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 watershed with the rival Iroquoian Susquehannock. [citation needed] Languages [ edit]
What kind of houses did the Lenape live in?
Some Lenape Indians preferred Iroquoian -style longhouses to wigwams, because more family members could live in a longhouse. Here are some pictures of wigwams and longhouses . Each Lenni Lenape village usually included a rectangular council house and a sweat lodge, and some villages were palisaded (surrounded with log walls for protection).
What did the Lenape tribe call themselves?
The people encountered by the Europeans in the 1600s called themselves the Lenapes, which loosely translates as “the common People.” They called their homeland Lenapehoking, a swath of land that stretched from the Lower Hudson region to Delaware Bay, including portions of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
What was the Lenni Lenape culture like?
Lenape women were farmers and also did most of the child care and cooking. Both genders took part in storytelling, music and the arts, and traditional medicine. In the pa st, Lenape chiefs were always men, but today a Delaware Indian woman could be chief too. What were Lenni Lenape homes like in the past? The Lenni Lenapes didn't live in tepees.
What was the Lenape lifestyle?
The Lenape people lived a largely sedentary lifestyle, changing campsites based on the season, but remaining within the Delaware River region; this is due to their heavy reliance on agriculture, growing corn, squash, beans, and tobacco.
What environment did the Lenape live in?
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 watershed with the rival Iroquoian Susquehannock.
How did the Lenape adapt to their environment?
Over land, the Lenapes used dogs as pack animals. (There were no horses in North America until Europeans brought them here.) Lenape Indians used sleds and snowshoes to help them travel in the winter. Today, of course, Lenape people also use cars... and non-native people also use canoes.
How did the Lenape get their name?
The name by which we call ourselves is Lenape [pronounced as if spelled “lun-NAH-pay”], and this name means something like “The People.” It is common for many groups of people around the world to use a name that has a similar translation.
How many Lenape are left?
The Lenape languages aren't nearly as widely known as they once were. The Penn Museum estimates that there are fewer than 10 Munsee speakers alive — and no Unami speakers.
What did Lenape men wear?
The clothing of the Lenape was simple. The men wore breechclouts and moccasins, with leggings and a robe to cover themselves in cold weather. Women had knee- or calf-length wrap-around skirts and wore fur robes in winter, or a beautiful mantle made from turkey feathers.
What did the Lenape use for shelter?
They lived in villages of round houses called wigwams. Some Lenape Indians preferred longhouses to wigwams, because more family members could live in a longhouse.
What crops did the Lenape grow?
Garden Plants In their gardens the Lenape Indians planted corn, beans, and squash. Sunflowers, herbs, and some tobacco were also planted. Vegetables were eaten as soon as they were ripe, or some were also stored away for the wintertime.
What language did the Lenape speak?
The Lenape spoke two related languages, Unami and Munsee, both of which are in the Eastern Algonquian language family. Figure 1, below, shows the locations of the Munsee and the Unami languages. 3 Munsee was originally spoken by the more northern populations, in northern New Jersey and southeastern New York.
What does Lenape mean in English?
the peopleThe Lenape, Lenappe, Lenapi or Lenni Lenape (meaning "the people" or "true people") are a group of several bands of Native American people who share cultural and linguistic traits. They are also known as the Delaware Indians.
How old is the Lenape tribe?
10,000 yearsThe Lenape are considered to be one of the oldest tribes in the Northeast, existing for over 10,000 years. The Lenape lived in what is now New Jersey, and parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Delaware.
What was the Lenape religion?
The Lenape were a deeply religious people and their belief in a Creator and eleven lessor Gods reached all aspects of their lives. They believed that all things had souls. This reflected a deep reverence for their natural environment and a concept that they were only a small part of Nature's grand scheme.
What is a Lenape Longhouse?
The Lenape Native Americans lived on the East Coast of the United States in and around the New Jersey-Delaware area. The tribe built longhouses, more commonly referred to as wigwams. These wigwams were built from materials found in the deciduous forests and were often the center of social gatherings.
What was the environment like for the Wampanoag tribe?
The Wampanoag environment in Massachusetts In ancient times, all of Massachusetts was a big forest. The Wampanoag people used the large trees from the forest to make dugout canoes. They also used wood and bark to make their houses.
What is the Lenape culture?
Lenape Culture. The Lenape resided in bands along various rivers and creeks. They lived on hunting and growing foodstuffs and depended on the fertility of the land. Due to their heavy tillage of the land, the soils they farmed gradually lost their productivity. As a result, Lenape frequently relocated.
Where did the Delaware Indian tribe live?
The Delaware natives, also called the Lenape, originally lived along the Delaware River in New Jersey. They speak a form of the Algonquian language and are thus related to the Miami natives, Ottawa natives, and Shawnee natives.
Where are the Lenape from?
Jennie Bobb and her daughter, Nellie Longhat (both Delaware), Oklahoma, 1915. The Lenape ( English: / ləˈnɑːpi / or / ˈlɛnəpi / ), also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada.
Where did the Lenape people come from?
Indigenous people originally from Lenapehoking, now the Mid-Atlantic United States. Lenape. Delaware people. Lenapehoking, the original Lenape territory. Munsee speakers in the north, Unami-speakers in the center, and Unalachtigo-speakers in the south.
What were the Lenape people?
Among many Algonquian peoples along the East Coast, the Lenape were considered the "grandfathers" from whom other Algonquian-speaking peoples originated.
What does the name Lenni mean?
Name. The name Lenni Lenape, also Leni Lenape and Lenni Lenapi, comes from their autonym, Lenni, which may mean "genuine, pure, real, original", and Lenape, meaning "real person" or "original person" ( cf. Anishinaabe, in which -naabe, cognate with Lenape, means "man" or "male" ). Alternately, lënu may be translated as "man".
What is the Lenape clan?
The Lenape have a matrilineal clan system and historically were matrilocal . During the last decades of the 18th century, most Lenape were pushed out of their homeland by expanding European colonies. The divisions and troubles of the American Revolutionary War and United States' independence pushed them farther west.
What is the closest male relative of Lenape?
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.
How many clans are there in the Lenape?
The Lenape have three clans at the end of the 17th century, each of which historically had twelve sub-clans:
What was the land of the Lenapes?
Land of the Lenapes. Once upon a time, there was no earth, only a vast realm of water below and sky above. The first people lived above the sky, for they could not live on water. One day, the sky opened up and through the hole fell a beautiful young woman and a tree.
What did the Lenapes call themselves?
They called their homeland Lenapehoking, a swath of land that stretched from the Lower Hudson region to Delaware Bay, including portions of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Why were the Lenapes named?
Because of their association with the Delaware River, the Lenape were named by Euro-Americans the Delaware. Map of New York City depicting pre-colonial Lenape territories. Courtesy of Robert Grumet from his book, The Lenapes (1989)
How were the Lenapes united?
Despite regional variations in language and customs, the Lenapes were united by a complex system of kinship that traced their lineage back to common ancestors. At the time of European contact, they numbered around 20,000, divided into roughly twenty autonomous groups, closely interconnected through clan membership, which was traced through the mother. The Raritan lived on Staten Island and central New Jersey north to the Raritan river valley. The Haverstraw lived on the west bank of the Hudson, and had kinship ties with the Hackensack and Tappan of New Jersey. The Wiechquaeskeck lived on the east bank of the Hudson in the southern portion of the Bronx and Westchester, with ties to the Siwanoy on the north shore of Long Island Sound, including Pelham Bay. The Nyack lived on the east shore of the Narrows, with ties to the Hackensack. The Massapequa, Merrick, and Rockaway lived on western LI; the Matinecock lived on the north shore of Long Island from Queens to Suffolk County, and the Canarsee and Marechkawieck lived in what is now Brooklyn. The names have a familiar ring; look at a map of the New York City region and you will see many of these names preserved as place names.
When did the Lenapes move to New York?
It’s thought that they migrated into the New York City region around 3,000 years ago . The Lenapes called the Delaware River Lenapewihitak, or River of the Lenape. The Europeans called the river the Delaware, after Sir Thomas West, Baron de la Warr, who governed the English colony of Virginia in the early 1600s.
Why did Muskrat plant a tree on his great back?
He commanded them to bring up the tree from the water, and plant it on his great back, so that the woman could live there. After two unsuccessful attempts by Otter and Beaver to retrieve the tree, Muskrat dove down and stayed down for a very long time.
Where did the Matinecock live?
The Massapequa, Merrick, and Rockaway lived on western LI; the Matinecock lived on the north shore of Long Island from Queens to Suffolk County , and the Canarsee and Marechkawieck lived in what is now Brooklyn.
Why did the Lenape people move?
Due to their heavy tillage of the land, the soils they farmed gradually lost their productivity. As a result, Lenape frequently relocated. 4 Generally, an occupied area lost its usefulness in two decades' time. Thus, the native people constantly set up, abandoned, and resettled communities throughout Pennsylvania.
What language did the Lenape speak?
A nomadic people belonging to the Algonquin language family, the Lenape preceded the late 17th century European settlement of Pennsylvania by centuries. They were both hunters and agriculturalists and resided in bands along various rivers and streams. One area of their settlement was the west bank of the Schuylkill.
What was the name of the settlement in Philadelphia in the 18th century?
Permanent European Settlement and 18th-Century Estate Building. The 18th century saw the departure of the Lenape and the permanent European settlement of West Philadelphia, at the time called Blockley Township. Large estates were a characteristic development that gave rise to the villages of Hamiltonville and Powelton.
What happened to the Lenape?
After purchase agreements with William Penn, the Lenape moved outward, but soon these lands would be claimed by growing numbers of European settlers in the countryside around Penn’s Philadelphia. In the 1730s, Penn’s sons reinterpreted an accord that Penn had reached with the Lenape in 1686, insisting that the Penn family claim extended a full day-and-a-half’s walking distance. Sending out so-called "walkers" to determine the extent of their asserted domain, the Penn family seized ownership of lands sixty-five miles to the north and west of the earlier purchase agreements, effectively adding 750,000 acres to the family estate. 21
What were the Lenape's homes called?
The Lenape utilized natural resources to build their homes. They lived in single doorway wooden huts called wigwams, which were situated along rivers and creeks. The size of their wigwams depended on the region they inhabited. In the southern region, the Unalachtigo’s homes were created for single-family dwellings while in the northern region larger multi-family buildings were constructed. The smaller version characterized the Lenape encampments in the Philadelphia region.
What was the turning point in the history of the Lenape?
A turning point in this history was the defeat of an intertribal coalition that included the Delaware and Shawnee, among others, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1796 (in Ohio, Northwest Territory). Frustrated by the old Lenape custom of shared authority among multiple sachems, or chiefs, the British and Iroquois compelled the Delaware, now considered under their protection, to appoint a single chief with whom they would negotiate treaties.
What were the relations between the Dutch and the Lenape?
The Dutch and Swedes had episodic relations with the Lenape. The English Quaker William Penn would have more enduring and impactful interactions. In 1682, Penn came to the Delaware River valley to claim lands granted to him on a proprietary basis by King Charles II of England and to establish a haven in the New World for fellow members of the persecuted Quaker sect. He came to take possession of lands that reached throughout southeast Pennsylvania where the Lenape resided. 18 The Quakers believed strongly in the principles of goodwill and friendship and Penn practiced these principles with the Lenape. Penn was determined to treat them as brothers and sisters as he believed they too were children of God. He entered into purchase agreements with the Lenape that brought lands deeded to his proprietorship under his absolute title. 19 Although he took ownership rights, he still recognized and reserved certain lands where Lenape villages were located, not allowing them to be sold. Peaceful relations between the European settlers and the Lenape would disintegrate, however, not long after Penn’s death in 1718. 20
Where do Lenni Lenape Indians live?
Here are some maps showing the geography of the Lenapes and their neighbors in New Jersey , Delaware , New York and Pennsylvania. Most Lenape Indians were driven out of their homeland by the British.
What do Lenape kids do?
They do the same things any children do--play with each other, go to school and help around the house. Many Lenape children like to go hunting and fishing with their fathers. In the past, Indian kids had more chores and less time to play, just like early colonial children.
What did the Lenni Lenape wear?
The Lenni Lenape didn't wear long headdresses like the Sioux tribe. Usually they wore a beaded headband with a feather or two in it. Sometimes a chief or other important Lenape Indian would wear a high headdress made of many feathers pointing straight up from a headband, similar to this Wabanaki one.
What did Lenape women wear?
Lenape women wore their hair in long braids. Lenape men, especially warriors, often wore a Mohawk hairstyle or shaved their heads completely except for a scalplock in the middle. Here is a website with pictures of these traditional Indian hairstyles .
What did the Lenapes use as pack animals?
Over land, the Lenapes used dogs as pack animals. (There were no horses in North America until Europeans brought them here.) Lenape Indians used sleds and snowshoes to help them travel in the winter. Today, of course, Lenape people also use cars... and non-native people also use canoes.
How many Lenape tribes are there in Oklahoma?
The total Lenape population is around 16,000. How is the Lenni Lenape Indian nation organized? There are two federally recognized Lenape tribes in Oklahoma: the Delaware Tribe of Indians and the Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma. Like most Native American tribes, the Delaware Indian tribes are autonomous.
What does "lenape" mean?
Lenape is pronounced "Leh-NAH-pay" and it means "the people.". Sometimes you will see this name spelled Lenápe or Lenapi instead. The tribe is also known as the Lenni Lenape ("regular people") or the Delaware Indians (after the Delaware River, which runs through Lenni Lenape territory.)
Where did the Lenape move to?
Most of the Lenape then moved to Indiana near their friends, the Miami Indians. By the Treaty of St. Mary’s, Ohio, in October 1818, the Lenape ceded their lands in Indiana for lands west of the Mississippi River for an annual annuity of $4,000.
What tribe is Lenape?
Lenape-Delaware Tribe. The Lenape or Delaware tribe, also called the Lenni Lenape, are of the Algonquin family and first lived in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York . Traditionally they were divided into the Munsee, Unami, and Unalachtigo, three social divisions determined by language and location. The Lenape claimed to be the “parent” ...
What does the name Lenni mean?
Their name Lenni means “genuine, pure, real, original,” and Lenape means “Indian.”. Their claim to superiority was recognized by the other tribes, who accorded them the title of “Grandfather.”. The tribe’s common name of Delaware is not of Native American origin, but the English colonists called them that for the Delaware River.
How many people were in the Lenape tribe?
At the time of sustained European contact in the 1600s, the Lenape were a powerful tribe and were estimated to have numbered over 20,000 people. New Netherland was established in 1614, which encompassed New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
What is the common name of the Lenape?
The tribe’s common name of Delaware is not of Native American origin, but the English colonists called them that for the Delaware River. The Lenape had a matrilineal clan system, meaning their bloodlines were traced through the women, and children’s social positions were inherited from the mother’s side of the family.
How many people lived in Lenape in 1845?
By 1845 the Lenape population had dropped to less than 2,000 people living in both the United States and Canada.
Where are the Ramapough tribes?
Ramapough Lenape Nation, New Jersey. More than a dozen other organizations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Idaho, and Kansas claim descent from Lenape people and are unrecognized tribes. © Kathy Weiser-Alexander / Legends of America, updated April 2021.
How many people did the Lenape live in?
When the first Europeans arrived, the land was still densely forested and rich in wildlife. Some Lenape lived in small groups of 50 to 100 people, others in larger groups of several hundred, in villages along the banks of rivers, usually in an area with good rich soil.
How long did the Lenape live in New Jersey?
by John Kraft. For over 12,000 years the Lenape and their ancestors occupied northwestern New Jersey. Who were they?
Where are fluted spears found?
Paleo-Indian hunters who killed animals with thrusting spears or lances left behind skillfully made fluted spear points such as those found at the Zierdt Site in Montague and the Plenge Site located above the Musconetcong River in Warren County.
Why did the Lenape take steam baths?
The Lenape took frequent steam baths in a "sweat lodge" to purify and cure themselves. Every family knew the medicinal value of plants to cure ordinary sickness or injuries, but for more serious problems they consulted two kinds of medical practitioners. The Nentpikes or herbalist applied natural remedies.
What do we know about New Jersey's prehistory?
Much of what we do know about New Jersey's prehistory is a result of work done by archaeologists working with other scholars to reconstruct the life and culture of the Lenape and their ancestors through the systematic study of artifacts, seeds, pollen, bones, and a myriad of other clues found in the soil.
How did Europeans affect the Indians?
The coming of the Dutch, Swedes, and English explorers, settlers and traders changed the lives of the Indians. European glass beads and bottles, iron axes, knives, adzes and hoes, brass kettles and ornaments of metal, cloth and clothing were irresistible to the Indians and were traded for pelts of bear, beaver, otter and deer. As more Europeans settled, the condition of the Indians rapidly deteriorated. Disease, war, alcohol and simple misunderstandings quickly annihilated more than half of the native people. After a little more than a century following European colonization, only a few Indians remained to work on farms or in industry.
What language did the Indians speak in the Skylands?
Those living in the northern half (above the Raritan River and the Delaware Water Gap) spoke a Munsee ("People From Minisink") dialect of the Eastern Algonquian Delaware language, while those communities to the south spoke an Unami ("Downriver People") dialect of the same language . The beliefs and cultures of these two groups also differed somewhat but for convenience, we will use the word "Lenape" to refer to all the Indian bands living in Northwest New Jersey.
Overview
History
The first recorded European contact with people presumed to have been the Lenape was in 1524. The explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was greeted by local Lenape who came by canoe, after his ship entered what is now called Lower New York Bay.
In the 17th century, Lenape primarily interacted with Dutch traders through the fur trade. The Lenape trapped and traded beaver pelts for European-made goods.
Name
The name Lenni Lenape, also Leni Lenape and Lenni Lenapi, comes from their autonym, Lenni, which may mean "genuine, pure, real, original", and Lenape, meaning "real person" or "original person" (cf. Anishinaabe, in which -naabe, cognate with Lenape, means "man" or "male" ). Alternately, lënu may be translated as "man".
The Lenape, when first encountered by Europeans, were a loose association of related peoples …
Territory
Traditional Lenape lands, the Lenapehoking, was a large territory that encompassed the Delaware Valley of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey from the north bank of the Lehigh River along the west bank of the Delaware then south into Delaware and the Delaware Bay. Their lands also extended west from western Long Island and New York Bay, across the Lower Hudson Valley in New York into the lower Catskills and a sliver of the upper edge of the North Branch Susquehanna River. …
Languages
The Unami and Munsee languages belong to the Eastern Algonquian language group and are largely mutually intelligible. Although the Unami and Munsee speakers people are related, they consider themselves as distinct, as they used different words and lived on opposite sides of the Kitatinny Mountains of modern New Jersey. The German and English-speaking Moravian missionary John Heckewelder wrote:
Society
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, who lived to their south and west in present western Delaware and eastern M…
Contemporary tribes and organizations
Three Lenape tribes are federally recognized in the United States. They are as follows:
• Delaware Nation, Anadarko, Oklahoma
• Delaware Tribe of Indians, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
• Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Bowler, Wisconsin.
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.
• Black Beaver (1806–1880), trapper, trader and scout; first inductee into the American Indian Hall of Fame
Lenape Culture
Dutch and Swedish encounters with The Lenape
- During the first decades of the seventeenth century, the harsh winds of change swept across the Lenape’s land bringing European explorers and settlers in search of commercial opportunities. In 1633, Dutch and Swedish investors, under the leadership of Peter Minuit, formed the New South Company; the Dutch had already been involved in colonization along the Hudson River. In 1638, t…
William Penn's Treaty with The Lenape
- The Dutch and Swedes had episodic relations with the Lenape. The English Quaker William Penn would have more enduring and impactful interactions. In 1682, Penn came to the Delaware River valley to claim lands granted to him on a proprietary basis by King Charles II of England and to establish a haven in the New World for fellow members of the persecuted Quaker sect. He cam…
The Delaware Tribe
- The English captain Samuel Argall named the river and bay area he explored in the 1610s in honor Sir Thomas West, or Lord de la Warr III, the English governor of the struggling colony of Virginia in 1610-11. “European colonists later applied the term in varied dialectical forms to reference the Unami-speaking groups of the middle Delaware River valley, and by the late eighteenth century t…
Disperal of The Delaware
- Now referred to as the Delaware (hardly an indigenous name), the Unami- and Munsee-speaking groups were increasingly pushed westward in the 18th century by the military alliance of the British and the Iroquois Six Nations. A turning point in this history was the defeat of an intertribal coalition that included the Delaware and Shawnee, among others, at the Battle of Fallen Timber…