Delaware:Lënapeyok | |
|---|---|
 The Lenape territory, known asLenapehoking, as of the 16th and 17th centuries, with speakers ofMunsee (north),Unalachtigo (center), andUnami (south). Inset: The location of the region in the present-dayUnited States.[1][2][3] | |
| Total population | |
| c. 16,000[4] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Oklahoma, U.S. | 11,195 (2010)[5] |
| Wisconsin, U.S. | 1,565 |
| Ontario, Canada | 2,300 |
| Languages | |
| English,Munsee, andUnami[4] as a second language | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity,Native American Church, traditional tribal religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherAlgonquian peoples | |
| Person | Lënape (Monsi / Wënami) |
|---|---|
| People | Lënapeyok (Monsiyok / Wënamiyok) |
| Language | Lënapei èlixsuwakàn (Monsii èlixsuwakàn / Wënami èlixsuwakàn) |
| Country | Lënapehòkink (Monsihòkink / Wënamihòkink) |
TheLenape (English:/ləˈnɑːpi/,/-peɪ/,/ˈlɛnəpi/;[7][8]Lenape languages:[lənaːpe][9]), also called theLenni Lenape[10] andDelaware people,[11] are anIndigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in theUnited States andCanada.[4]
The Lenape's historical territory includes present-day northeasternDelaware, all ofNew Jersey, the easternPennsylvania regions of theLehigh Valley andNortheastern Pennsylvania, andNew York Bay, westernLong Island, and the lowerHudson Valley inNew York state.[notes 1] Today they are based inOklahoma,Wisconsin, andOntario.
During the last decades of the 18th century, European settlers and the effects of theAmerican Revolutionary War displaced most Lenape from their homelands[12] and pushed them north and west. In the 1860s, under theIndian removal policy, theU.S. federal government relocated most Lenape remaining in theEastern United States to theIndian Territory and surrounding regions. Lenape people currently belong to theDelaware Nation andDelaware Tribe of Indians inOklahoma, theStockbridge–Munsee Community inWisconsin, and theMunsee-Delaware Nation,Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and theDelaware First Nation of theSix Nations of the Grand River inOntario.
The nameLenni Lenape originates from two autonyms,Lenni, which means "genuine, pure, real, original", andLenape, meaning "real person" or "original person".[13]Lënu may be translated as "man".[14] Adam DePaul, the Storykeeper of theLenape Nation of Pennsylvania, calls the name "an anglicized grammatical error that basically translates as the 'original people people.'" While acknowledging that some Lenape do identify as Lenni Lenape or Delaware, DePaul says "the best word to use when referring to us is simply 'Lenape.'"[15]
When first encountered by European settlers, the Lenape were a loose association of closely related peoples who spoke similar languages and shared familial bonds in an area known asLenapehoking,[1] the Lenape historical territory, which spanned what is now easternPennsylvania,New Jersey,Lower New York Bay, and easternDelaware.
The tribe's common nameDelaware comes from theFrench language. English colonists named theDelaware River for the first governor of theProvince of Virginia,Lord De La Warr. TheBritish colonists began to call the Lenape the Delaware Indians because of where they lived.
Swedish colonists also settled in the area, andSwedish sources called the Lenape theRenappi.[16]
The historical Lenape country,Lenapehoking (Lënapehòkink), was a large territory that encompassed theDelaware andLehigh Valley regions of eastern Pennsylvania andNew Jersey from the north bank of theLehigh River along the west bank of theDelaware River intoDelaware and theDelaware Bay. Their lands also extended west from westernLong Island andNew York Bay, across theLower Hudson Valley inNew York to the lowerCatskills and a sliver of the upper edge of theNorth Branch Susquehanna River. On the west side, the Lenape lived in several small towns along the rivers and streams that fed the waterways, and likely shared the hunting territory of theSchuylkill Riverwatershed with the rivalIroquoianSusquehannock.[11]
Today, the Munsee-Delaware Nation has its ownIndian reserve, Munsee-Delaware Nation 1, in southwestOntario. The Delaware Nation at Moraviantown has a small, 13-square-mile (34 km2) reserve inChatham-Kent, Ontario. The Delaware of Six Nations shares theGlebe Farm 40B inBrantford, Ontario, andSix Nations Indian Reserve No. 40, shared with sixHaudenosaunee peoples in Ontario.
The Stockbridge-Munsee Community has a 22,139-acre (89.59 km2)Indian reservation in Wisconsin, with 16,255 acres (65.78 km2) held in federal trust.[17] The Delaware Nation has atribal jurisdictional area inCaddo County, Oklahoma, that they share with theCaddo Nation andWichita and Affiliated Tribes.[18]
TheUnami andMunsee languages belong to the EasternAlgonquian language group and are largelymutually intelligible.Moravian missionaryJohn Heckewelder wrote that Munsee and Unami "came out of one parent language."[19] Only a few Delaware First Nation elders inMoraviantown, Ontario, fluently speak Munsee.[20]
William Penn, who first met the Lenape in 1682, said the Unami used the following words: "mother" wasanna, "brother" wasisseemus and "friend" wasnetap. He instructed his fellow English colonists: "If one asks them for anything they have not, they will answer,mattá ne hattá, which to translate is, 'not I have,' instead of 'I have not'."[21]
The Lenape languages were once exclusively spoken languages. In 2002, the Delaware Tribe of Indians received grant money to fundThe Lenape Talking Dictionary, preserving and digitizing the Southern Unami dialect.[22]
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At the time of European settlement inNorth America, a Lenape would have identified primarily with their immediate family and clan, friends, and village unit and, after that, with surrounding and familiar village units followed by more distant neighbors who spoke the same dialect, and finally, with those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually comprehensible languages, including theNanticoke people who lived to their south and west in present westernDelaware andeastern Maryland.[23]
Among manyAlgonquian peoples along theEast Coast, the Lenape were considered the grandfathers from whom otherAlgonquian-speaking peoples originated.[citation needed]
The Lenape had three clans at the end of the 17th century, each of which historically had twelve sub-clans.[24] The three primary Lenape clans are: Wolf (Tùkwsit),[25] Turtle (Pùkuwànku),[26] and Turkey (Pële).[27] The Lenape clan system ismatrilineal, and historically they were amatrilocal society, that is, husbands moved into their wife's homes.[28] Children belong to their mother's clan, from which they gain social status and identity.[28] 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.[29]
Lenape practicedcompanion planting, in which women cultivated many varieties of theThree Sisters: maize, beans, and squash. Men hunted, fished, and otherwise harvestedseafood. In the 17th century, the Lenape practicedslash and burn agriculture. They used fire to manage land.[30][31][32][33][34][35] Controlled use of fire extended farmlands' productivity. According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape planted their primary crop,maize, in March.[36] Over time, the Lenape adapted to European methods of hunting and farming with metal tools.[37]
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.[29] Dutch settlerDavid de Vries, who stayed in the area from 1634 to 1644, described a Lenape hunt in the valley of theAchinigeu-hach (or Ackingsah-sack, theHackensack River), in which 100 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.[38] Other methods of hunting includedlassoing 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,[39] and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round.[40] One technique used while fishing was to add groundchestnuts to stream water to make fish dizzy and easier to catch.[41]
The success of these methods allowed the tribe to maintain a larger population than other,nomadichunter-gatherer peoples in North America at the time, could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, around much of the currentNew York City area alone, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape in approximately 80 settlement sites.[42] In 1524, Lenape in canoes metGiovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enterNew York Harbor.
European settlers and traders from the 17th-century colonies ofNew Netherland andNew Sweden traded with the Lenape for agricultural products, mainly maize, in exchange for iron tools. The Lenape also arranged contacts between theMinquas orSusquehannocks and theDutch West India Company andSwedish South Company to promote thefur trade. The Lenape were major producers of labor-intensivewampum, 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 byIroquoian-speakingSusquehannock 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.[43]
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 wearbuckskin leggings and moccasins in cold weather.[44] 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.[45][29] 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.[46] The winter cloaks of the women were striking, fashioned from the iridescent body feathers of wild turkeys.[44]
One of the more common activities of leisure for the Lenni Lenape would be the game ofpahsaheman: a football-like hybrid, split on gender lines. Over a hundred players were grouped into gendered teams (male and female) to try getting a ball through the other team's goal posts. Men could not carry and pass the ball, only use their feet, while the women could carry, pass, or kick.[29] 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.[47]
Another common activity 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".[29]
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.[48]
Lenapeherbalists, 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 likeblack walnut which were used to cure ringworm and withpersimmons which were used to cure ear problems.[49]
The Lenape carry the nuts ofAesculus glabra in the pocket forrheumatism, 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.[50] They also apply a poultice of pulverized nuts with sweet oil for earache.[51]
The first recorded European contact with people presumed to have been the Lenape was in 1524. TheexplorerGiovanni da Verrazzano was greeted by local Lenape who came by canoe, after his ship entered what is now calledLower New York Bay.
At the time ofsustained European contact in the 17th through the 19th centuries, 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 theNortheastern Woodlands.[52] Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Lenape roughly encompassed the area around and between theDelaware and lowerHudson rivers, and included the western part ofLong Island in present-day New York.[53] Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"[54]), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify the Lenape people that lived there.
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 theIroquois. 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.[55] 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).[56] After the Dutch arrival and brief establishment of Fort Nassau (along the bank of the Delaware River in present-dayGloucester City, New Jersey) in the 1620s, the Lenape were successful in restricting Dutch settlement until the 1660s to no further thanPavonia in present-dayJersey City along the Hudson. The Dutch finally established a garrison atBergen, which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province ofNew Netherland. This land was purchased from the Lenape after the fact.[56]
New Amsterdam was founded in 1624 by the Dutch in what would later becomeNew York City. Dutch settlers also founded a colony at present-dayLewes, Delaware, on June 3, 1631, and named itZwaanendael (Swan Valley).[57] 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 governingDutch West India Company.[58] The Lenape's quick adoption of trade goods, and their desire to trap furs to meet high European demand, resulted in over-harvesting the beaver population in the lower Hudson Valley. With the fur sources exhausted, the Dutch shifted their operations to present-dayupstate New York. The Lenape who producedwampum in the vicinity of Manhattan Island temporarily forestalled the negative effects of the decline in trade.[59]
During the resultingBeaver Wars in the first half of the 17th century, European colonists were careful to keep firearms from the coastally located Lenape,[11] while rivalIroquoian peoples in the north and west such as theSusquehannocks andConfederation of the Iroquois became comparatively well-armed.[11] They defeated the Lenape, and some scholars believe that the Lenape may have becometributaries to the Susquehannock.[60] After the warfare, the Lenape referred to the Susquehannock as "uncles". TheIroquois Confederacy added the Lenape to theCovenant Chain in 1676 and the Lenape were tributary to the Confederation until 1753, shortly before the outbreak of theFrench and Indian War (a part of theSeven Years' War in Europe).
The historical record of the mid-17th century suggests that most Lenape polities each consisted of several hundred people[61] but it is conceivable that some had been considerably larger prior to close contact, given the wars between the Susquehannocks and the Iroquois,[12] 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.[12] In 1648, theAxion band of Lenape were the largest tribe on the Delaware River, with 200 warriors.[62]
Epidemics of newly introduced Europeaninfectious diseases, such assmallpox, measles, cholera, influenza, and dysentery,[63] reduced the populations of Lenape. They and other Native peoples had no naturalimmunity. Recurrent violent conflicts with Europeans also devastated Lenape people.
In 1682,William Penn andQuaker colonists created the Englishcolony of Pennsylvania beginning at the lowerDelaware River. A peace treaty was negotiated between the newly arriving colonists and Lenape at what is now known asPenn Treaty Park. 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 colonialProvince of Pennsylvania government to take precedence.[64]
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William Penn died in 1718. His heirs, John and Thomas Penn, and their agents were ruling the colony, and had abandoned many ofWilliam Penn's practices. In an attempt to raise money, they contemplated ways to sell Lenape land to colonial settlers, which culminated in theWalking Purchase. 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 did not lead to an agreement. But colonial administrators prepared the draft that resurfaced in the 1730s. The Penns and their supporters presented this draft as a legitimate deed, but Lenape leaders in the lower Delaware refused to accept it.
According to historianSteven C. 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".[65] 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 attackingPennsylvania settlements. When they resisted European colonial expansion at the height of theFrench and Indian War, British colonial authorities investigated the causes of Lenape resentment. The British askedSir 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 theMohawk River region from the Iroquois Mohawk of New York.[65]
In 1757, an organization known as the New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians wrote a constitution toexpel native Munsee Lenape from their settlements in the area of present-dayWashington Valley inMorris County, New Jersey.[66] Led by Reverend John Brainerd, colonistsforcefully relocated 200 people to Indian Mills, then known asBrotherton, an industrial town with gristills and sawmills,[67] that was the first Native American reservation inNew Jersey.[68] Reverend John Brainerd abandoned the reservation in 1777.[68][clarification needed]
In 1758, theTreaty of Easton was signed between the Lenape and European colonists. In it, the Lenape were required to move westward out of present-dayNew York and New Jersey, progressing into Pennsylvania and then to present-dayOhio and beyond.[69] Through the 18th century, many Lenape moved west into the relatively depopulated upperOhio River basin, but they also sporadically launched violent raids on settlers far outside the area.[citation needed]
Beginning in the 18th century, theMoravian Church established missions in Lenape settlements.[70] The Moravians required the Christianconverts to share Moravianpacifism and live in a structured and European-style mission village.[71] 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 in theFrench and Indian War. The Moravians' insistence on Christian Lenape's abandoning traditional warfare practices alienated mission populations from other Lenape and Native American groups, who revered warriors.[72]
The Lenape initially sided withFrance, since they hoped to prevent further European colonial encroachment in their settlements. Their chiefsTeedyuscung in the east andTamaqua near present-dayPittsburgh shifted to building alliances withBritish colonial authorities. Lenape leaderKillbuck (also Bemino) assisted the British against the French and their Indian allies. In 1761, Killbuck led a British supply train fromFort Pitt toFort Sandusky. In 1763, Bill Hickman, a Lenape, warned English colonists in theJuniata River region of present-day Pennsylvania of an impending attack.After the end of the French and Indian War, European settlers continued to attack the Lenape, often to such an extent that, as historian Amy Schutt writes, the dead since the wars outnumbered those killed during the war.[73] In April 1763, Teedyuscung was killed during the burning of his home. His son Captain Bull responded by attacking settlers, sponsored by the Susquehanna Company, in the present-dayWyoming Valley region of Pennsylvania.[74] Many Lenape joined inPontiac's War and were among the Native Americans who besieged present-day Pittsburgh.[73]One notarious Indian Killer wasTom Quick Jr (1734-1795/6) ofMilford, Pennsylvania; after his father Tom Quick Sr was killed by Indians,Tome Quick Jr is purported to have murdered numerous Lenape, an indigenous people of the area-[75]
During the early 1770s, missionaries, includingDavid Zeisberger andJohn Heckewelder, arrived in the Ohio Country near the Lenape villages. TheMoravian Church sent these men to convert theIndigenous peoples to Christianity. The missionaries established several missions, includingGnadenhutten,Lichtenau, andSchoenbrunn. The missionaries pressured Indigenous people toabandon 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 inKillbuck'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.[citation needed]
In the beginning of theAmerican Revolutionary War, Killbuck and many Lenape claimed to be neutral. Other neighboring Indian communities, particularly theWyandot, theMingo, theShawnee, and theWolf Clan of the Lenape, favored the British. They believed that by theRoyal Proclamation of 1763, restricting Anglo-American settlement to east of the Appalachian Mountains, the British would help them preserve aNative American territory.
As the Revolutionary War intensified, the Lenape in present-dayOhio were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in the war. When the war began, Killbuck found the Lenape caught between the British and their Indian allies in the West and the Americans in the East. The Lenape were living in numerous villages around their main village ofCoshocton,[76] between the western frontier strongholds of the British and the Patriots. The Americans hadFort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) and the British, along with Indian allies, controlled the area ofFort Detroit across the river in present-dayMichigan.[77][78]
Some Lenape decided to take up arms against the American settlers and moved to the west, closer to Detroit, where they settled on theScioto andSandusky rivers. In 1778, Killbuck permitted American soldiers to traverse Lenape territory so that the soldiers could attack British-held Fort Detroit. In return, Killbuck requested that the Americans build a fort near the major Lenape village of Coshocton, to provide them with protection from potential attacks by British-allied Indians andLoyalists. The Americans agreed and builtFort Laurens, which they garrisoned.[79] Lenape sympathetic to the United States remained at Coshocton, and Lenape leaders signed theTreaty of Fort Pitt (1778) with the Americans. 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 convertedChristian Munsees, lived in several mission villages run byMoravians. Like the other bands, they also spoke theMunsee branch of Lenape, anAlgonquian language.[80]
The British made plans to attackFort Laurens 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 encroachingAmerican pioneers during and after the war.[79]
White Eyes, the Lenapechief who had negotiated the Fort Pitt treaty, died in 1778. Subsequently, many Lenape at Coshocton eventually joined the war against the Americans. In response, American military officerDaniel Brodhead led an expedition out of Fort Pitt and on April 20, Brodhead and his men, including some U.S.-aligned Lenape, raided and destroyed the pacifistMoravian Christian Lenape settlement ofIndaochaic also known asLichtenau. Then the troop, aided by Lenape chiefGelelemend, traveled to the nearby village ofGoschachgunk, now known asCoshocton, Ohio. He divided his men into three regiments and laid their village to waste. On the first night, 16 warriors were captured, taken south of the village, and slaughtered; another 20 were killed in battle, and 20 civilians were taken prisoner. Surviving residents fled to the north. Colonel Brodhead convinced the militia to leave the Lenape at the remaining Moravian mission villages unmolested, since they were unarmed non-combatants.[81]
In 1780,Munsee-speaking Lenapecommunity leaders native to theWashington Valley that had beenforcibly displaced toBrotherton, wrote acommunitytreaty[82][68][83] to oppose selling any more land to white settlers:
Be it known by this, that it has been in our consideration of late about settling ofWhite People on the Indian Lands, And we have concluded that it is a thing which ought not to be, & a thing that will not be allowed by us, that ofRenting or givingLeases for said Lands, hereafter, no, not by the proprietors themselves without the consent of the rest much more by those who has no Claim or Rite here ...
We have come upon those resolutions we hope for our better living in friendship among one another, it may be that there is some which does not like white people for their Neighbours, for fear of their not agreeing as they ought to do. it might be about there children or about something they have about them we know not what, Again it may be the white Man may do something either upon Land, Timber or something else which some one of the proprietors would not like & from thence would come great deal of Disquietness, & many other ways which may plainly be seen into, by those that have any sense or reason—
We are exceeding glad when we see we are like to live in Quietness among one another without giving any offence to one another, & this of keeping white people from among us will be a great step towards it, & for this reason we intend to stand by or rather stand Hand in hand against any coming on theIndian Lands.
— Joseph Micty, Bartholomew Calvin, Jacob Skekit, Robert Skikkit, Derrick Quaquiuse, Benjamin Nicholus, Mary Calvin, Hezekiah Calvin
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 Munsee-language branch of the Lenape left the United States after the British were defeated in the American Revolutionary War. Their descendants live on threeIndian reserves inWestern Ontario, Canada. They are descendants of those Lenape of Ohio Country who sided with the British during the Revolutionary War. The largest reserve is atMoraviantown, Ontario, where the TurtlePhratry settled in 1792 following the war.
The 1795Treaty of Greenville saw the cession of more Indigenous lands to the United States government. In return, the U.S. relinquished its claims to "all other Indian lands northward of theriver Ohio, eastward of theMississippi, and westward and southward of theGreat Lakes and the waters uniting them". The U.S. also agreed to provide an annual allowance to various Indigenous groups including the Lenape.[84]
In 1796, theOneidas ofNew Stockbridge invited the Munsee Lenape to theirreservation. 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 inJersey".[68][85] The Munsee later agreed to relocate to New Stockbridge to join the Oneidas.[67][86] A few households stayed behind to assimilate into New Jersey.[68]
In the early 19th century the amateuranthropologistSilas Wood published a book claiming that there were several American Indian tribes that were distinct toLong Island, New York. He collectively called them theMetoac. Modern scientific scholarship has shown that in fact two linguistic groups representing two distinctAlgonquian 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 ofNew England across Long Island Sound, such as thePequot.[87][88] Wood (and earlier settlers) often misinterpreted the Indian use of place names forautonyms.
Two groups migrated toOneida County, New York, by 1802, the Brotherton Indians of New Jersey and the Stockbridge-Munsee. In 1822, the Munsee Lenape ofWashington Valley who had moved toStockbridge wereforcefully displaced bywhite colonists again, over 900 miles' travel away,[89] toGreen Bay, Wisconsin.[67]
By theTreaty of St. Mary's, signed October 3, 1818, inSt. 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 theJames River in Missouri near its confluence withWilsons Creek, occupying eventually about 40,000 acres (160 km2) of the approximately 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) allotted to them.[90]Anderson, Indiana, is named afterChief William Anderson (Kikthawenund), whose father was Swedish. The Lenape village in Indiana was called Anderson's Town, while the Lenape 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.[91]
Many Lenape participated in the exploration of the western United States, working as trappers with themountain men, and as guides and hunters for wagon trains. They served asarmy guides and scouts in events such as theSecond Seminole War,Frémont's expeditions, and theconquest of California during theMexican–American War.[92][93][94] Occasionally, they played surprising roles as Indian allies.[95]
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 (1367 miles) of hostile territory. He took many scalps in this adventure, including that of aComanche 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 atEdwardsville, Kansas.[96]
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 theRed River andSabine River. The Lenape were peaceful and shared their territory in Spanish Texas with theCaddo 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.[97]
In 1828, Mexican GeneralManuel 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 hadadapted to the Mexican culture, sent their request toMexico City, but the authorities never granted the Lenape any legal titles.
The situation changed when theTexas 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.[97]
The Lenape remained friendly after Texas won its independence.Republic of Texas PresidentSam 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. Atreaty with the remaining Lenape and a few other tribes was negotiated in 1843 atFort Bird and the Lenape were enlisted to help him make peace with theComanche. 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.[97]
In 1845, the Republic ofTexas 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 theIndian Bureau. In 1847,John Meusebach was assisted by Jim Shaw (a Lenape), in settling the German communities in theTexas Hill Country. For the remainder of his life, Shaw worked as a military scout in West Texas. In 1848, John Conner (Lenape) guided theChihuahua-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 byBlack Beaver (Lenape).
In 1854, despite the history of peaceful relations, the last of the Texas Lenape were moved by the American government to theBrazos Indian Reservation nearGraham, Texas. In 1859 the US forced the remaining Lenape to remove from Texas to a location on theWashita River in the vicinity of presentAnadarko, Oklahoma.[97]
Under the terms of the Treaty of the James Fork that was signed on September 24, 1829, and ratified by theU.S. Senate in 1830, the Lenape were forced to move further west. They were granted lands inIndian Territory in exchange for lands on the James Fork of theWhite River in Missouri. These lands, in what is now Kansas, were west of the Missouri and north of theKansas River. The main reserve consisted of about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km2) with an additional "outlet" strip 10 miles (16 km) wide extending to the west.[98][99]
In 1854, theU.S. Congress passed theKansas–Nebraska Act, which created theTerritory of Kansas and opened the area for white settlement. It also authorized negotiation with Indian tribes regardingremoval. 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 Lenape had reached consensus to leave Kansas, which was in accord with the government's Indian removal policy.[100]
The main body of Lenape arrived inIndian Territory in the 1860s.[101] The twofederally recognized tribes of Lenape in Oklahoma are theDelaware Nation, headquartered inAnadarko, Oklahoma, and theDelaware Tribe of Indians, headquartered inBartlesville, Oklahoma.[102]
The Delaware Tribe of Indians were required to purchase land from the reservation of theCherokee 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, theCurtis Act of 1898 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.
In 1979, the United StatesBureau 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.[103]
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.[104] After recognition, the tribe reorganized under theOklahoma Indian Welfare Act. Members approved a constitution and by laws in a May 26, 2009, vote. Jerry Douglas was elected as tribal chief.[102]
In September 2000, the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma received 11.5 acres (4.7 ha) of land inThornbury Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.[105]
In 2004, theDelaware Nation filed suit against Pennsylvania in theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking to reclaim 315 acres (1.27 km2) included in the 1737Walking Purchase to build a casino. In the suit titledThe Delaware Nation v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the plaintiffs, acting as the successor in interest and political continuation of the Lenni Lenape and of Lenape ChiefMoses Tunda Tatamy, claimed aboriginal and fee title to the 315 acres of land located inForks Township inNorthampton County, near the town ofTatamy, Pennsylvania. 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.
The court held that the justness of the extinguishment ofaboriginal title isnonjusticiable, including in the case offraud. Because the extinguishment occurred prior to the passage of the firstIndian 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."[106]
Not every Lenape now lives in Oklahoma. Many live in the Northeast, and some Munsee Lenape are applying for state recognition.[107]
Three Lenape tribes arefederally recognized in the United States:
The Lenape who fledUnited States in the late 18th century settled in what is nowOntario. Canada recognizes three LenapeFirst Nations with fourIndian reserves. Each is located inSouthwestern Ontario:
Three groups who claim descent from Lenape people arestate-recognized tribes:
More than a dozen organizations inDelaware,Maryland,New Jersey,Pennsylvania,[112]Virginia, and elsewhere claim descent from Lenape people and areunrecognized tribes. Organizations in Pennsylvania,Idaho, andKansas have petitioned theU.S. federal government for recognition.[107][113] One of these includes theLenape Nation of Pennsylvania based inEaston, Pennsylvania.[114]
This includes only Lenape documented in history. Contemporary notable Lenape people are listed in the articles for the appropriate tribe.
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William Dean Howells, "Gnadenhütten,"Three Villages, Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1884., accessed 19 Mar 2010
