Iroquoian leaders in important roles in issues affecting other British colonies, other
Indian polities, and even broad imperial processes such as the continuous eighteenth
century contest with New France.
Largely ignored or glossed over by historians, Albany’s Indian Commissioners
and their substantial records provide unique insight into understanding the European-
Indian power relationships in northeastern North America during the first half of the
eighteenth century. This dissertation provides the first sustained study of the Albany
Commissioners as an institution of Indian diplomacy and unlocks new ways of
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