The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an

indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands include Native American tribes and First Nation bands residing in or originating from a cultural area encompassing the northeastern and Midwest United States and southeastern Canada. It is part ...

, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory included present-day northeastern

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

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 ...

and eastern

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, ...

along the Delaware River watershed,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, western

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, and the lower

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

. Today, Lenape people belong to the

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

; the Stockbridge–Munsee Community in

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 ...

; 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 ...

, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and

Delaware of Six Nations Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River, french: Réserve des Six Nations, see, Ye:i’ Níónöëdzage:h) is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of w ...

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 Ca ...

. The Lenape have a

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

clan system and historically were

matrilocal In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a mother remain ...

. During the last decades of the 18th century, most Lenape were removed from their homeland by expanding European colonies. The divisions and troubles of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

and United States' independence pushed them farther west. In the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the

eastern United States The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...

to the

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

(present-day Oklahoma and surrounding territory) under the

Indian removal Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a de ...

policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in

, with some other communities in

and

Name

The name ''Lenni Lenape'', also ''Leni Lenape'' and ''Lenni Lenapi'', comes from their autonym, ', which may mean "genuine, pure, real, original", and ', meaning "real person" or "original person" (

cf. The abbreviation ''cf.'' (short for the la, confer/conferatur, both meaning "compare") is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. Style guides recommend that ''cf.'' be used onl ...

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawat ...

, in which ', cognate with ', means "man" or "male" ). Alternately, ' may be translated as "man"."Lenape Talking Dictionary."
'' Delaware Tribe of Indians.'' Retrieved 2 Dec 2013. The Lenape, when first encountered by Europeans, were a loose association of related peoples who spoke similar languages and shared familial bonds in an area known as Lenapehoking,Newman 10 the Lenape traditional territory, which spanned what is now eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Lower New York, and eastern Delaware. The tribe's common name ''Delaware'' is not of Native American origin. English colonists named the Delaware River for the first governor of the

Province of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (hist ...

Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr ( ; 9 July 1577 – 7 June 1618), was an English merchant and politician, for whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, a Native American people and U.S. state, all later called "Delaware", were named. He wa ...

, whose title was ultimately derived from French. (For etymology of the surname, see Earl De La Warr§Etymology.) The English colonists then began to call the Lenape the "Delaware Indians" because of where they lived. Swedish colonists also settled in the area, and Swedish-language sources listed the Lenape as the ''Renappi''.

Territory

Traditional Lenape lands, the Lenapehoking, was a large territory that encompassed the Delaware Valley of eastern Pennsylvania and

from the north bank of the Lehigh River along the west bank of the Delaware then south into

and the

Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inland ...

. Their lands also extended west from western

and New York Bay, across the

Lower Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to Yo ...

in New York into the lower

Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

and a sliver of the upper edge of the

North Branch Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the Uni ...

. On the west side, the Lenape lived in numerous small towns along the rivers and streams that fed the waterways, and likely shared the hunting territory of the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It f ...

watershed with the rival

Iroquoian The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian ...

Susquehannock The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern p ...

Languages

The

Unami The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) was formed on 14 August 2003 by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1500 at the request of the Iraqi government to support national development efforts. UNAMI's mandate includes ...

and

Munsee language Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware, del, Huluníixsuwaakan, Monsii èlixsuwakàn) is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic l ...

s belong to the Eastern Algonquian language group and are largely mutually intelligible. The German and English-speaking Moravian missionary

John Heckewelder John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder (March 12, 1743 – January 21, 1823) was an American missionary for the Moravian Church. Biography John Heckewelder was born in Bedford, England and came to Pennsylvania in 1754. After finishing his education, ...

wrote:

"The is quite different even though came out of one parent language."

Today, most who continue to speak the language are tribal elders, although some young Lenape youth and adults learn their language.

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

, who first met the Lenape in 1682, stated that the Unami used the following words: "mother" was ', "brother" was ', "friend" was '. Penn instructed his fellow English colonists: "If one asks them for anything they have not, they will answer, ', which to translate is, 'not I have,' instead of 'I have not'." The Lenape language used to be exclusively a spoken language. However, in 2002, the Lenape Nation received grant money to fund The Lenape Talking Dictionary, preserving and digitizing the Southern Unami dialect. This language is currently recognized by both the Oklahoma Lenape and the Delaware Valley Lenape. The nation, led by Professor Shelley DePaul of

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, is researching and revamping the Lenape language for future generations to more easily learn. Depaul collaborated with elders and transcribed decades worth of documents to teach a Lenape class at Swathmore College starting in 2009. Research shows that voluntary, locally based language practice and learning is key to restoring and maintaining a fading language. There is some disagreement within the Lenape Nation on whether the language should be taught as adapted to the times or taught as historically accurate. DePaul's approach is focused on a "living language" philosophy.

Society

Clans and kinship systems

At the time of first European contact, a Lenape person would have identified primarily with his or her immediate family and clan, friends, and/or village unit; then with surrounding and familiar village units. Next with more distant neighbors who spoke the same dialect; and ultimately, with all those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually comprehensible languages, including the

Nanticoke people The Nanticoke people are a Native American Algonquian people, whose traditional homelands are in Chesapeake Bay and Delaware. Today they live in the Northeastern United States and Canada, especially Delaware; in Ontario; and in Oklahoma. Th ...

, who lived to their south and west in present western Delaware and eastern Maryland, and the Munsee, who lived to their north. Among many

Algonquian peoples The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. T ...

along the East Coast, the Lenape were considered the "grandfathers" from whom other Algonquian-speaking peoples originated. The Lenape had three clans at the end of the 17th century, each of which historically had twelve sub-clans: * Wolf, ''Tùkwsit'' :* Big Feet, ''Mä an'greet'' :* Yellow Tree, ''Wisawhìtkuk'' :* Pulling Corn, ''Pä-sakun'a'-mon'' :* Care Enterer, ''We-yar-nih'kä-to'' :* Across the River, ''Toosh-war-ka'ma'' :* Vermillion, ''O-lum'-a-ne'' :* Dog standing by fireside, ''Pun-ar'-you'' :* Long Body, ''Kwin-eek'cha'' :* Digging, ''Moon-har-tar'ne'' :* Pulling up Stream, ''Non-har'-min'' :* Brush Log, ''Long-ush-har-kar'-to'' :* Bringing Along, ''Maw-soo-toh'' * Turtle, ''Pùkuwànku'' :* Ruler, ''O-ka-ho'-ki'' :* High Bank Shore, ''Ta-ko-ong'-o-to'' :* Drawing Down Hill, ''See-har-ong'-o-to'' :* Elector, ''Ole-har-kar-me'kar-to'' :* Brave, ''Ma-har-o-luk'-ti'' :* Green Leaves, ''Toosh-ki-pa-kwis-i'' :* Smallest Turtle, ''Tung-ul-ung'-si'' :* Little Turtle, ''We-lung-ung-sil'' :* Snapping Turtle, ''Lee-kwin-a-i :* Deer, ''Kwis-aese-kees'to'' * Turkey, ''Pële'' :* Big Bird, ''Mor-har-ä-lä'' :* Bird's Cry, ''Le-le-wa'-you'' :* Eye Pain, ''Moo-kwung-wa-ho'ki'' :* Scratch the Path, ''Moo-har-mo-wi-kar'-nu'' :* Opossum Ground, ''O-ping-ho'-ki'' :* Old Shin, ''Muh-ho-we-kä'-ken'' :* Drift Log, ''Tong-o-nä-o-to'' :* Living in Water, ''Nool-a-mar-lar'-mo'' :* Root Digger, ''Muh-krent-har'-ne'' :* Red Face, ''Mur-karm-huk-se'' :* Pine Region, ''Koo-wä-ho'ke'' :* Ground Scratcher, ''Oo-ckuk'-ham'' Lenape

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

system has

clans, that is, children belong to their mother's clan, from which they gain social status and identity. The mother's eldest brother was more significant as a mentor to the male children than was their father, who was generally of another clan. Hereditary leadership passed through the maternal line, and women elders could remove leaders of whom they disapproved. Agricultural land was managed by women and allotted according to the subsistence needs of their extended families. Families were

; newlywed couples would live with the bride's family, where her mother and sisters could also assist her with her growing family. By 1682, when William Penn arrived to his American commonwealth, the Lenape had been so reduced by disease, famine, and war that the sub-clan mothers had reluctantly resolved to consolidate their families into the main clan family. This is why William Penn and all those after him believed that the Lenape clans had always only had three divisions (Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf) when, in fact, they had over thirty on the eve of European contact. Susie Elkhair-Deleware Tribe of Indians-(Lenape)

Susie Elkhair-Deleware Tribe of Indians-(Lenape)

Members of each clan were found throughout Lenape territory and clan lineage was traced through the mother. While clan mothers controlled the land, the houses, and the families, the clan fathers provided the meat, cleared the fields, built the houses, and protected the clan. Upon reaching adulthood, a Lenape male would marry outside of his clan. The practice effectively prevented inbreeding, even among individuals whose kinship was obscure or unknown. This means that a male from the Turkey Clan was expected to marry a female from either the Turtle or Wolf clans. His children, however, would not belong to the Turkey Clan, but to the mother's clan. As such, a person's mother's brothers (the person's matrilineal uncles) played a large role in his or her life as they shared the same clan lineage. Within a marriage itself, men and women had relatively separate and equal rights, each controlling their own property and debts, showing further signs of a woman's power in the hierarchical structure. As in the case of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

and

s, the animosity of differences and competitions spanned many generations, and in general tribes with each of the different language groups became traditional enemies in the areas they'd meet. On the other hand, The New American Book of Indians points out that competition, trade, and wary relations were far more common than outright warfare—but both larger societies had traditions of 'proving' (blooding) new (or young) warriors by'' '

counting coup Among the Plains Indians of North America, counting coup is the warrior tradition of winning prestige against an enemy in battle. It is one of the traditional ways of showing bravery in the face of an enemy and involves intimidating him, and, it ...

' on raids'' into another tribes territories. Ethnicity seems to have mattered little to the Lenape and many other "tribes". Archaeological excavations have found Lenape burials that included identifiably ethnic Iroquois remains interred along with those of Lenape. The two groups were sometimes bitter enemies since before recorded history, but intermarriage occurred — and both groups have an oral history suggesting they jointly came east together and displaced the

mound builders A number of pre-Columbian cultures are collectively termed "Mound Builders". The term does not refer to a specific people or archaeological culture, but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks erected for an extended period of more than 5 ...

culture. In addition, both tribes practiced adopting young captives from warfare into their tribes and assimilating them as full tribal members. Iroquoians adopting Lenape (or other peoples) were known to be part of their religious beliefs, the adopted one taking the place in the clan of one killed in warfare. Early European observers may have misinterpreted matrilineal Lenape cultural practices. For example, a man's maternal uncle (his mother's brother), and not his father, was usually considered to be his closest male relative, since his uncle belonged to his mother's clan and his father belonged to a different one. The maternal uncle played a more prominent role in the lives of his sister's children than did the father—for example likely being the one responsible for educating a young man in weapons craft, martial arts, hunting, and other life skills. Early European chroniclers did not understand this concept.

Hunting, fishing, and farming

Lenape practiced

companion planting Companion planting in gardening and agriculture is the planting of different crops in proximity for any of a number of different reasons, including pest control, pollination, providing habitat for beneficial insects, maximizing use of space, a ...

, in which women cultivated many varieties of the " Three Sisters": maize, beans, and squash. Men also practiced

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

and the harvesting of seafood. By the time of the arrival of Europeans, the Lenape were cultivating fields of vegetation through the

slash and burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...

technique. This extended the productive life of planted fields. According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape's primary crop was

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

, which they planted in March. They quickly adopted European metal tools for this task. 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: from September to January and from June to July, they mainly hunted deer, but from the month of January to the spring planting in May, they hunted anything from bears and beavers to raccoons and foxes. Dutch settler

David de Vries David (Dave) de Vries (born 1961) is a New Zealand film writer, director, and producer who also writes and illustrates comic books. He was born in New Zealand and emigrated with his family to Australia. De Vries was born in Wellington, New Z ...

, 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 The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The drainage basin, watershed of the ri ...

), 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

lasso A lasso ( or ), also called lariat, riata, or reata (all from Castilian, la reata 're-tied rope'), is a loop of rope designed as a restraint to be thrown around a target and tightened when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the Spanish an ...

ing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting the brush on fire. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area, and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round. One technique used while fishing was to add ground

chestnuts The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelated ...

to stream water to make fish dizzy and easier to catch. The success of these methods allowed the tribe to maintain a larger population than other,

nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

hunter-gatherer peoples in North America at the time, could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, around much of the current

area alone, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape in approximately 80 settlement sites. In 1524, Lenape in canoes met

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 ...

, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor. European settlers and traders from the 17th-century colonies of

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...

and

New Sweden New Sweden ( sv, Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. New Sweden f ...

traded with the Lenape for agricultural products, mainly maize, in exchange for iron tools. The Lenape also arranged contacts between the ''Minquas'' or ''Susquehannocks'' and the Dutch West India Company and

Swedish South Company The Swedish South Company, also known as the Company of New-Sweden ( Swedish, ', '), was a trading company from Sweden founded in 1626, that supported the trade between Sweden and its colony New Sweden, in North America. The colony was envisioned ...

to promote the fur trade. The Lenape were major producers of labor intensive ''

wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western Nor ...

'', or shell beads, which they traditionally used for ritual purposes and as ornaments. After the Dutch arrival, they began to exchange wampum for beaver furs provided by

-speaking

and other Minquas. They exchanged these furs for Dutch and, from the late 1630s, also Swedish imports. Relations between some Lenape and Minqua polities briefly turned sour in the late 1620s and early 1630s, but were relatively peaceful most of the time.

Clothing and adornment

The early European settlers, especially the Dutch and Swedes, were surprised at the Lenape's skill in fashioning clothing from natural materials. In hot weather men and women wore only loin cloth and skirt respectively, while they used beaver pelts or bear skins to serve as winter mantles. Additionally, both sexes might wear buckskin leggings and moccasins in cold weather. Women would wear their hair long, usually below the hip, while men kept only a small "round crest, of about 2 inches in diameter". Deer hair, dyed a deep scarlet, as well as plumes of feathers, were favorite components of headdresses and breast ornaments for males. 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 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 striking, fashioned from the iridescent body feathers of wild turkeys.

Leisure

One of the more common activities of leisure for the Lenni Lenape would be the game of ''pahsaheman'': a football-like hybrid, split on gender lines. Over a hundred players were grouped into gendered teams (male and female), and would attempt to get a ball through the other team's goal post. However, men could not carry and pass the ball, only using their feet, while the women could carry, pass, or kick. If the ball was picked up by a woman, she could not be tackled by the men, although men could attempt to dislodge the ball. Women were free to tackle the men. These gender-split rules highlight how a woman's role in Lenape society was harmonious to a man's role, rather than acquiescent. Another activity common was that of dance, and yet again, gender differences appear: men would dance and leap loudly, often with bear claw accessories, while women, wearing little thimbles or bells, would dance more modestly, stepping "one foot after the other slightly forwards then backwards, yet so as to advance gradually."

Units of measure

A number of linear measures were used. Small units of measure were the distance from the thumb and first finger, and the distance from first finger to pit of elbow. Travel distance was measured in the distance one could comfortably travel from sun-up to sun-down.

Ethnobotany

Lenape herbalists, who have been primarily women, use their extensive knowledge of plant life to help heal their community's ailments, sometimes through ceremony. The Lenape found uses in trees like black walnut which were used to cure ringworm and with

persimmon The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus '' Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Oriental persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki'' ''Diospyros'' is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-per ...

s which were used to cure ear problems. The Lenape carry the nuts of ''

Aesculus glabra ''Aesculus glabra'', commonly known as Ohio buckeye,''Aesculus g ...

'' in the pocket for rheumatism, and an infusion of ground nuts mixed with sweet oil or mutton tallow for earaches. They also grind the nuts and use them to poison fish in streams. They also apply a poultice of pulverized nuts with sweet oil for earache.

History

European contact

The first recorded European contact with people presumed to have been the Lenape was in 1524. The

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

was greeted by local Lenape who came by canoe, after his ship entered what is now called

Lower New York Bay Lower New York Bay is a section of New York Bay south of the Narrows (the strait between Staten Island and Brooklyn). The eastern end of the Bay is marked by two spits of land, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and Rockaway, Queens. The waterway b ...

Early colonial era

At the time of sustained European contact in the 1600s and 1700s, the Lenape were a powerful Native American nation who inhabited a region on the mid-Atlantic coast spanning the latitudes of southern Massachusetts to the southern extent of Delaware in what anthropologists call the

Northeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands include Native American tribes and First Nation bands residing in or originating from a cultural area encompassing the northeastern and Midwest United States and southeastern Canada. It is part ...

. Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Lenape roughly encompassed the area around and between the

and lower

Hudson Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...

rivers, and included the western part of

in present-day New York.

Paul Otto Paul Otto Schlesinger (8 February 1878 – 25 or 30 November 1943) was a German film actor and director. Born in Berlin, he began a qualification as a retail merchant and made his actor's debut at the age of 17. Otto worked at Theaters in ...

, 179 "Intercultural Relations Between Native Americans and Europeans in New Netherland and New York" in ''Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations,''SUNY Press, 2009 Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify the Lenape people that lived there.

17th century

The Lenape had a culture in which the clan and family controlled property. Europeans often tried to contract for land with the tribal chiefs, confusing their culture with that of neighboring tribes such as the Iroquois. As a further complication in communication and understanding, kinship terms commonly used by European settlers had very different meanings to the Lenape: "fathers" did not have the same direct parental control as in Europe, "brothers" could be a symbol of equality but could also be interpreted as one's parallel cousins, "cousins" were interpreted as only cross-cousins, etc. All of these added complexities in kinship terms made agreements with Europeans all the more difficult. The Lenape would petition for grievances on the basis that not all their families had been recognized in the transaction (not that they wanted to "share" the land).William Christie MacLeod.
The Family Hunting Territory and Lenape Political Organization
" ''

American Anthropologist ''American Anthropologist'' is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), published quarterly by Wiley. The "New Series" began in 1899 under an editorial board that included Franz Boas, Daniel G. Brinton, and John W ...

'' 24. 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 Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

, which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province of

. This land was purchased from the Lenape after the fact. New Amsterdam was founded in 1624 by the Dutch in what would later become

. Dutch settlers also founded a colony at present-day

Lewes, Delaware Lewes ( ) is an incorporated city on the Delaware Bay in eastern Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population is 2,747. Along with neighboring Rehoboth Beach, Lewes is one of the principal cities of Delawar ...

, on June 3, 1631 and named it ''

Zwaanendael or was a short-lived Dutch colonial settlement in Delaware. It was built in 1631. The name is archaic Dutch for "swan valley." The site of the settlement later became the town of Lewes, Delaware. History Two directors of the Amsterdam c ...

'' (Swan Valley).Munroe, John A.: ''Colonial Delaware: A History'':

Millwood, New York Millwood is a hamlet and census-designated place located in the town of New Castle, New York, United States in Westchester County. It was originally settled as Sarlesville. The area now known as Millwood appears on 19th century maps as Merritt's ...

: KTO Press; 1978; pp. 9–12 The colony had a short life, as in 1632 a local band of Lenape killed the 32 Dutch settlers after a misunderstanding escalated over Lenape defacement of the insignia of the Dutch West India Company. In 1634, the

-speaking

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 A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

to the Susquehannock. After the warfare, the Lenape referred to the Susquehannock as "uncles". The Iroquois added the Lenape to the

Covenant Chain The Covenant Chain was a series of alliances and treaties developed during the seventeenth century, primarily between the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) and the British colonies of North America, with other Native American tribes added. Firs ...

in 1676; the Lenape were tributary to the Five Nations (later Six) until 1753, shortly before the outbreak of the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

(a part of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

in Europe). Based on the historical record of the mid-17th century, it has been estimated that most Lenape polities consisted of several hundred people but it is conceivable that some had been considerably larger prior to close contact, given the wars between the Susquehannocks and the Iroquois,Josephy 188–189 both of whom were armed by the Dutch fur traders, while the Lenape were at odds with the Dutch and so lost that particular arms race. During the

Beaver Wars The Beaver Wars ( moh, Tsianì kayonkwere), also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars (french: Guerres franco-iroquoises) were a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America throughout t ...

in the first half of the 17th century, European colonists were careful to keep firearms from the coastally located Lenape, while rival

peoples such as the

s and Confederation of the Iroquois became comparatively well armed. Subsequently, the Lenape became subjugated and made tributary to first the Susquehannocks, then the Iroquois, even needing their rivals' (superiors') agreement to initiate treaties such as land sales. Like most tribes, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases originating in Europe, mainly

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 ...

but also cholera, influenza and dysentery, and recurrent violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquoian peoples occasionally fought the Lenape. As the 18th century progressed, many surviving Lenape moved west—into the (relatively empty) upper

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

basin. Smallpox devastated Native American communities even located far from European settlements by the 1640s. The Lenape and Susquehannocks fought a war in the middle of the 17th century that left the Lenape a tributary state even as the Susquehannocks had defeated the Province of Maryland between 1642-50s. The Lenape's quick adoption of trade goods, and their desire 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 Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

. The Lenape who produced

in the vicinity of Manhattan Island temporarily forestalled the negative effects of the decline in trade. Otto, Paul, 91 ''The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley''. New York: Berghahn Press, 2006. Lenape population fell sharply during this period, due to high fatalities from

epidemics An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious d ...

of infectious diseases carried by Europeans, such as measles and

, to which they had no natural

immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity desc ...

. In 1682,

and

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

colonists created the English

colony of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to Wi ...

beginning at the lower Delaware River. A peace treaty was negotiated between the newly arriving colonists and Lenape at what is now known as

Penn Treaty Park Penn Treaty Park is a small park on the western bank of the Delaware River, in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located on Beach Street, near its intersection with Delaware Avenue. The land that is now the park was ...

. In the decades immediately following, some 20,000 new colonists arrived in the region, putting pressure on Lenape settlements and hunting grounds. Penn expected his authority and that of the colonial government to take precedence. His new colony effectively displaced many Lenape and forced others to adapt to new cultural demands. Penn gained a reputation for benevolence and tolerance, but his efforts resulted in more effective colonization of the ancestral Lenape homeland than previous ones.

18th century

died in 1718. His heirs, John and Thomas Penn, and their agents were running the colony, and had abandoned many of the elder Penn's practices. Trying to raise money, they contemplated ways to sell Lenape land to colonial settlers. The resulting scheme culminated in the so-called

Walking Purchase The Walking Purchase (or Walking Treaty) was a 1737 agreement between the Penn family, the original proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania, later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Lenape native Indians (also known as the Delaware In ...

. In the mid-1730s, colonial administrators produced a draft of a land deed dating to the 1680s. William Penn had approached several leaders of Lenape polities in the lower Delaware to discuss land sales further north. Since the land in question did not belong to their polities, the talks came to nothing. But colonial administrators had prepared the draft that resurfaced in the 1730s. The Penns and their supporters tried to present this draft as a legitimate deed. Lenape leaders in the lower Delaware refused to accept it. According to historian Steven Harper, what followed was a "convoluted sequence of deception, fraud, and extortion orchestrated by the Pennsylvania government that is commonly known as the Walking Purchase." In the end, all Lenape who still lived on the Delaware were driven off the remnants of their homeland under threats of violence. Some Lenape polities eventually retaliated by attacking Pennsylvania settlements. When they resisted European colonial expansion at the height of the

, the British colonial authorities investigated the causes of Lenape resentment. The British asked Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to lead the investigation. Johnson had become wealthy as a trader and acquired thousands of acres of land in the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

Valley from the Iroquois Mohawk of New York. Beginning in the 18th century, the

Moravian Church , image = AgnusDeiWindow.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , caption = Church emblem featuring the Agnus Dei.Stained glass at the Rights Chapel of Trinity Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States , main_classification = Proto-Prot ...

established missions among the Lenape. The Moravians required the Christian converts to share their

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

, 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 colonial authorities, who were seeking aid against the French and their Native American allies during the

. The Moravians' insistence on Christian Lenapes' abandoning traditional warfare practices alienated mission populations from other Lenape and Native American groups, who revered warriors. The Moravians accompanied Lenape relocations to Ohio and Canada, continuing their missionary work. The Moravian Lenape who settled permanently in Ontario after the

were sometimes referred to as "

Christian Munsee The Christian Munsee are a group of Lenape (also known as ''Delaware''), an Indigenous people in the United States, that primarily speak Munsee and have converted to Christianity, following the teachings of Moravian missionaries. The Christian M ...

", as they mostly spoke 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 ...

branch of the Lenape language. During the

, the Lenape initially sided with the French, as they hoped to prevent further European colonial encroachment in their territory. But, such leaders as

Teedyuscung Teedyuscung (c. 1700–1763) was known as "King of the Delawares". He worked to establish a permanent Lenape (Delaware) home in eastern Pennsylvania in the Lehigh, Susquehanna, and Delaware River valleys. Teedyuscung participated in the Treaty ...

in the east and Tamaqua in the vicinity of modern

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

shifted to building alliances with the British colonial authorities. After the end of the war, however, Anglo-American settlers continued to attack the Lenape, often to such an extent that the historian Amy Schutt writes the dead since the wars outnumbered those killed during the war.Schutt, (2007), p.118 In 1757, the "New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians" wrote a constitution to expel native Munsee Lenape from their home in the Washington Valley of Morris County, New Jersey. Led by Reverend John Brainerd, colonists forcefully relocated 200 people to Indian Mills, then known as Brotherton. It was then an industrial town, known for

gristmills A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

and

sawmills A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. This was the first Native American reservation in New Jersey. Reverend John Brainerd abandoned the reservation in 1777. The

Treaty of Easton The Treaty of Easton was a colonial agreement in North America signed in October 1758 during the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War) between British colonials and the chiefs of 13 Native American nations, representing tribes of the Iroquois, ...

, 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. In 1763, Bill Hickman, Lenape, warned Anglo-American colonists in the Juniata River region of an impending attack. Many Lenape joined in

Pontiac's War Pontiac's War (also known as Pontiac's Conspiracy or Pontiac's Rebellion) was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of Native Americans dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754–176 ...

, 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 The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan ...

of Pennsylvania. The settlers had been sponsored by the Susquehanna Company.

American Revolutionary War

=Background

= After the signing of the

in 1758, the Lenape were forced to move west out of their original lands into what is today known as

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. During the

, Killbuck had assisted the British against the French and their Indian allies. In 1761, Killbuck led a British supply train from Fort Pitt to

Fort Sandusky Fort Sandusky refers to at least three separate military forts that were built by French and English forces at three different sites in the area of Sandusky Bay and the Sandusky River in northern Ohio. They were the French Fort Sandoske (built 1749 ...

. During the early 1770s, missionaries, including

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 ...

and

, arrived in the Ohio Country near the Lenape villages. The Moravian Church sent these men to convert the

Indigenous peoples 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 ...

to Christianity. The missionaries established several missions, including ''Gnadenhutten'', ''Lichtenau'', and ''Schoenbrunn''. The missionaries pressured Indigenous people to abandon their traditional customs, beliefs, and ways of life, and to replace them with European and Christian ways. Many Lenape did adopt Christianity, but others refused to do so. The Lenape became a divided people during the 1770s, including in 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 Lenape of a warrior to stop further white settlement of their land.

=War

= When the American Revolutionary War began, Killbuck found the Lenape caught between the British and their Indian allies in the West and the Americans in the East. At the war's beginning, Killbuck and many Lenape claimed to be neutral. In 1778, Killbuck permitted American soldiers to traverse Lenape territory so that the soldiers could attack British-held

Fort Detroit Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Detroit (1701–1796) was a fort established on the north bank of the Detroit River by the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and the Italian Alphonse de Tonty in 1701. In the 18th century, Fre ...

. In return, Killbuck requested that the Americans build a fort near the major village of Coshocton, to provide the Lenape with protection from potential attacks by British-allied Indians and

Loyalists Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

. The Americans agreed and built

Fort Laurens Fort Laurens was an American Revolutionary War fort on a northern tributary of the Muskingum River in what would become Northeast Ohio, United States. The fort's location is in the present-day town of Bolivar, Ohio, along the Ohio and Erie Can ...

, which they garrisoned. At the time of the Revolutionary War, the Lenape in Ohio were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in the war. During this time, the Lenape bands were living in numerous villages around their main village of '' Coshocton'', between the western frontier strongholds of the British and the Patriots. The American colonists had Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) and the British, along with Indian allies, controlled the area of

(in present-day

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

). Other Indian communities, particularly the

Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language Wyandot (sometimes spelled Wandat) is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot or Wya ...

, the Mingo, 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 ...

, and the Wolf Clan of the Lenape, favored the British. They believed that by their proclamation of 1763, restricting Anglo-American settlement to east of the Appalachian Mountains, that the British would help them preserve a Native American territory. The British made plans to attack

in early 1779 and demanded that the neutral Lenape formally side with the British. Killbuck warned the Americans of the planned attack. His actions helped save the fort, but the Americans abandoned it in August 1779. The Lenape had lost their protectors and found themselves without solid allies in the conflict, which compounded their dispossession at the hand of encroaching

American pioneers American pioneers were European American and African American settlers who migrated westward from the Thirteen Colonies and later United States to settle in and develop areas of North America that had previously been inhabited or used by Nativ ...

during and after the war. Some Lenape decided to take up arms against the American settlers 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 Lenape leaders signed the

Treaty of Fort Pitt (1778) The Treaty of Fort Pitt, also known as the Treaty With the Delawares, the Delaware Treaty, or the Fourth Treaty of Pittsburgh, was signed on September 17, 1778, and was the first formal treaty between the new United States of America and any A ...

with the American colonists. Through this treaty, the Lenape hoped to establish the Ohio country as a state inhabited exclusively by Native Americans, as a subset of the new United States. A third group of Lenape, many of them converted

s, lived in several mission villages run by Moravians. Like the other bands, they also spoke the

branch of Lenape, an Algonquian language.

White Eyes White Eyes, named ''Koquethagechton'' (c. 1730 – 5 November 1778), was Chief Sachem of the Lenape (Delaware) people in the Ohio Country during the era of the American Revolution. Sometimes known as George White Eyes, or Captain Grey Eyes al. S ...

, the Lenape chief who had negotiated the treaty, died in 1778. Subsequently many Lenape at Coshocton eventually joined the war against the Americans. In response, American military officer

Daniel Brodhead Daniel Brodhead (October 17, 1736 – November 15, 1809) was an American military and political leader during the American Revolutionary War and early days of the United States. Early life Brodhead was born in Marbletown, New York, the son o ...

led an expedition out of Fort Pitt and on 19 April 1781, and 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.

Treaties of the late 18th century

The Lenape were the first Indian tribe to enter into a treaty with the new United States government, with the

Treaty of Fort Pitt The Treaty of Fort Pitt, also known as the Treaty With the Delawares, the Delaware Treaty, or the Fourth Treaty of Pittsburgh, was signed on September 17, 1778, and was the first formal treaty between the new United States of America and any A ...

signed in 1778 during the

. 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. In 1780, Munsee-speaking Lenape

community leaders Community leader is a designation, often by secondary sources (particularly in the media), for a person widely perceived to represent a community. A simple way to understand community leadership is to see it as leadership in, for and by the communit ...

native to the Washington Valley that had been forcibly displaced to Brotherton, wrote a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations An international organization or international o ...

to oppose selling any more land to white settlers:In 1796, the

Oneidas The Oneida people (autonym: Onʌyoteˀa·ká·, Onyota'a:ka, ''the People of the Upright Stone, or standing stone'', ''Thwahrù·nęʼ'' in Tuscarora) are a Native American tribe and First Nations band. They are one of the five founding nat ...

of New Stockbridge invited the Munsee Lenape to their reservation. The initial Lenape response was negative; in 1798, Lenape community leaders Bartholomew Calvin, Jason Skekit, and 18 others signed a public statement of refusal to leave "our fine place in

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...

." However, the tribe later agreed to relocate to New Stockbridge to join the Oneidas. A few Lenape households stayed behind to assimilate in New Jersey.

19th century

In the early 19th century the amateur anthropologist

Silas Wood Silas Wood (September 14, 1769 – March 2, 1847) was a U.S. Representative from New York. Born in West Hills on Long Island in the Province of New York, Wood pursued classical studies. He graduated from Princeton College in 1789 and durin ...

published a book claiming that there were several American Indian tribes that were distinct to

, New York. He collectively called them the

Metoac Metoac is an erroneous term used by some to group together the Munsee-speaking Lenape (west), Quiripi-speaking Unquachog (center) and Pequot-speaking Montaukett (east) American Indians on what is now Long Island in New York state. The ter ...

. Modern scientific scholarship has shown that in fact two linguistic groups representing two distinct Algonquian cultural identities lived 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 New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

across Long Island Sound, such as the

Pequot The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or t ...

. Wood (and earlier settlers) often misinterpreted the Indian use of place names for autonyms. Over a period of 176 years, European settlers pushed the Lenape out of the East Coast, through to Ohio and eventually further west. Most members of the

-language branch of the Lenape left the United States after the British were defeated in the American Revolutionary War. Their descendants live on three

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." Ind ...

s 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

Phratry In ancient Greece, a phratry ( grc, φρᾱτρῐ́ᾱ, phrātríā, brotherhood, kinfolk, derived from grc, φρᾱ́τηρ, phrā́tēr, brother, links=no) was a group containing citizens in some city-states. Their existence is known in most I ...

settled in 1792 following the war. Two groups migrated to

Oneida County, New York Oneida County is a county in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 232,125. The county seat is Utica. The name is in honor of the Oneida, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois League or ''Haudenos ...

, by 1802, the Brotherton Indians of New Jersey and the Stockbridge-Munsee. In 1822, the Munsee Lenape of Washington Valley who had moved to Stockbridge were forcefully displaced by white colonists again, over 900 miles' travel away, to Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Indiana to Missouri

By the ''

Treaty of St. Mary's The Treaty of St. Mary's may refer to one of six treaties concluded in fall of 1818 between the United States and Natives of central Indiana regarding purchase of Native land. The treaties were *Treaty with the Wyandot, etc. *Treaty with the Wy ...

'', signed October 3, 1818, in St. Mary's, Ohio, the Lenape ceded their lands in Indiana for lands west of the Mississippi and an annuity of $4,000. Over the next few years, the Lenape settled on the James River in Missouri near its confluence with Wilsons Creek, occupying eventually about of the approximately allotted to them.

Anderson, Indiana Anderson, named after Chief William Anderson, is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Anderson, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses Madison County. Anderson is ...

, is named after

Chief William Anderson Kikthawenund (1757–1831), also known as William Anderson, was a leader of the Unalatchgo Lenape people. The city of Anderson in Indiana is named after him. Early life Anderson was born along the banks of the Susquehanna River in or about wh ...

, 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 Wilsons Creek.

Role in western history

Many Lenape participated in the exploration of the western United States, working as trappers with the

mountain men A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

, and as guides and hunters for wagon trains. They 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 The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

. Occasionally, they played surprising roles as Indian allies. Sagundai accompanied one of Frémont's expeditions as one of his Lenape 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 The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

with a particularly fine horse, who had outrun both Sagundai and the other Comanche. Sagundai was thrown when his horse stepped into a prairie-dog hole, but avoided the Comanche's lance, shot the warrior dead, and caught his horse and escaped the other Comanche. When Sagundai returned to his own people in present-day Kansas, they celebrated his exploits with the last war and scalp dances of their history, which were held at

Edwardsville, Kansas Edwardsville is a city in Wyandotte County, Kansas, United States, and part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 4,717. History Edwardsville was surveyed in 1869 on land formerly belonging ...

Kansas reservation

By the terms of the "Treaty of the James Fork" that was signed on September 24, 1829, and ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1830, the Lenape were forced to move further west. They were granted lands in

in exchange for lands on the James Fork of the White River in Missouri. These lands, in what is now Kansas, were west of the Missouri and north of the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwesternmost part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwesternmost portion of the extensive Mississippi River dr ...

. The main reserve consisted of about with an additional "outlet" strip wide extending to the west. In 1854, Congress passed the

Kansas–Nebraska Act The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 () was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, passed by the 33rd United States Congress, and signed into law by ...

, which created the Territory of Kansas and opened the area for white settlement. It also authorized negotiation with Indian tribes regarding removal. The Lenape were reluctant to negotiate for yet another relocation, but they feared serious trouble with white settlers, and conflict developed. As the Lenape were not considered United States citizens, they had no access to the courts and no way to enforce their property rights. The United States Army was to enforce their rights to reservation land after the Indian Agent had both posted a public notice warning trespassers and served written notice on them, a process generally considered onerous. 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 built houses and squatted on Lenape lands. By 1860, the Lenpae had reached consensus to leave Kansas, which was in accord with the government's Indian removal policy.

Oklahoma

The main body of Lenape arrived in

in the 1860s.Helen M. Stiefmiller
"Delaware, Eastern."
Oklahoma Historical Society, accessed May 6, 2017 The two

federally recognized tribes This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

of Lenape in Oklahoma are the

Delaware Nation Delaware Nation ( del, Èhëliwsikakw Lënapeyok), also known as the Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma and sometimes called the Absentee or Western Delaware, based in Anadarko, Oklahoma Anadarko, Oklahoma Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is fifty miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County. History Anadarko got its name when its post of ...

, and the Delaware Tribe of Indians, headquartered in

Bartlesville, Oklahoma Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is north of Tulsa and south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Ca ...

."Delaware Tribe regains federal recognition"
''NewsOk.'' 4 Aug 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2009. The Delaware Tribe of Indians 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 Lenape as citizens within the Cherokee Nation. While the dispute was unsettled, the

Curtis Act of 1898 The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States Dawes Act; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory: the Choctaw, Chickasa ...

dissolved tribal governments and ordered the allotment of communal tribal lands to individual households of 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.

Texas

Spanish Texas Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1690 until 1821. The term "interior provinces" first appeared in 1712, as an expression meaning "far away" provinces. It was only in 1776 that a lega ...

:The Lenape migrated into Texas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Elements of the Lenape migrated from Missouri into Texas around 1820, settling around the Red River and Sabine River. The Lenape were peaceful and shared their territory in Spanish Texas with the Caddo and other immigrating bands, as well as with the Spanish and ever-increasing American population. This peaceful trend continued after Mexico won their independence from Spain in 1821.Carol A. Lipscomb, "DELAWARE INDIANS," Handbook of Texas Online'

accessed July 8, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. *

Mexican Texas Mexican Texas is the historiographical name used to refer to the era of Texan history between 1821 and 1836, when it was part of Mexico. Mexico gained independence in 1821 after winning its war against Spain, which began in 1810. Initially ...

:In 1828, Mexican General Manuel de Mier y Terán made an inspection of eastern Mexican Texas and estimated that the region housed between 150 and 200 Lenape families. The Lenape requested Mier y Terán to issue them land grants and send teachers, so they might learn to read and write the Spanish language. The general, impressed with how well they had adapted to the Mexican culture, sent their request to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, but the authorities never granted the Lenape any legal titles. :The situation changed when the Texas Revolution began in 1835. Texas officials were eager to gain the support of the Texas tribes to their side and offered to recognize their land claims by sending three commissioners to negotiate a treaty. A treaty was agreed upon in February 1836 that mapped the boundaries of Indian lands, but this agreement was never officially ratified by the Texas government. * Texas Republic The Lenape remained friendly after Texas won its independence.

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

President Sam Houston favored a policy of peaceful relations with all tribes. He sought the services of the friendly Lenape and, in 1837, enlisted several Lenape to protect the frontier from hostile western tribes. Lenape scouts joined with Texas Rangers as they patrolled the western frontier. Houston also tried to get the Lenape land claims recognized, but his efforts were met only by opposition. The next Texan President, Mirabeau B. Lamar, completely opposed all Indians. He considered them illegal intruders who threatened the settlers' safety and lands and issued an order for their removal from Texas. The Lenape were sent north of the Red River into Indian Territory, although a few scattered Lenape remained in Texas. In 1841, Houston was reelected to a second term as president and his peaceful Indian policy was then reinstated. A

with the remaining Lnape and a few other tribes was negotiated in 1843 at Fort Bird and the Lenape were enlisted to help him make peace with the

. Lenape scouts and their families were allowed to settle along the Brazos and Bosque rivers in order to influence the Comanche to come to the Texas government for a peace conference. The plan was successful and the Lenape helped bring the Comanches to a treaty council in 1844. * State of Texas In 1845, the Republic of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

agreed to annexation by the US to become an American state. The Lenape continued their peaceful policy with the Americans and served as interpreters, scouts, and diplomats for the US Army and the

Indian Bureau The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and Al ...

. In 1847,

John Meusebach John O. Meusebach (May 26, 1812 – May 27, 1897), born Otfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach, was at first a Prussian bureaucrat, later an American farmer and politician who served in the Texas Senate, District 22. Early years John O. Meusebach ...

was assisted by Jim Shaw (a Lenape), in settling the German communities in the Texas Hill Country. For the remainder of his life, Shaw worked as a military scout in West Texas. In 1848, John Conner (Lenape) guided the Chihuahua-El Paso Expedition and was granted a league of land by a special act of the Texas legislature in 1853. The expeditions of the map maker Randolph B. Marcy through West Texas in 1849, 1852, and 1854 were guided by

Black Beaver Black Beaver or ''Se-ket-tu-may-qua'' (1806–1880, Lenape, or ''Delaware'') was a trapper and interpreter who worked for the American Fur Company. He served as a scout and guide as he was fluent in English, as well as several European and Nativ ...

(Lenape). In 1854, despite the history of peaceful relations, the last of the Texas Lenape were moved by the American government to the Brazos Indian Reservation near

Graham, Texas Graham is a city in north-central Texas. It is the county seat and largest city of Young County. History The site was first settled in 1871 by brothers Gustavus A. and Edwin S. Graham, primary shareholders in the Texas Emigration and Land Company ...

. In 1859 the US forced the remaining Lenape to remove from Texas to a location on the

Washita River The Washita River () is a river in the states of Texas and Oklahoma in the United States. The river is long and terminates at its confluence with the Red River, which is now part of Lake Texoma () on the TexasOklahoma border. Geography The ...

in the vicinity of present

Anadarko, Oklahoma Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is fifty miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County. History Anadarko got its name when its post of ...

20th century

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

21st century

The Cherokee Nation filed suit to overturn the independent federal recognition of the Lenape. The tribe lost federal recognition in a 2004 court ruling in favor of the Cherokee Nation but regained it on July 28, 2009. After recognition, the tribe reorganized under the

Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936 (also known as the Thomas-Rogers Act) is a United States federal law that extended the 1934 Wheeler-Howard or Indian Reorganization Act to include those tribes within the boundaries of the state of Oklahoma. ...

. Members approved a constitution and by laws in a May 26, 2009, vote. Jerry Douglas was elected as tribal chief. In September 2000, the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma received of land in

Thornbury Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania Thornbury Township is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,028 at the 2010 census, up from 7,093 at the 2000 census. It is adjacent to, and was once joined with, Thornbury Township, Chester County, P ...

. In 2004, the

Delaware Nation Delaware Nation ( del, Èhëliwsikakw Lënapeyok), also known as the Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma and sometimes called the Absentee or Western Delaware, based in Anadarko, Oklahoma United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, E.D. Pa.) is one of the original 13 federal judiciary districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. It originally sat in Independence Hall in Phil ...

, seeking to reclaim included in the 1737

to build a casino. In the suit titled ''The Delaware Nation v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania'', the plaintiffs, acting as the successor in interest and political continuation of the Lenni Lenape and of Lenape Chief Moses Tunda Tatamy, claimed aboriginal and fee title to the 315 acres of land located in Forks Township in Northampton County, near the town of

Tatamy, Pennsylvania Tatamy is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The borough's population was 1,203 as of the 2020 census. Tatamy is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th most populous metropolita ...

. After the Walking Purchase, Chief Tatamy was granted legal permission for him and his family to remain on this parcel of land, known as "Tatamy's Place". In addition to suing the state, the tribe also sued the township, the county and elected officials, including Gov. Ed Rendell. Although the Walking Purchase forced the Lenape people to Oklahoma, not every Lenape lives in Oklahoma. Many Lenape continue to live in the Northeast. This community of people are the Munsee Lenape, and are currently in the process of applying for state recognition. The court held that the justness of the extinguishment of aboriginal title is

nonjusticiable Justiciability concerns the limits upon legal issues over which a court can exercise its judicial authority. It includes, but is not limited to, the legal concept of standing, which is used to determine if the party bringing the suit is a party ...

, including in the case of

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

. Because the extinguishment occurred prior to the passage of the first Indian Nonintercourse Act in 1790, that Act did not avail the Lenape. As a result, the court granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss. In its conclusion the court stated: "... we find that the Delaware Nation's aboriginal rights to Tatamy's Place were extinguished in 1737 and that, later, fee title to the land was granted to Chief Tatamy—not to the tribe as a collectivity."

Contemporary tribes and organizations

Federally recognized tribes

Three Lenape tribes are

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

in the United States. They are as follows: *

* Delaware Tribe of Indians,

* Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Bowler, Wisconsin.

Canadian First Nations

The Lenape who fled

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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the late 18th century settled in what is now

. Canada recognizes three Lenape

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

with four

s. They are all located in Southwestern Ontario. *

, Canadian reserve near St. Thomas, Ontario. * Moravian of the Thames First Nation, Canadian reserve near Chatham-Kent. *

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

Brantford, Ontario Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully indepen ...

State-recognized and unrecognized groups

Three groups who claim descent from Lenape people are

state-recognized tribe State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established unde ...

s. * Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware, Delaware * Nanticoke-Lenni Lenape Tribal Nation, New Jersey * Ramapough Lenape Nation, New Jersey More than a dozen organizations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and elsewhere claim descent from Lenape people and are unrecognized tribes. Organizations in Pennsylvania,

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

and

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

have petitioned the United States federal government for recognition. An unrecognized group in Pennsylvania that calls itself the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania maintains a cultural center in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware R ...

where they display historical and educational materials, and crafts made by group members. Every four years, they hold the Rising Nation River Journey, during which participants paddle down the Delaware River from

Hancock, New York Hancock is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The town contains a village, also named Hancock. The town is in the southwest part of the county. The population was 3,224 at the 2010 census. The town is the largest by area in Dela ...

, to

Cape May, New Jersey Cape May is a city located at the southern tip of Cape May Peninsula in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the country's oldest vacation resort destinations, and part of ...

. During the event, they invite the public to sign the Treaty of Renewed Friendship, whose signees agree to recognize the Lenape as the Indigenous inhabitants of the Lenapehoking and act as good stewards of the environment.

Notable historical Lenape people

This includes only Lenape documented in history. Contemporary notable Lenape people are listed in the articles for the appropriate tribe. * Richard C. Adams (1864–1921), Lenape author of collections of traditional narratives, legal advocate for Lenape in Washington, D.C. *

(1806–1880), trapper, trader and scout; first inductee into the American Indian Hall of Fame * Buckongahelas (c. 1720–1805), Wolf clan war leader *

Nora Thompson Dean Nora Thompson Dean (July 3, 1907 – November 29, 1984), also known as Weenjipahkihelexkwe (modern Unami orthography: Weènchipahkihëlèxkwe), which translates as "Touching Leaves Woman" in Unami, was a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians. As ...

(1907–1984), Lenape linguist *

Hannah Freeman Hannah Freeman (March 1731 – March 20, 1802), also known as "Indian Hannah," was a Lenape healer, artisan, and farmer who historically was thought to be the last surviving member of the Lenape in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Biography Free ...

(1731–1802), purportedly the last surviving Lenape in Chester County, Pennsylvania * Charles Journeycake (1817–1894), chief of the Wolf clan from 1855 and principal chief from 1861; visited Washington, D.C., 24 times on his tribe's behalf *Sachem Killbuck (Gelelemend), Turtle clan leaderKillbuck, Ohio History Central.
July 1, 2005 *

Captain Jacobs Tewea, better known by his English name Captain Jacobs, (d. September 8, 1756) was a Lenape chief during the French and Indian War. Jacobs received his English name from a Pennsylvanian settler named Arthur Buchanan, who thought the chief resembled ...

(died 1756), war chief *

Neolin Neolin (meaning ''the enlightened'' in Algonquian) was a prophet of the Lenni Lenape (also known as ''Delaware'') from the village of Muskingum in Ohio. His dates of birth and death are unknown. Inspired by a religious vision in 1761, Neolin ...

(18th century), Lenape prophet * Chief Newcomer (

Netawatwees Netawatwees or King Newcomer (c. 1686–1776, Lenape) was Sachem (principle Chief) and spiritual leader of the Delaware. His name, meaning "skilled advisor" or "first in council," is spelled in a variety of ways including Netaut Twelement, Na-tau ...

, c. 1686–1776), founder the village of Gekelmukpechunk (

Newcomerstown Newcomerstown is a village in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States, east-northeast of Columbus. In the late 1770s, this was the largest Delaware Indian village on the Tuscarawas River, with 700 residents. Chief Newcomer (''Netawatwes'') was ...

), Ohio in the 1760s *

Oratam Oratam (or Oritani/Oratamin) was sagamore, or sachem, of the Hackensack Indians living in northeastern New Jersey during the period of early European colonization in the 17th century. Documentation shows that he lived an unusually long life (almo ...

(16th century), sachem of the Hackensack *

Captain Pipe Captain Pipe (c. 1725? – c. 1818?) ( Lenape), called Konieschquanoheel and also known as Hopocan in Lenape, was an 18th-century Head Peace chief of the Algonquian-speaking Lenape (Delaware) and War Chief 1778+. He succeeded his maternal u ...

(Hopocan), (c. 1725–c. 1818), 18th century chief and member of the Wolf Clan *

Pisquetomen Pisquetomen (died ca. 1762)Christian Frederick Post Christian Frederick Post (an anglicanization of Christian Friedrich Post) (1710 Polish Prussia - 29 April 1785 Germantown, Pennsylvania) was a missionary of the Moravian Church to the indigenous peoples of the Americas who played a brief but signi ...

in negotiating the

in 1758 *

Sassoonan Sassoonan or Allumapees (c. 1675 - 15 October, 1747) was a Lenni Lenape chief who lived in Pennsylvania in the late 17th and early 18th century. He was known for his negotiations with the Provincial government of Pennsylvania in several land purc ...

or Allumapees (c. 1675–1747), 18th century chief and member of the Turtle clan *

Shingas Shingas (fl. 17401763), was a Lenape chief and warrior who participated in military activities in Ohio Country during the French and Indian War. Allied with the French, Shingas led numerous raids on Anglo-American settlements during the war, for wh ...

(fl. 1740–1763)), Turkey clan war leader *

Tamanend Tamanend (historically also known as Taminent, Tammany, Saint Tammany or King Tammany, "the Affable," ) (–) was the Chief of Chiefs and Chief of the Turtle Clan of the Lenni-Lenape nation in the Delaware Valley signing the Peace Treaty wit ...

(c. 1625–c. 1701), leader reported to have negotiated treaty with

, and for whom

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

was named * Tamaqua (died c. 1770), chief who led peace negotiations following

((1700–1763), leader of the eastern Lenape * Turtleheart, chief and warrior who represented the Lenape at the

Treaty of Fort Stanwix The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty signed between representatives from the Iroquois and Great Britain (accompanied by negotiators from New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania) in 1768 at Fort Stanwix. It was negotiated between Sir William J ...

in 1768 *

(c. 1730–1778), Turtle clan peace chief who negotiated the

Commentary

Notes

References

* Aberg, Alf. ''The People of New Sweden: Our Colony on the Delaware River, 1638–1655.'' (

Natur & Kultur Natur & Kultur is a Swedish publishing foundation with head office in Stockholm known for an extensive series of teaching materials. Its logotype is an apple tree. Overview The publishing house was founded in 1922 by Johan Hansson and his wi ...

, 1988). . * Acrelius, Israel. (Translated from Swedish with an introduction and notes by W.M. Reynolds). ''A History of New Sweden; or, the Settlements on the River Delaware.'' Ulan Press, 2011. . * Bierhorst, John. ''Mythology of the Lenape: Guide and Texts''. University of Arizona Press, 1995. . * Brinton, Daniel G., C.F. Denke, and Albert Anthony. ''A Lenâpé – English Dictionary''. Biblio Bazaar, 2009. . * Burrows, Edward G. and Mike. Wallace. ''Gotham: A History of New York City to 1989.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. . * Carman, Alan, E. ''Footprints in Time: A History and Ethnology of The Lenape-Delaware Indian Culture.'' Trafford Publishing, 2013. . * Dalton, Anne. ''The Lenape of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Ontario (The Library of Native Americans).'' Powerkids Publishing, 2005. . * De Valinger, Leon, Jr. and C.A. Weslager. ''Indian Land Sales In Delaware: And A Discussion Of The Family Hunting Territory Question In Delaware''. Literary Licensing LLC, 2013. . * Donehoo, George P. ''A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania.'' Wennawoods Publishing, 1997. . * 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", pp. 33, thesis, Princeton University, 1978. * Frantz, Donald G. and Norma Jean Russell. ''Blackfoot Dictionary of Stems, Roots, and Affixes''. University of Toronto Press, 1995. . * Fur, Gunglong. ''A Nation of Women: Gender and Colonial Encounters Among the Delaware Indians'' (Early American Studies). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. . * * Grumet, Robert S. ''The Lenapes'' (Indians of North America). Chelsea House Publishing, 1989. . * Harrington, Mark. ''A Preliminary Sketch of Lenape Culture''. New Era Printing Company, 1913. . * Harrington, Mark. ''Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape.'' Forgotten Books, 2012. . * Harrington, Mark R. ''Vestiges of Material Culture Among the Canadian Delawares''. New Era Printing Company, 1908. . * Harrington, Mark R. ''The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes''. Rutgers University Press, 1963. . * Heckewelder, John G.E. ''The History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and Neighboring States''. Uhlan Publishing, 2012. . * Heckewelder, John G.E. ''Names Which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians Gave to Rivers, Streams, and Localities'' (Classic Reprint). Forgotten Books, 2012. . * Hoffecker, Carol E., Richard Waldron, Lorraine E. Williams, and Barbara E. Benson (editors). ''New Sweden in America''. University of Delaware Press, 1995. * Jennings, Francis. ''Empire of Fortune.'' W. W. Norton and Company, 1990. . * Jennings, Francis. ''The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire.'' W. W. Norton and Company, 1990. . * Jennings, Francis. ''The History and Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy: An Interdisciplinary Guide to the Treaties of the Six Nations and Their League.'' Syracuse University Press, 1995. . * Johnson, Amandus. ''The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware: Their History and Relation to the Indians, Dutch and English, 1638–1664 : With an Account of the South, the New Sweden Company, and the American Companies, and the Efforts of Sweden to Regain the Colony.'' University of Pennsylvania, 1911. . * * Kalter, Susan (editor). ''Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the First Nations: The Treaties of 1736–62.'' University of Illinois Press, 2006. . * Kraft, Herbert. ''The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage, 10,000 BC to AD 2000.'' Lenape Books, 2001. . * Kurlansky, Mark. ''The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell''. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007. . * Lindestrom, Peter. (Transcribed and edited by Amandus Johnson of the Swedish Colonial Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). ''Geographia Americae: With an Account of the Delaware Indians, Based on Surveys and Notes made in 1654–1656 by Peter Lindestrom''. Arno Press, 1979. . * Marsh, Dawn G. ''A Lenape Among the Quakers: The Life of Hannah Freeman.'' University of Nebraska Press, 2014. . * Middleton, Sam (Chief Mountain, "Neen Ees To-ko). ''Blackfoot Confederacy, Ancient and Modern.'' Kainai Chieftainship, 1951. * Mitchell, S. H. Internet Archive The Indian Chief, Journeycake. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1895. * Myers, Albert Cook. ''William Penn's Own Account of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians''. Middle Atlantic Press, 1981. . * Myers, Albert Cook (editor). ''Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630–1707''. Nabu Press, 2012. . * Newcomb, William W. ''The Culture and Acculturation of the Delaware Indians''. University of Michigan, 1956. . * Newman, Andrew. ''On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012. . * Olmstead, Earl P. ''Blackcoats Among the Delaware: David Zeisberger on the Ohio Frontier''. Kent State University Press, 1991. . * Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. . * Repsher, Donald R. "Indian Place Names in Bucks County". As cited in https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011343/http://www.lenapenation.org/main.html. Retrieved March 15, 2012. * Rice, Phillip W. ''English-Lenape Dictionary''. N.P., N.D. See https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011343/http://www.lenapenation.org/main.html. * Schutt, Amy C. ''Peoples of the River Valleys: The Odyssey of the Delaware Indians'' (Early American Studies). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. . * Soderlund, Jean R. ''Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society before William Penn.'' Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. * 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''. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004: 18–40. * Trowbridge, C.C. ''Delaware Indian Language of 1824'' (American Language Reprints Supplement Series; edited by James A. Rementer). Evolution Publications and Manufacturing, 2011. . * Van Doren, Carl, and Julian P. Boyd. ''Indian Treaties Printed by Benjamin Franklin, 1736–1762''. Nabu Press, 2011. . * Vansina, Jan. ''Oral Tradition as History.'' Oxford, 1985. . * Wallace, Paul, A.W. ''Indians in Pennsylvania'' (Revised Edition). Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2000. . * Wallace, Paul, A.W. ''Indian Paths of Pennsylvania.'' Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1998. . * Weslager, Clinton, Alfred (C.A). ''A Brief Account of the Indians of Delaware.'' Literary Licensing, LLC, 2012. . * Weslager, C.A. ''A Man and His Ship: Peter Minuit and the Kalmar Nyckel''. Middle Atlantic Press, 1990. . * Weslager, C.A. ''Delaware's Buried Past: A Story of Archeological Adventure''. Rutgers University Press, 1968. . * Weslager, C.A. ''Delaware's Forgotten Folk: The Story of the Moors and Nanticokes''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. . * Weslager, C.A. ''Delaware's Forgotten River: The Story of the Christina''. Hambleton Company, 1947. . * Weslager, C.A., and A. R. Dunlap. ''Dutch Explorers, Traders And Settlers In The Delaware Valley, 1609–1664''. Literary Licensing, LLC, 2011. . * Weslager, C.A. ''Magic Medicines of the Indians''. Signet, 1974. . * Weslager, C.A. ''New Sweden on the Delaware'' (Middle Atlantic Press, 1988). . * Weslager, C.A. ''Red Men on the Brandywine'' (New and Enlarged Edition). Hambleton Company, 1953. . * Weslager, C.A. ''The Delaware Indians: A History.'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1972. . * Weslager, C.A. ''The Delaware Indian Westward Migration: With the Texts of Two Manuscripts, 1821–22, Responding to General Lewis Cass's Inquiries about Lenape Culture and Language''. Middle Atlantic Press, 1978. . * Weslager, C.A. ''The English on the Delaware: 1610–1682''. Rutgers University Press, 1967. . * Weslager, C.A. ''The Nanticoke Indians: A Refugee Tribal Group of Pennsylvania.'' Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1948). . * Weslager, C.A. ''The Swedes and Dutch at New Castle.'' Middle Atlantic Press, 1990. . * Zeisberger, David. ''A Lenâpé-English Dictionary: From An Anonymous anuscriptIn The Archives Of The Moravian Church At Bethlehem, ennsylvania'' Nabu Press, 2012. . * Zeisberger, David. ''David Zeisberger's History of Northern American Indians'' (Classic Reprint). Forgotten Books, 2012. . * Zeisberger, David. ''Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians''. Forgotten Books, 2012. . * Zeisberger, David. ''The Diary of David Zeisberger: A Moravian Missionary Among the Ohio Indians, Volume 1''. Ulan Press, 2012. . * Zeisberger, David. ''The Diary of David Zeisberger: A Moravian Missionary Among the Ohio Indians, Volume 2''. Ulan Press, 2012. . * Zeisberger, David. ''Zeisberger's Indian Dictionary: English, German, Iroquois—The Onondaga and Algonquin—The Delaware''. Harvard University Press, 1887. . "The Delaware" that Zeisberger translated was Munsee, and not Unami.

External links