Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
Group	Lenape people
Population	Estimated 16,000
Region1	()
Pop1	11,1951 (2010)
Ref1
Region2	()
Region3	()
Languages	English, Munsee, and Unami
Religions	Christianity, Native American Church,traditional tribal religion
Related	Other Lenape and Algonquian peoples
Footnotes	}}

The Lenape ( or ) are an Algonquian group of Native Americans from the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. Today they live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the 'Munsee-Delaware Nation 1, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and the Delaware of Six Nations, and the United States, where they are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes, the Delaware Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians], both located in Oklahoma, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, located in Wisconsin. Also note the existence of the Lenape in places where they are not legally recognized by the settler nation-state, such as the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania.

At the time of European contact in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Lenape lived in the area referred to as ''Lenapehoking'', roughly the area around and between the Delaware and lower Hudson Rivers. This encompassed what are now known as the U.S. state of New Jersey; eastern Pennsylvania around the Delaware and Lehigh valleys; the north shore of Delaware; and much of southeastern New York, particularly the lower Hudson Valley, Upper New York Bay, Staten Island and western Long Island. They spoke two related languages in the Algonquian subfamily, collectively known as the Delaware languages: ''Unami'' and ''Munsee''.

Lenape society is organized into clans determined by matrilineal descent. Territory was collective, but divided by clan. At the time of European contact, the Lenape practiced large-scale agriculture, mostly companion planting, their primary crops being varieties of the "Three Sisters." They also practiced hunting and the harvesting of seafood. They were primarily sedentary, moving to different established campsites by season.

After the arrival of settlers and traders to the 17th-century colony of New Netherland, the Lenape and other native peoples became extensively involved in the North American fur trade. Their trapping depleted the beaver population in the region, proving disastrous for both the Lenape and the Dutch settlers. The Lenape were further weakened by newly introduced infectious diseases, and by conflict with both Europeans and the traditional Lenape enemies, the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock. Over the next centuries, they were pushed out of their lands by Iroquoian enemies, treaties and overcrowding by European settlers, and moved west into the Ohio River valley. In the 1860s, most Lenape remaining in the Eastern United States were sent to the Oklahoma Territory. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with some communities living also in Kansas, Wisconsin, Ontario, and in their traditional homelands.

Name

Leni Lenape means "Human Beings" or the "Real People" in the Unami language. Their (autonym) is also spelled Lennape or Lenapi, meaning "the people." The term "Delaware" comes from the Delaware River, named for Lord De La Warr, the governor of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. They used the exonym above for almost all the Lenape people living along this river and its tributaries.

Society

Early Indian "tribes" are perhaps better understood as language groups, rather than as "nations". At the time of first European contact, a Lenape individual would likely have identified primarily with his or her immediate family and friends, or village unit; then with surrounding and familiar village units; next with more distant neighbors who spoke the same dialect; and ultimately, while often fitfully, with all those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually comprehensible languages, including the Mahican. Among other Algonquian peoples, the Lenape were considered the "grandfathers" from whom all the other Algonquian peoples originated. Consequently, in inter-tribal councils, the Lenape were given respect as one would to elders.

Those of a different language stock – such as the Iroquois (or, in the Lenape language, the ''Minqua'') – were regarded as foreigners. As in the case of the Iroquois, the animosity of difference and competition spanned many generations, and tribes became traditional enemies. Ethnicity seems to have mattered little to the Lenape and many other "tribes". Archaeological excavations have found Munsee-speaking Lenape burials that included identifiably ethnic Iroquois remains interred along with those of Lenape. The two groups were bitter enemies since before recorded history. Intermarriage clearly occurred. In addition, both tribes practiced adopting captives from warfare into their tribes and assimilating them.

Overlaying these relationships was a phratry system, a division into clans. Clan membership was matrilineal; children inherited membership in a clan from their mother. On reaching adulthood, a Lenape traditionally married outside the clan, a practice known by ethnographers as, "exogamy". The practice effectively prevented inbreeding, even among individuals whose kinship was obscure or unknown.

Early Europeans who first wrote about Indians found matrilineal social organization to be unfamiliar and perplexing. Because of this, Europeans often tried to interpret Lenape society through more familiar European arrangements. As a result, the early records are full of clues about early Lenape society, but were usually written by observers who did not fully understand what they were seeing. For example, a man's maternal uncle (his mother's brother), and not his father, was usually considered to be his closest male ancestor, since his father belonged to a different clan. The maternal uncle played a more prominent role in the lives of his sister's children than did the father. Early European chroniclers did not understand this concept.

Land was assigned to a particular clan for hunting, fishing, and cultivation. Individual private ownership of land was unknown, as the land belonged to the clan collectively while they inhabited it. Clans lived in fixed settlements, using the surrounding areas for communal hunting and planting until the land was exhausted. In a common practice known as "agricultural shifting", the group then moved to found a new settlement within their territories.

The Lenape practiced large-scale agriculture to augment a mobile hunter-gatherer society in the region around the Delaware River, the lower Hudson River, and western Long Island Sound. The Lenape were largely a sedentary people who occupied campsites seasonally, which gave them relatively easy access to the small game that inhabited the region: fish, birds, shellfish and deer. They developed sophisticated techniques of hunting and managing their resources.

By the time of the arrival of Europeans, the Lenape were cultivating fields of vegetation through the slash and burn technique. This extended the productive life of planted fields. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area, and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round. The success of these methods allowed the tribe to maintain a larger population than nomadic hunter-gatherers could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape total in approximately 80 settlement sites around much of the New York City area, alone. In 1524 Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor.

The early European settlers, especially the Dutch and Swedes, were surprised at the Lenape's skill in fashioning beautiful articles of clothing from natural materials. Of course, in hot weather both men and women wore only loin cloth and skirt respectively, while beaver pelts or bear skins served as winter mantles. Additionally, both sexes might wear buckskin leggings and moccasins in cold weather. Deer hair, dyed a deep scarlet, was a favorite component of headdresses and breast ornaments for males. However, the Lenape also adorned themselves with various ornaments made of stone, shell, animal teeth, and claws. The women often wore headbands of dyed deer hair or wampum. They also meticulously painted their skin skirts or decorated them with porcupine quills. These skirts were so elaborately appointed that, when seen from a distance, they reminded Dutch settlers of fine European lace. The winter cloaks of the women were even more striking. These outer garments were fashioned entirely from the iridescent body feathers of wild turkeys.

History

European contact

The first recorded contact with Europeans and people presumed to have been the Lenape was in 1524. The explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was greeted by local Lenape who came by canoe, after his ship entered what is now called Lower New York Bay. The Lenape occupied coastal areas throughout the mid-Atlantic and New York.

The early interaction between the Lenape and Dutch traders in the 17th century was primarily through the fur trade, specifically, the Lenape trapped and traded beaver pelts for European-made goods. According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape's primary crop was maize, which they planted in March. They quickly adopted European metal tools for this task.

In May, the Lenape planted kidney beans near the maize plants; the latter served as props for the climbing bean vines. The summers were devoted to field work and the crops were harvested in August. Women cultivated varieties of maize and beans, and did most of the field work, processing and cooking of food. The men limited their agricultural labor to clearing the field and breaking the soil. They primarily hunted and fished during the rest of the year. Dutch settler David de Vries, who stayed in the area from 1634 to 1644, described a Lenape hunt in the valley of the Achinigeu-hach (or "Ackingsah-sack," the Hackensack River), in which one hundred or more men stood in a line many paces from each other, beating thigh bones on their palms to drive animals to the river, where they could be killed easily. Other methods of hunting included lassoing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting the brush on fire.

17th century

New Amsterdam was founded by the Dutch in what would later become New York City in 1624. Dutch settlers founded a colony at present-day Lewes, Delaware on June 3, 1631 and named it ''Zwaanendael'' (Swan Valley). The colony had a short existence, as in 1632 a local band of Lenape Indians killed the 32 Dutch settlers after a misunderstanding escalated over Lenape defacement of the insignia of the Dutch West India Company. In 1634, the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock went to war with the Lenape over access to trade with the Dutch at New Amsterdam. They defeated the Lenape, and some scholars believe that the Lenape may have become tributaries to the Susquehannock. After the warfare, the Lenape referred to the Susquehannock as "uncles." The Lenape were added to the Covenant Chain by the Iroquois in 1676, remaining tributary to the Five (later Six) Nations until 1753.

The Lenape's quick adoption of trade goods, and their need to trap furs to meet high European demand, resulted in their disastrous over-harvesting of the beaver population in the lower Hudson Valley. With the fur sources exhausted, the Dutch shifted their operations to present-day upstate New York. The Lenape population fell, due mostly to epidemics of infectious diseases carried by Europeans, such as measles and smallpox, to which they had no natural immunity.

Differences in conceptions of property rights between the Europeans and the Lenape resulted in widespread confusion among the Lenape and the eventual loss of their lands. After the Dutch arrival in the 1620s, the Lenape were successful in restricting Dutch settlement until the 1660s to Pavonia in present-day Jersey City along the Hudson. The Dutch finally established a garrison at Bergen, which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province of New Netherland.

thumb|350px|Benjamin West's painting (in 1771) of William Penn's 1682 treaty with the Lenape In the early 1680s, William Penn and Quaker colonists created the English colony of Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. In the decades immediately following, some 20,000 new colonists arrived in the region, putting pressure on Lenape settlements and hunting grounds. Although Penn endeavored to live peaceably with the Lenape and to create a colony that would do the same, he also expected his authority and that of the colonial government to take precedence. His new colony effectively displaced the Lenape and forced others to adapt to new cultural demands. Penn gained a reputation for uncommon benevolence and tolerance, but his efforts resulted in more effective colonization of the ancestral Lenape homeland than previous ones.

18th century

William Penn died in 1718. His heirs, John Penn and Thomas Penn, and their agents were running the colony, and had abandoned many of the elder Penn's practices. In 1737, the colonial administrators claimed that they had a deed dating to the 1680s in which the Lenape-Delaware had promised to sell a portion of land beginning between the junction of the Delaware River and Lehigh River and extending "as far west as a man could walk in a day and a half." They contrived to have runners travel west, and thus claim huge swaths of land in the eastern portion of the state. Although reluctant to agree to the dubious claim, after years of fighting protest, the Lenape acquiesced to the Walking Purchase.

Beginning in the 18th century, the Moravian Church established missions among the Lenape. The Moravians required the Christian converts to share their pacifism, as well as to live in a structured and European-style mission village. Moravian pacifism and unwillingness to take loyalty oaths caused conflicts with British authorities, who were seeking aid against the French and their Native American allies during the French and Indian War (Seven Years War). The Moravians' insistence on Christian Lenapes' abandoning traditional warfare practices also alienated mission populations from other Lenape and Native American groups. The Moravians accompanied Lenape relocations to Ohio and Canada, continuing their missionary work. The Moravian Lenape who settled permanently in Ontario after the American Revolutionary War were sometimes referred to as "Christian Munsee", as they mostly spoke the Munsee branch of the Delaware language.

The Treaty of Easton, signed in 1758 between the Lenape and the Anglo-American colonists, required the Lenape to move westward, out of present-day New York and New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, then Ohio and beyond. Sporadically they continued to raid European-American settlers from far outside the area.

During the French and Indian War, the Lenape initially sided with the French. But, such leaders as ''Teedyuscung'' in the east and ''Tamaqua'' in the vicinity of modern Pittsburgh shifted to building alliances with the English. After the end of the war, however, Anglo-American settlers continued to kill Lenape, often to such an extent that people claimed the dead since the wars outnumbered those during the war.

In 1763 the Lenape known as Bill Hickman warned English colonists in the Juniata River region of an impending attack. Many Lenape joined in Pontiac's War, and were numerous among those Native Americans who besieged Pittsburgh. In April 1763 ''Teedyuscung'' was killed when his home was burned. His son Captain Bull responded by attacking settlers from New England who had migrated to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. The settlers had been sponsored by the Susquehanna Company.

The Lenape were the first Indian tribe to enter into a treaty with the new United States government, with the Treaty of Fort Pitt signed in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. By then living mostly in the Ohio Country, the Lenape supplied the Continental Army with warriors and scouts in exchange for food supplies and security.

Ohio: 1750s to 1812 (American Revolution and War of 1812)

After the signing of the Treaty of Easton in 1758, the Lenape were forced to move west out of their native lands (in Delaware, New Jersey, eastern New York, and eastern Pennsylvania) into what is today known as Ohio.

During the American Revolution, the Munsee-speaking Lenape (then called Delaware) bands of the Ohio Country were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in the conflict. Years earlier, many Lenape had migrated west to Ohio from their territory on the mid-Atlantic coast to try to escape colonial encroachment, as well as pressure from Iroquois tribes from the north. They resettled there, with bands in numerous villages around their main village of ''Coshocton''. By the time of the Revolutionary War, the Lenape found their villages lay between the western frontier strongholds of the war's opponents: the American colonists' military outpost at Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) and the British with Indian allies around Fort Detroit (in present-day Michigan).

Some Lenape decided to take up arms against the American colonials and moved to the west, closer to Detroit, where they settled on the Scioto and Sandusky rivers. Those Lenape sympathetic to the United States remained at Coshocton, and leaders signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt (1778) with the Americans. Through this, the Lenape hoped to establish the Ohio Country as a state inhabited exclusively by Native Americans, as part of the new United States. A third group of Lenape, many of them converted Christian Munsees, lived in several mission villages run by Moravians. (They spoke the Munsee branch of Delaware, an Algonquian language.)

White Eyes, the Lenape chief who had negotiated the treaty, died in 1778. (Some thought he had been murdered by American militia.) Many Lenape at Coshocton eventually joined the war against the Americans. In response, Colonel Daniel Brodhead led an expedition out of Fort Pitt and on 19 April 1781 destroyed Coshocton. Surviving residents fled to the north. Colonel Brodhead convinced the militia to leave the Lenape at the Moravian mission villages unmolested, since they were unarmed non-combatants.

Brodhead's having to restrain the militia from attacking the Moravian villages was a reflection of the brutal nature of frontier warfare. Violence had escalated on both sides. Relations between regular Continental Army officers from the East (such as Brodhead) and western militia were frequently strained. The tensions were worsened by the American government's policy of recruiting some Indian tribes as allies in the war. Western militiamen, many of whom had lost friends and family in Indian raids against settlers' encroachment, blamed all Indians for the acts of some.

During the early 1770s, missionaries, including David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder, arrived in the Ohio Country near the Delaware villages. The Moravian Church sent these men to convert the natives to Christianity. The missionaries established several missions, including Gnadenhutten, Lichtenau, and Schoenbrunn. The missionaries asked that the natives forsake all of their traditional customs and ways of life. Many Delawares did adopt Christianity, but others refused to do so. The Delawares became a divided people during the 1770s. This was even true for Killbuck's family. Killbuck resented his grandfather for allowing the Moravians to remain in the Ohio Country. The Moravians believed in pacifism, and Killbuck believed that every convert to the Moravians deprived the Delawares of a warrior to stop further white settlement of their land.

During the French and Indian War Killbuck actively assisted the English against their French enemy. In 1761, Killbuck led an English supply train from Fort Pitt to Fort Sandusky. The British paid him one dollar per day.

Killbuck became a leader in a very dangerous time for the Delawares. The American Revolution had just begun, and Killbuck found his people caught between the English in the West and the Americans in the East. At the war's beginning, Killbuck and many Delawares claimed to be neutral. In 1778, Killbuck did give permission a force of American soldiers to traverse Delaware territory so that the soldiers could attack Fort Detroit. In return, Killbuck requested that the Americans build a fort near the natives' major village of Coshocton to provide the Delaware Indians with protection from English attacks. The Americans agreed. While the Delawares had begun to side with the Americans, other groups, especially the Wyandot Indians, the Mingo Indians, the Munsee Indians, the Shawnee Indians, and even the wolf clan of the Delaware Indians favored the British. The English natives planned to attack Fort Laurens in early 1779 and demanded that the neutral Delawares formally side with the British. Killbuck warned the Americans of the planned attack. His actions helped save the fort, but the Americans still abandoned it in August 1779. The Delawares had lost their protectors and, in theory, faced attacks from the English, their native allies, and even American settlers that flooded into the area in the late 1770s and early 1780s. Most Delaware Indians formally joined the British after the American withdrawal from Fort Laurens.

Facing pressure from the British, the Americans, and even his fellow natives, Killbuck hoped a policy of neutrality would save his people from destruction. It did not.

19th century

Amateur anthropologist Silas Wood published a book claiming that there were several American Indian tribes that were distinct to Long Island, New York. He collectively called them the Metoac. Modern scientific scholarship has shown that two linguistic groups represented two Algonquian cultural identities on the island, not "13 individual tribes" as asserted by Wood. The bands to the west were Lenape. Those to the east were more related culturally to the Algonquian tribes of New England across Long Island Sound. Wood (and earlier settlers) often misinterpreted the Indian use of place names for identity as indicating their name for "tribes."

Over a period of 176 years, European settlers progressively crowded the Lenape out of the East Coast and Ohio, and pressed them to move further west. Most members of the Munsee-language branch of the Lenape live on three Indian reserves in Western Ontario, Canada. They are descendants of those Lenape of Ohio Country who sided with the British during the Revolutionary War. The largest reserve is at Moraviantown, Ontario, where the Turtle clan settled in 1792 following the war.

Indiana to Missouri

By the Treaty of St. Mary’s, signed October 3, 1818 in St. Mary's Ohio, the Delaware ceded their lands in Indiana for lands west of the Mississippi and a annuity of $4,000. Over the next few years the Delaware settled on the James River near its confluence with Wilson Creek, occupying eventually about of the approximately allotted to them. Anderson, Indiana is named after Chief William Anderson whose father was Swedish. The Delaware Village in Indiana was called Anderson's Town while the Delaware Village in Missouri on the James River was often called Anderson’s Village. The tribes cabins and cornfields were spread out along the James River and Wilson Creek.

Role in western history

Many Delaware participated in exploration of the western United States, working as trappers with the mountain men, and as guides and hunters for wagon trains. They also served as army guides and scouts in events such as the Second Seminole War, Frémont's expeditions, and the conquest of California during the Mexican-American War. Occasionally, they played surprising roles as Indian allies.

Sagundai accompanied one of John C. Frémont's expeditions as one of his Delaware guides. From California, Fremont needed to communicate with Senator Benton. Sagundai volunteered to carry the message, through some 2,200 kilometres of hostile territory. He took many scalps in this adventure, including that of a Comanche with a particularly fine horse, who had outspeeding both Sagundai and the other Comanches. Sagundai was thrown when his horse stepped into a prairie-dog hole, avoided the Comanche's lance, shot him dead, and caught his horse by the trailing lariat to make good his own escape. Upon his arrival among his own people, the Delawares held the last war and scalp dances in their history. These were held "where Edwin Taylor now ''(in 1918)'' lives, on the hill", at Edwardsville, Kansas.

Kansas reservation

thumb|right|300px|Lenape farm on the Delaware Indian Reservation in Kansas in 1867 By the terms of the "Treaty of the James Fork" made September 24, 1829 and ratified by the US Senate in 1830, the Delaware were granted lands west of the Missouri River in Indian Territory in exchange for lands on the James Fork on the White River in Missouri. These lands, in what is now Kansas, were west of the Missouri River and north of the Kansas River. The main reserve consisted of about with an additional "outlet" strip wide extending to the west. About 1,000 Delaware lived on the Delaware Reservation in Kansas, many in log cabins, but some in substantial farm houses with outbuildings. The center of activity was in what is now Muncie, Kansas a neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas north of Delaware Crossing on the Kansas River. The Delaware Indian agency, the blacksmith, and the Baptist and Methodist missions were located there.

White encroachment

At the same time that Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 which created the Territory of Kansas and opened the area for white settlement, it authorized negotiation with Indian tribes regarding removal. The Delaware were reluctant to negotiate but feared serious trouble with white settlers, which developed.

As the Delaware were not citizens they had no access to the courts, and thus no way to enforce their property rights. That was, theoretically, done by the United States Army after the Indian Agent had followed onerous procedures requiring both posting a public notice warning trespassers and serving written notice on them. Major B.F. Robinson, the Indian Agent appointed in 1855, did his best, but could not control the hundreds of white trespassers who stole stock, cut timber, and even built houses and set up housekeeping on Delaware lands. By 1860 the consensus had developed to leave Kansas, which was in accord with the government's Indian removal policy.

Oklahoma

The main body of Lenape arrived in the northeast region of Oklahoma in the 1860s. Along the way many smaller groups left, or were told to stay where they were. Consequently today, from New Jersey to Wisconsin to southwest Oklahoma, there are groups who retain a sense of connection with ancestors who lived in the Delaware Valley in the 17th century and with cousins in the Lenape diaspora.

The two largest groups are the Delaware Nation (Anadarko, Oklahoma), and the Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville, Oklahoma), the only two federally recognized Lenape (Delaware) tribes in the United States. The Oklahoma branches were established in 1867. The Delaware were required to purchase land from the reservation of the Cherokee Nation; they made two payments totaling $438,000. A court dispute followed over whether the sale included rights for the Delaware as citizens within the Cherokee Nation.

While the dispute was unsettled, the Curtis Act of 1898 dissolved tribal governments and ordered the allotment of tribal lands to individual members of tribes. After the lands were allotted in 160 acre (650,000 m²) lots to tribal members in 1907, the government sold "surplus" land to non-Indians. It soon became obvious that the land was not suitable for subsistence farming on such small plots.

20th century

In 1979, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs revoked the tribal status of the Delaware living among Cherokee in Oklahoma. They began to count the Delaware as Cherokee. The Delaware had this decision overturned in 1996, when they were recognized by the federal government as a separate tribal nation.

The Cherokee Nation filed suit to overturn the recognition of the Delaware. The tribe lost federal recognition in a 2004 court ruling in favor of the Cherokee Nation, but regained it on 28 July 2009. After recognition, the tribe reorganized under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. Members approved a constitution and bylaws in a May 26, 2009 vote. Jerry Douglas is serving as tribal chief.

In 2004 the Delaware of Oklahoma sued the state of Pennsylvania over land lost in 1800. This was related to the Walking Purchase of 1737, an agreement of doubtful legal standing.

Today

Lenape communities today include the following:

Oklahoma:

Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville, Oklahoma), US federally recognized

Delaware Nation (Anadarko, Oklahoma), US federally recognized

Ontario, Canada:

Munsee-Delaware Nation 1, Ontario, Canadian reserve

Moravian of the Thames First Nation, Canadian reserve

Delaware of Six Nations (at Six Nations of the Grand River), two Canadian reserves

Wisconsin:

Stockbridge-Munsee Community, US federally recognized

Literature

The Delaware feature prominently in ''The Last of the Mohicans'' and the other Leatherstocking Tales of James Fenimore Cooper. The Delaware are the subject of a legend which inspired the Boy Scouts of America honor society known as the Order of the Arrow.

The ''Walam Olum'', which purported to be an account of the Delaware's migration to the lands around the Delaware River, emerged through the works of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in the nineteenth century. For many decades, scholars believed it was genuine. In the 1980s and 1990s, newer textual analysis suggested it was a hoax. Nonetheless, some Delaware, upon hearing of it for the first time, found the account to be plausible.

In Cormac McCarthy's ''Blood Meridian'', the group of American scalphunters are aided by an unspecified number of Delaware Indians (5-6 minimum), who serve as scouts and guides through the western deserts. In ''The Light in the Forest'', True Son is adopted by a band of Lenape.

In Mark Raymond Harrington's 1938 book ''The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon among the Lenapes'', a group of Lenape find a shipwrecked English boy. His gradual integration provides a backdrop for an examination of Lenape life, society, weaponry, and beliefs. The book includes a glossary for the Lenape terms used throughout it. ''Trouble's Daughter: The Story of Susanna Hutchinson, Indian Captive'' is a young adult novel of a fictional account of the kidnapping by the Lenape Turtle Clan of a daughter of Anne Hutchinson, the religious reformer and founder of the Rhode Island colony. ''Moon of Two Dark Horses'' is a novel of the friendship between a white settler and a Lenape boy at the time of the Revolutionary War. ''Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan'', part of the ''Dear America'' series of fictional diaries, is a novel by Mary Pope Osborne. It tells the story of the capture of a teenage girl and her brother by a band of Lenape, and the youths' gradual assimilation into Lenape culture.

Peter Lindestrom's ''Geographia America with an Account of the Delaware Indians'' is one of the few sympathetic contemporary accounts of Lenape life in the lower Delaware River valley during the 17th century.

Moravian missionary John Heckewelder published a sympathetic account of the Lenape in exile in the Ohio Valley. His account, published in 1818, provides some alternate Lenape tribal history disputing the tributary relationship with the Susquehannock. "Scouts of '76: a tale of the revolutionary war", a 1924 book by Charles E. Willis, contains an account of the contributions of the Lenni Lenape to the American Revolution when they lived in the area of Lake Wawayanda.

Notable Lenape people

Dan Barker, founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation

Black Beaver (1806-1880), Trapper, trader and scout; first inductee into the American Indian Hall of Fame.

Buckongahelas, Wolf clan war leader

Charles Journeycake, Chief of the Wolf Clan from 1855 and principal chief from 1861. Visited Washington, D.C. 24 times on his tribe's behalf. Killbuck (Gelelemend), Turtle clan leader

Captain Jacobs, War Chief

Oratam, sachem of the Hackensack

Neolin, the Delaware Prophet

Captain Pipe (Hopocan), (ca. 1725—ca. 1818), 18th Century chief and member of the Wolf Clan.

Shingas, Turkey clan war leader

Tamanend, leader who, according to tradition, negotiated treaty with William Penn, and who Tammany Hall was named for

Tamaqua (King Bear), Turkey clan civil leader

Teedyuscung, "King" of the eastern Delawares

White Eyes, Turtle clan civil leader

Chief Newcomer, founder the village of Gekelmukpechunk (Newcomerstown), Ohio in the 1760s

White Eyes (d. 1778), chief who negotiated the Treaty of Fort Pitt

See also

Lenape settlements

Burial Ridge

Ramapough Mountain Indians

Walking Purchase

Unalachtigo Lenape

Museum of Indian Culture

Hell Town, Ohio (Lenape settlement in Ohio)

Economy of the Iroquois

Notes

References

Burrows, Edward G. and Wallace, Mike, ''Gotham: A History of New York City to 1989'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-514049-4.

Dreibelbis, Dana E., "The Use of Microstructural Growth Patterns of Mercenaria Mercenaria to Determine the Prehistoric Seasons of Harvest at Tuckerton Midden, Tuckerton, New Jersey," thesis, Princeton University, 1978.

Jennings, Francis, ''The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire'', 2000. ISBN 0-393-01719-2

Kurlansky, Mark. ''The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell''. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007. ISBN 978-0-345-47639-5

Mitchell, S. H. Internet Archive ''The Indian Chief, Journeycake''. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1895.

Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0195138771.

Spady, James. "Colonialism and the Discursive Antecedents of ''Penn's Treaty with the Indians''". Daniel K. Richter and William A. Pencak, eds. ''Friends and Enemies in Penn's Woods: Indians, Colonists, and the Racial Construction of Pennsylvania''. University Park, PA: PSU Press, 2004: 18-40.

Weslager, C.A. ''The Delaware Indians: A History.'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1972. ISBN 0-8135-0702-2.

Further reading

Adams, Richard Calmit, ''The Delaware Indians, a brief history'', Hope Farm Press (Saugerties, NY 1995) [originally published by Government Printing Office, (Washington, DC 1909)]

Bierhorst, John. ''The White Deer and Other Stories Told by the Lenape''. New York: W. Morrow, 1995. ISBN 0-688-12900-5

Brown, James W. and Rita T. Kohn, eds. ''Long Journey Home'' ISBN 978-0-253-34968-2. Indiana University Press (2007).

Kraft, Herbert C., ''The Lenape: archaeology, history and ethnography'', New Jersey Historical Society, (Newark, NJ 1986)

Kraft, Herbert C. ''The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage: 10,000 B.C. to A.D. 2000''. Stanhope, NJ: Lenape Books, 2001.

O'Meara, John, ''Delaware-English / English-Delaware dictionary'', University of Toronto Press (Toronto, 1996) ISBN 0-8020-0670-1.

Otto, Paul, ''The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley'' (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006). ISBN 1-57181-672-0

Pritchard, Evan T., ''Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York.'' Council Oak Books: San Francisco, 2002, 2007. ISBN 1-57178-107-2.

Richter, Conrad, ''The Light In The Forest'', (New York, NY 1953).

External links

Delaware Nation (Anadarko, Oklahoma)

Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville, OK)

Lenape/English dictionary

Lenni Lenape Historical Society

Lenape (Southern Unami) Talking Dictionary

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The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape People (also known as Nanticoke Lenape Indians) are a tribal confederation of the core families of the Nanticoke of the Delmarva Peninsula and the Lenni-Lenape of Southern New Jersey and Northern Delaware. The history of the tribe in its homeland goes back thousands of years. The Tribe is made up of the Nanticoke and Lenape descending from those who remained, or returned, to their ancient homeland after many of their relatives suffered removals and forced migrations to the mid-western United States and Canada. The Nanticoke and Lenni-Lenape people were among the first to resist European encroachment upon their lands, among the first to sign treaties in an attempt to create a peaceful co-existence… and, were among the first to be forced onto reservations on the Delmarva Peninsula and in New Jersey, disbanded and long forgotten in the public memory. The tribe's current headquarters is in Bridgeton, New Jersey. The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe stands out as an American Indian Nation that passed tribal law forbidding the tribe's participation in casino gaming. Tribal Law No. 2006-1 - ''An Act Banning Tribally Owned or Operated Businesses Involving Vice'' - "precludes the tribe, and any of its subsidiaries, from establishing any business that derives its profit from casino style gambling, the sale of cigarettes, cigars, alcohol or pornography". The tribe's opposition to gaming is the reason that tribal citizens are quick to point out the difference between the historic Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe and a recently formed smaller group from the same area in southern New Jersey calling itself the "Unalachtigo Band of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation," which advocates gaming and is not affiliated with the state recognized tribe.

Lenape heritage in Southern New Jersey and Northern Delaware

The Lenape ancestors of the modern tribe are those who inhabited New Jersey, Delaware, Southeastern New York and Eastern Pennsylvania at the time the Europeans came, called themselves “Lenni-Lenape,” which literally means "Original People" or "Common People." From the early 17th century, the English settlers called the Lenape people “Delaware Indians.” The ancestors of the Lenni-Lenape lived in the area for as much as 12,000 years.

Three main Lenape dialect clans, each made up of smaller independent but interrelated communities, extended from the northern part of the tribe's ancient homeland at the headwaters of the Delaware River down to the Delaware Bay. The Munsee (People of the Stony Country) lived in the north. The Unami (People Down River) and Unalachtigo (People Who Live Near the Ocean) lived in the central and southern part of the homeland.

The peace-loving Lenni-Lenape are considered the most ancient nation of the Algonquian language family. The Lenape are still called the “grandfathers” or “ancient ones” by many tribes and are considered to be among the most ancient of the Northeastern Nations, spawning many of the tribes along the northeastern seaboard. The Lenape were often called to settle disputes among neighboring tribal groups and were admired by European colonist for their hospitality and diplomatic skill.

Nanticoke heritage from the Delmarva into Southern New Jersey

The Nanticoke ancestors of the modern Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribe are those who dwelled along the Indian River in southeastern Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Called the “Tidewater People,” the Nanticoke, like many of their neighboring tribes, have ancient origins in common with the Lenape, originating from among them.

The Nanticoke were among the first of the Northeastern Nations to resist European colonial intrusion into their homeland as early as the 1650s. After years of struggle, Nanticoke people still survive today in Delaware, New Jersey and are also throughout the United States and Canada.

Nanticoke migration began in the early 17th century from the Eastern Shore of Maryland through southeastern Delaware. By the 19th century many were along the shores of the Delaware River. As a result of this migration, Nanticoke people united with the Lenni-Lenape Indians who remained in New Jersey.

As early as 1704, Nanticoke living in the Delmarva Peninsula, who had lived there for thousands of years, were restricted to the Chicone (Chiconi), Broad Creek and Indian River Reservations by the British colonial governments. Also, the Brotherton Reservation (1758–1802) in Burlington County, New Jersey which was intended to be a safe haven for some of New Jersey's Lenape Indians. All of these reservations failed to protect the tribal residents and were disbanded, leaving the Nanticoke and Lenape to struggle to maintain what bits of the ancient homeland that they could. Indian communities remained in the areas of the former reservations, becoming "isolate" groups, keeping to themselves...and, sometimes being forgotten or misidentified by the larger non-Native communities.

Isolated group remains after many migrate

Because of continuing conflict with European settlers encroaching upon Tribal lands, many of the Tribe’s members were killed or removed from their homelands. Many either moved to Canada, Kansas, Oklahoma and other areas, or faced elimination. Some were able to continue to live in the homeland, however, they lived in constant fear. Those who remained survived through attempting to adapt to the dominant culture, becoming farmers and tradesmen. Many Nanticoke-Lenape Indians embraced Christianity while not forgetting or devaluing many ancient tribal ways. In fact, it has been through several tribal congregations that Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape have been able to preserve their culture, maintain ties with nearby related tribal communities, and continue a form of tribal governance. One of the historical tribal congregations, Saint John United Methodist Church of Fordville, New Jersey has the distinction of being the only designated Native American Church in New Jersey by the United Methodist Church. By the 20th century, most of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe’s population resided in and around Cumberland and Salem Counties in New Jersey, remaining closely related to the isolated Nanticoke and Lenape tribal communities in Sussex and Kent Counties in Delaware.

Continuing Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribal activity

In 1978, The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe established a tribally governed 501(c)3 non-profit community benefit agency, “The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians of New Jersey,” which is chartered exclusively for educational, social, and cultural purposes, to promote the welfare of Native Americans who reside in the Delaware Valley; to extend charity in all forms to those Native Americans in need, giving priority to Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians residing in the Delaware Valley; to establish cultural and instructional facilities; to improve health and welfare, housing, human rights, and economic security; to acquire and preserve land and water areas in a natural scenic or open condition consistent with the heritage of the Native Americans who reside in the Delaware Valley. In 1982, the Tribe received official recognition from the State of New Jersey, via Senate Concurrent Resolution Number 73, which was later reaffirmed through tribe's statutory inclusion on the New Jersey State Commission on American Indian Affairs (New Jersey Public Law 1995 c. 295; New Jersey Statutes 52:16A-53 et. seq.). The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape enjoy friendly relations with the nation of Sweden, which acknowledges its tribal identity and sovereignty, recently celebrating its more than 350 year old treaty of friendship with the Tribe, extending back to the days of the early settlement of the Swedes and Finns in the Land of the Lenape, before Dutch and British colonial powers settled in the area. This intergenerational friendship has continued with the descendants of the early Swedish settlers who still live in the Lenape homeland.

The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe, the largest American Indian Tribe in New Jersey, is governed by a nine member elected Tribal Council. All council members must also be enrolled citizens of the tribe, which includes the requirement of having met the mandatory tribal Indian blood quantum and documenting core family ancestry. The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe consists of over 3000 enrolled citizens in over 1500 households, with many more non-enrolled Nanticoke-Lenape descendants and extended family still living in Southern New Jersey and the surrounding area, who participate in tribal activities. According to the 2000 United States Census, an additional 9000 non-enrolled tribal descendants also live in the Cumberland County New Jersey area, which is a declared State Designated American Indian Statistical Area (SDAISA).

External links

Home page of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape

Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Information Website

References

Babcock, William H. ''The Nanticoke Indians of Indian River, Delaware.'' “American Anthropologists, New Series,” Vol. 1, No. 2. Apr.,1899

Fitzgerald, Neil. ''Delaware's Forgotten Minority - The Moors.'', “Delaware Today” January 1972 issue, 10

Gilbert, Jr., William Harlen. ''Social Forces,'' Vol. 2, No. 4. University of North Carolina Press, May 1946

Gilbert, William H. ''Surviving Indian Groups of the Eastern United States.'' "Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution" provided to the Library of Congress, 1948

Heckwelder, John. ''History Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States.'' Philadelphia, PA: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, ed. 1876.

Heite, Edward F. and Cara Lee Blume. ''A Community on McKee Road,'' “Delaware Department of Transportation Archaeology Series No. 109.” Prepared by Heite Consulting. Camden, Delaware 1994

Heite, Edward F. and Cara Lee Blume. Mitsawokett to Bloomsbury: Archaeology and History of an Unrecognized Indigenous Community in Central Delaware. “Delaware Department of Transportation Archaeology Series No. 154.” Prepared by Heite Consulting. Camden, Delaware 1998. Available online from URL = http://www.mitsawokett.com/Bloomsbury/BloomsburyIndex.htm

Heite, Edward F. and Louise Heite. ''Delaware's Invisible Indians, parts 1 & 2.'' Database Online URL= http://www.heite.org/Invis.indians1.html and http://www.heite.org/Invis.indians2.html.

Kraft, Herbert C. ''The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage: 10,000 B.C. – A.D. 2000.'' Shamong, NJ: Lenape Books, 2001.

Norwood, John R. ''We Are Still Here: The Tribal Saga of New Jersey's Nanticoke and Lenape Indians.'' Moorestown, NJ: Native New Jersey, 2007. Database Online URL= http://www.nanticoke-lenape.info/images/We_Are_Still_Here_Nanticoke_and_Lenape_History_Booklet_pre-release_v2.pdf

Porter, Frank W. III. ''The Nanticoke.'' New York, New Haven, London: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987

Scharf, Thomas. ''A History of Maryland From The Earliest Period to the Present Day, Vol.1.'' Baltimore, MD: John B. Piet, 1879

Speck, Frank G. ''The Nanticoke Community of Delaware.'' New York: The Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1915

Speck, Frank G. ''The Nanticoke and Conoy Indians.'' Wilmington, Delaware: The Historical Society of Delaware, 1927

Tayac, Gabrielle Ph.D. and Edwin Schupman. ''We Have A Story To Tell: The Native Peoples of the Chesapeake Region.'' Edited by Mark Hirsch. Washington, DC: The National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 2006

Weslager, C. A. ''Delaware’s Forgotten Folk: The Story of the Moors and Nanticokes.'' Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1943

Weslager, C. A. ''The Nanticoke Indians Past and Present.'' Newark, DE: The University of Delaware Press, 1983

Zeisberger, David. ''David Zeisberger’s History of the Northern American Indians,'' edited by Archer Butler Hubert and William Nathaniel Schwarze. Lewisburg, PA: Wennawoods Publishing, 1999

Category:Lenape people Category:Nanticoke people Category:Algonquian ethnonyms Category:Native American tribes in New Jersey Category:Non-recognized Native American tribes