Over a period of more than fifty years, Tackapausha was involved in the negotiation of many land-use agreements and alliances between the indigenous people of western Long Island and the Dutch and English colonial authorities. In 1643, he and several other Long Island sachems signed an agreement with Englishmen from the Stamford outpost of the New Haven Colony allowing for the "purchase" of a town plot for the new settlement of Hempstead in territory claimed by the Dutch West India Company. In May 1645, after the murder of five of his people by Hempstead settlers and the murder of two more captured Indians by the Dutch, Tackapausha went to New Amsterdam to meet with Willem Kieft and make peace with the Dutch. At the time, Tackapausha said he was representing all the Indian communities of Long Island and he pledged on behalf of them all to provide warriors to help the Dutch defeat any Indians who opposed them.
