Editing New Netherland (section)

===Kieft's War===
{{Main|Kieft's War}}
[[Willem Kieft]] was [[Director of New Netherland]] from 1638 until 1647. The colony had grown somewhat before his arrival, reaching 8,000 population in 1635. Yet it did not flourish, and Kieft was under pressure to cut costs. At this time, Indian tribes that had signed mutual defense treaties with the Dutch were gathering near the colony due to widespread warfare and dislocation among the tribes to the north. At first, he suggested collecting tribute from the Indians,<ref>{{cite book |last=Jacobs  |first=Jaap  |title=New Netherland: A Dutch Colony In Seventeenth-Century America |year=2005  |publisher= Brill|quote=Both in the way it was set up and in the extent of its rights, the council of Twelve Men, as did the two later advisory bodies ... | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uex2budtSOUC&pg=RA1-PA136 |isbn=90-04-12906-5 |location=Leiden }}</ref> as was common among the various dominant tribes, but his demands were simply ignored by the [[Tappan (Native Americans)|Tappan]] and [[Wappinger#Wecquaesgeek|Wecquaesgeek]]. Subsequently, a colonist was murdered in an act of revenge for some killings that had taken place years earlier and the Indians refused to turn over the perpetrator. Kieft suggested that they be taught a lesson by ransacking their villages. In an attempt to gain public support, he created the Citizens Commission the [[Twelve Men|Council of Twelve Men]].

The Council did not rubber-stamp his ideas, as he had expected them to, but took the opportunity to mention grievances that they had with the company's mismanagement and its unresponsiveness to their suggestions. Kieft thanked and disbanded them and, against their advice, ordered that groups of Tappan and Wecquaesgeek be attacked at [[Pavonia, New Netherland|Pavonia]] and [[Lower East Side|Corlear's Hook]], even though they had sought refuge from their more powerful [[Mohicans|Mohican]] enemies per their treaty understandings with the Dutch. The massacre left 130 dead. Within days, the surrounding tribes united and rampaged the countryside, in a unique move, forcing settlers who escaped to find safety at Fort Amsterdam. For two years, a series of raids and reprisals raged across the province, until 1645 when [[Kieft's War]] ended with a treaty, in a large part brokered by the [[Hackensack (Native Americans)|Hackensack]] [[sagamore (title)|sagamore]] [[Oratam]].<ref name="ruttenber910746"/>

The colonists were disenchanted with Kieft, his ignorance of Indigenous peoples, and the unresponsiveness of the GWC to their rights and requests, and they submitted the Remonstrance of New Netherland to the [[States General of the Netherlands|States General]].<ref>{{Cite news| issn = 1086-6728| volume = 5| issue = 4| pages = 28–33| last = de Koning| first = Joep M.J.| title = From Van der Donck to Visscher: A 1648 View of New Amsterdam| work = Mercator's World| date = August 2000| url = http://www.mercatorsworld.com/504visscher.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000816185818/http://www.mercatorsworld.com/504visscher.html| archive-date = August 16, 2000}}</ref> This document was written by [[Leiden University|Leiden-educated]] New Netherland lawyer [[Adriaen van der Donck]], condemning the GWC for mismanagement and demanding full rights as citizens of the province of the Netherlands.<ref name="Shorto" />