![Zeisberger preaching to the Indians LCCN2003663983](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Zeisberger_preaching_to_the_Indians_LCCN2003663983.jpg)
The Christian Munsee are a group of
Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
(also known as ''Delaware''), an
Indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, that primarily speak
Munsee
The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along ...
and have converted to Christianity, following the teachings of
Moravian missionaries. The Christian Munsee are also known as the Moravian Munsee or the Moravian Indians, the Moravian Christian Indians or, in context, simply the
Christian Indians. As the
Moravian Church
The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...
transferred some of their missions to other Christian denominations, such as the Methodists, Christian Munsee today belong to the Moravian Church,
Methodist Church
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
,
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...
, among other Christian denominations.
The Christian Munsee tribe has produced several people who have become notable figures in
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
and the Delaware Nation as a whole, such as
Gelelemend (a Lenape chief),
John Henry Kilbuck John Henry Kilbuck (May 15, 18611922) — sometimes spelled Killbuck (Lenape)— and his wife, Edith Kilbuck (née Romig; April 16, 18651933), were Moravian missionaries in southwestern Alaska in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. John H. Kil ...
(a Moravian Christian
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
to the Native peoples in Alaska),
Papunhank (a Moravian Lenape diplomat and preacher), Glikhikan (Munsee chief, Moravian elder, and Christian martyr), and Washington Jacobs (a chief of the
Moravian of the Thames
Moravian 47 (Munsee: ''Náahii'', literally 'downstream', in contrast with Munsee-Delaware Nation, referred to as "Nalahii", meaning "upstream") is an Indian reserve located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, with an area of . It is occupied by the Delawa ...
reservation).
Present-day Christian Munsee communities include
Moravian of the Thames
Moravian 47 (Munsee: ''Náahii'', literally 'downstream', in contrast with Munsee-Delaware Nation, referred to as "Nalahii", meaning "upstream") is an Indian reserve located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, with an area of . It is occupied by the Delawa ...
, the Christian Munsee tribe in Kansas, and the
Stockbridge–Munsee Community.
History
Starting in the 1740s, the
Moravian Church
The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...
sent out
Christian missionaries to American Indian tribes and started settlements, with full tribal support.
The ranks of the Christian Munsee thus include influential Lenape chiefs from the start.
The Moravian Christian approach was to preserve
Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
cultural practices while passing on to the Lenape the
Gospel message
The gospel or good news is a theological concept in several religions. In the historical Roman imperial cult and today in Christianity, the gospel is a message about salvation by a divine figure, a savior, who has brought peace or other benefits ...
with the entirety of the Christian faith.
As such, Moravian Christian missionaries developed the
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...
for Lenape dialects and
David Zeisberger
David Zeisberger (April 11, 1721 – November 17, 1808) was a Moravian clergyman and missionary among the Native American tribes who resided in the Thirteen Colonies. He established communities of Munsee (Lenape) converts to Christianity in the ...
"compiled dictionaries of various Native tongues, translating them into English and German".
Mid-Atlantic states and Ohio
The
Munsee
The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along ...
were the Wolf Clan of the
Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
, occupying the area where present-day
New York,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
meet. The first recorded European contact occurred in 1524, when
Giovanni da Verrazzano
Giovanni da Verrazzano ( , , often misspelled Verrazano in English; 1485–1528) was an Italian ( Florentine) explorer of North America, in the service of King Francis I of France.
He is renowned as the first European to explore the Atlanti ...
sailed into what is now
New York Harbor. Like most native peoples of the Atlantic coast, the Munsee were quickly devastated by European diseases such as
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
and
influenza, and those who survived were forced inland. By the mid-18th century, one group of Lenape people began to follow the teachings of the
Moravian missionaries. The Moravians were descended from the exiled Protestants from Morava, now Czech Republic, who founded a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
denomination from
Herrnhut in the
Germann state of
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
. They sought to protect their converts by creating separate mission villages in the frontier, apart from both European settlers and from other native people.
The most prominent missionary among the Munsee was
David Zeisberger
David Zeisberger (April 11, 1721 – November 17, 1808) was a Moravian clergyman and missionary among the Native American tribes who resided in the Thirteen Colonies. He established communities of Munsee (Lenape) converts to Christianity in the ...
. In 1772, he led his group of Christian Munsee to the
Ohio Country, which he hoped would isolate them from the hostilities of the approaching
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. However, in 1782, a force of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
militiamen, in search of Indians who had been raiding settlements in western Pennsylvania, happened upon a group of ninety-six of Zeisberger's Christian Munsee harvesting corn, and rounded them up in the eastern Ohio village of
Gnadenhütten Gnadenhütten (; ) the name of settlements founded by the German Moravian Church. The word was transliterated as ''Canatanheat'' by the missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote it ...
. Although the Munsee truthfully pleaded their innocence and explained their non-combatant,
nonresistant Christian convictions, the militia took a vote and decided to kill them all, including the women and children; these faithful are known as the Moravian Christian Indian Martyrs.
While the American militiamen murdered the Moravian Christian Indians in Gnadenhutten, a messenger sent by the Moravian missionaries in
Sandusky on March 3 reached
Schoenbrunn on March 6 in order to deliver the news that all of them would be moving to Detroit; two of the Moravian Indians from Schoenbrunn went to inform their brethren in Gnadenhutten but on their journey there, they saw that the American soldiers had mangled body of Joseph Schebosh Jr, a Moravian with a European father and Indian mother.
They buried his body and quickly returned to warn their brethren in Schoenbrunn as they thought that the others at Gnadenhutten met the same fate.
For this reason, the Moravian Christian Indians at Schoenbrunn were able to flee to Sandusky before the American militiamen could advance from Gnadenhutten to Schoenbrunn, where they planned to commit another massacre.
In 1798, David Zeisberger led many of the Moravian Christian Indians back to Ohio, where they established the
Goshen Mission near
Schoenbrunn; there, Zeisberger lived until he peacefully died after which many of the Moravian Christian Indians moved to Ontario (cf.
Delaware Nation at Moraviantown
Moravian 47 (Munsee: ''Náahii'', literally 'downstream', in contrast with Munsee-Delaware Nation, referred to as "Nalahii", meaning "upstream") is an Indian reserve located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, with an area of . It is occupied by the Delawa ...
) and others to Kansas, along with Christian missionaries who continued to live and work among them.
The descendants of both Jacob and Ester, the children of Israel Welapachtshechen (who was martyred in the Gnadenhutten massacre), make up the majority of the Christian Munsee tribe in Kansas today.
In 1903, the Moravian Christians transferred the Christian Munsee mission in Moraviantown to
Methodist Christians, a denomination that eventually joined the
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...
, a
United Protestant
A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations.
Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state ...
denomination to which many Christian Munsee belong to today.
Ontario
After ten more years of strife, most of the Christian Munsee followed Zeisberger to
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada, where they established a new home at Fairfield, commonly known as
Moraviantown, along the
Thames River
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
. There they lived in relative peace for twenty years, supporting themselves with their farming and industry. However, once again they became unwitting victims of war, when American soldiers burned their village to the ground during the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
''
Battle of the Thames
The Battle of the Thames , also known as the Battle of Moraviantown, was an American victory in the War of 1812 against Tecumseh's Confederacy and their British allies. It took place on October 5, 1813, in Upper Canada, near Chatham. The Britis ...
''. The battle is well known historically as a victory for General
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
, and for the death of the
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
chief
Tecumseh, but the destruction of Moraviantown is little more than a footnote. The Munsee fled into the wilderness for safe haven until hostilities had ceased, then returned to build a new Fairfield across the Thames River to the south, which is now known as Moraviantown. In 1903, the Moravian Christians transferred the Christian Munsee mission in Moraviantown to
Methodist Christians, a denomination that eventually joined the
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...
, a
United Protestant
A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations.
Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state ...
denomination to which many Christian Munsee belong to today.
Wisconsin
By the 1830s, a faction of the Christian Munsee favored a move to the American West. In 1837, some of the Munsee from Fairfield journeyed to
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
to join another Christian band of Indians, the Stockbridge Indians, a combination of the last remnants of the
Mohican
The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, who ...
and
Wappinger
The Wappinger () were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut.
At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutches ...
peoples of the east bank of the Hudson, whence the two tribes became known collectively as the
Stockbridge-Munsee. They are now the
Stockbridge-Munsee Community in
Shawano County, Wisconsin
Shawano County (pronounced SHAW-no) (originally Shawanaw County) is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,881. Its county seat is Shawano.
Shawano County is included in the Shawano, WI ...
. However, most of the Munsee eventually returned to Canada. The Christian Munsee in southern Ontario remain today as the
Moravian of the Thames
Moravian 47 (Munsee: ''Náahii'', literally 'downstream', in contrast with Munsee-Delaware Nation, referred to as "Nalahii", meaning "upstream") is an Indian reserve located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, with an area of . It is occupied by the Delawa ...
and the
Munsee-Delaware Nation
Munsee-Delaware Nation (Munsee: Nalahii Lunaapewaak, ''meaning: Lenapes from the Upstream'', in contrast with The Lenape at Moraviantown, referred to as "Downstrean Lenapes") is a Lenape First Nations band government located west of St. Thomas ...
.
Kansas
A small band of Christian Munsee decided to migrate again, this time to Kansas Territory, to join their non-Christian Lenape kinsmen. They settled first in
Wyandotte County
Wyandotte County (; county code WY) is a county in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 169,245, making it Kansas's fourth-most populous county. Its county seat and most populous city is Kansas City, with which ...
, then
Leavenworth County
Leavenworth County (county code LV) is located in the U.S. state of Kansas and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 81,881. Its county seat and most populous city is Leavenworth.
Histo ...
. A few families settled near
Fort Scott in
Bourbon County. By 1857, most of the other
Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
(of Kansas) were removed to
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
.
The Christian Munsee, who now numbered less than one hundred, chose to purchase a new reservation in
Franklin County from a small band of
Ojibwa (Chippewa) that had migrated from Michigan. The Treaty of 1859 officially combined the Swan Creek and Black River Band Chippewa and the Christian Munsee on a reservation of twelve square miles along the
Marais des Cygnes River
The Marais des Cygnes River ( , ) is a principal tributary of the Osage River, about long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 31, 2011 in eastern Kansas and western Miss ...
near the town of
Ottawa. Signing the treaty for the Munsee were Henry Donohoe, Ignatius Caleb, and John Williams.
Although the two tribes shared a reservation and were considered one tribe by the United States government in all dealings, they maintained their separate identities in cultural and religious practices. The Moravian church continued to send
missionaries to the Munsee.
Under the
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pres ...
, the Chippewa-Christian Indian Reservation, as it was known in the 1859 treaty, was
allotted to the individual members and descendants of the tribes in separate 160-acre plots. The people eventually accepted
assimilation. In 1900, the final disbursement of federal funds was paid, and all benefits and official recognition as Native Americans were dissolved. A number of the Christian Munsee Tribe in Kansas live on the reservation in
Ottawa, Kansas
Ottawa (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Franklin County, Kansas, United States. It is located on both banks of the Marais des Cygnes River near the center of Franklin County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the c ...
where they cling to their Christian faith and Lenape heritage.
Notable members of the Christian Munsee tribe
The Christian Munsee tribe has produced several people who have become notable figures in both
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
and the Delaware Nation as a whole:
*
Gelelemend, Lenape chief of the Turtle clan
*
John Henry Kilbuck John Henry Kilbuck (May 15, 18611922) — sometimes spelled Killbuck (Lenape)— and his wife, Edith Kilbuck (née Romig; April 16, 18651933), were Moravian missionaries in southwestern Alaska in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. John H. Kil ...
, Moravian Christian
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
to the Native peoples in Alaska
*
Papunhank, a Moravian Christian Lenape diplomat and preacher
*Glikhikan, Munsee chief, Moravian Christian elder, and Moravian Christian martyr
*
96 Moravian Christian Indian Martyrs, who practiced
nonresistance Nonresistance (or non-resistance) is "the practice or principle of not resisting authority, even when it is unjustly exercised". At its core is discouragement of, even opposition to, physical resistance to an enemy. It is considered as a form of pri ...
as they were murdered in the
Gnadenhutten massacre
The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing of 96 pacifist Moravian Christian Indians (primarily Lenape and Mohican) by U.S. militiamen from Pennsylvania, under the command of David Williamson, on March 8, ...
on 8 March 1782
*Washington Jacobs, chief of the
Moravian of the Thames
Moravian 47 (Munsee: ''Náahii'', literally 'downstream', in contrast with Munsee-Delaware Nation, referred to as "Nalahii", meaning "upstream") is an Indian reserve located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, with an area of . It is occupied by the Delawa ...
reservation.
See also
*
Praying Indians
Praying Indian is a 17th-century term referring to Native Americans of New England, New York, Ontario, and Quebec who converted to Christianity either voluntarily or involuntarily. Many groups are referred to by the term, but it is more commonly ...
*
Mission Indians
Mission Indians are the indigenous peoples of California who lived in Southern California and were forcibly relocated from their traditional dwellings, villages, and homelands to live and work at 15 Franciscan missions in Southern California and ...
*
Indian Reductions
Reductions ( es, reducciones, also called ; , pl. ) were settlements created by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such re ...
References
*''Census of the Chippewa and Christian Indians, June 30, 1893''. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives Building.
*
*
*
External links
Christian Munsee Tribe in KansasDelaware Nation at Moraviantownfrom the ''Kansas Historical Quarterly''.
{{authority control
Native American Christianity
Great Lakes tribes
Native American tribes in New Jersey
Franklin County, Kansas
Wyandotte County, Kansas
Shawano County, Wisconsin
First Nations in Ontario
Lenape
History of the America (North) Province of the Moravian Church
Assimilation of indigenous peoples of North America