Tammanies


The Tammanies or Tammany Societies were named for the 17th-century Delaware chief Tamanend or Tammany, revered for his wisdom. Tammany Society members also called him St. Tammany, the Patron Saint of America.
Tammanies are remembered today for New York City's Tammany Hall—also popularly known as the Great Wigwam—but such societies were not limited to New York, with Tammany Societies in several locations in the colonies, and later, the young country. According to the Handbook of Indians North of Mexico:
The implied purpose of the Tammany Societies was to delight in all things Native American, including titles, seasons, rituals, language and apparel, as illustrated by a 1832 notice of a meeting of Wigwam No. 9 in Hamilton, Ohio: