The Delaware and Munsee or Minisink (Mahican)Indians are an ancient group from the Agonquian language speaking group of Native Americans who covered a large part of Central and Eastern North America. Our origin is very old and could go back, according to recent discoveries, as far as 30,000 years or more. We called ourselves "Lenni Lanape"; of which the origin of these words are very old. They are said to mean: "original man", "first man", "ancient man", or "true or common man". The term "Delaware"; is said to have come from more of where we were than who we were. It is believed that we got the name from the river named after Thomas West, Baron De La War, who was the Colony of Virginia's first governor. After a period of time the name came to be given to all of the indians living long the river in the early 1600.
At the time of the arrival of the Europeans, the Lenape probably numbered between 16,000 to 20,000 people and lived from as far north as central New York to as far south as southern Maryland and at times Virginia. Inland as far as central Pennsylvania and Maryland. Before the Euros, from a period of time between 1000ad and the late 1300's to early 1400's, we may have lived in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. It is believed by some, that in the 1300's we may have forced the descendants of the mound builders in Ohio, the Cherokees, out of Ohio and south into Kentucky and Tennessee only to assist them a century later with the Shawnee (sister tribe to the Delaware) in there battle with the Catatwa, related or ancestor of the Lakota people who later became the plains indians. The Shawnee at that time lived in northern Georgia at this time.
Most of the time in history, the various bands, tribes, and villages, even though they had a shared culture, seldom were led by a singe head or council until dealing with the governments made it a necessity to unite from time to time for their survival to do so.
Social events and ceremonies were a different matter and on various times in the year they would get together to share food and spiritual traditions.
The Lenape are divided into three main tribes or bands and each tribe had three primary "clans". The clans are the Wolf, Turtle, and the Turkey clans. Until the late 1700's, there was also a "Crow or Raven" clan. Its job was to prepare the dead. There is little known of this clan other then it is said that they were at the bottom of the social scale.
The three tribes were the Minsi (Munsee/Mahican); which meant "Stone Land or Mountain People", believed by scientist to be the oldest tribe as well as the tribe that stayed pretty much in the mountains of Pennsylvania and New York since about 1000ad. The Munsee were the primary meat gatherers of the Delaware as farming was very difficult in the mountains rocky soil. The Delaware referred to the Munsee as the "Wolf Tribe".
The next tribe of the Delaware were the "Unamis or Turtle Tribe". The largest of the three tribes; it did the majority of the farming as they lived in the valleys and along the river in the Delaware Bay areas inland to the Susquehanna Rivers.
The last tribe is the "Unalachticos or Turkey Tribe" who lived on the sea coast of primarily New Jersey and did the majority of fishing, oystering, and other type of shell fishing. How long they were known by that name is up for debate as the first time in print that they were referred to was in the late 1700's at a meeting at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh). In ancient times there were probably at least eight other clans or tribes that made up Lanape as well as many as 20 subtribes such as the Shanticoke, Nanticoke, Manhattens, Mohicans and many, many, more tribes.
Over the next 300 hundred years, the Lenape were forced to move west by a series of treaties that saw the Lenape's land holdings dwindle away. The tribe in the late 1700's had already had been moved out of Pennsylvania and into Ohio as early as 1715 with the bulk of them moving into Ohio after 1750. Some bands of the Munsee (the Stockbridge Munsee) had moved to the what was to become the state of Wisconsin as early as the late 1600's to early 1700's by early missionaries who were well aware that the Lenape were being forced out and that the white man, with his never ending quest for land westward eventually would force them out of Pennsylvania and so hoped by moving to Wisconsin their culture would be spared. This did by them some time and they are still there and are one of the few tribes of Lenape that hasn't had to move over the last three centuries. The rest were not so lucky.
The greatest loss of land came with the signing of the
Greenville Treaty of 1795 in which all of the indians of the
Ohio Valley would be required to give up nearly 2/3 of their
land holdings in exchange for pennies on the dollars for what
it was worth. The Delaware and Shawnees, along with Miamis,
Wyandotte, and other tribes of the area were to move, first
to Indiana and then to Missouri by 1820's and eventually to
Kansas by 1836. The "Treaty of St. Mary" on October 3, 1818 ceded
the remaining land in Ohio, which roughly followed north of
present day U.S. Route 36 and State Routes 39, 540, and 541 was
held near the present day town of Wapakoneta, Ohio. Only a
small part of land north of there remained and it too was
annexed to Ohio in 1836. By 1840, most but not all of the
Delaware had left their Ohio homeland. Those that remained
had often married non native wives and husbands and were
considered "civilized" and left alone. Others, such as Chief
Beaver's band eventually moved as far as Texas but were soon
made to moved back to "Indian Territory" (Oklahoma) in 1877.
just as with the "Indian Removal Act of 1830", which dictated
that all indians be removed to west of the Mississippi River
a similar act past in the 1870's forced the Texas band back
to Oklahoma. Those that remained in Ohio are what made up the
Munsee Thames River Delaware Indian Nation-USA now known as
the Munsee Delaware Indian Nation-USA. These remnants, some
which returned to Ohio after the last treaty with the Delaware in
1866 which gave the Delawares the choice to elect to dissolve
their relations with their tribe and join the Cherokees as U.S.
citizens in Oklahoma and give up by forced sale of their lands
in Kansas. Most agreed to this but some refused. Some of these
descendants still live in Kansas and today are known as the
Kansas Delaware. Others such as the Munsee Delaware Indian Nation-USA either never
left Ohio or some of those families came back to Ohio and joined
there friends and relatives with the Ohio Band.
Today, the Munsee and Delawares, are scattered from the west
coast to the east coast. The Federal Delawares, those who moved
to Oklahoma, are known today as "The Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma",
the eastern Oklahoma Delawares, and the "Absentees" of western
Oklahoma. There are three Canadian tribes, Munsee Delaware of the Thames,
near Thamesville, Ontario Canada, Morraviantown Delaware, who
got their name from the Morravian priests who moved them there
in the late 1700's and the six nations reservation group that
live on the Iroquois reservation north of New York. Other bands
of the Delaware, such as the "Kansas Delaware" in Kansas,
the "Idaho Delaware", and in the east The Munsee Delaware
Indian Nation-USA, and its sub tribes, "The Eastern Lenape
Nation", mainly in the Pennsylvania area east, and "The United
Lenape Band" to the south, the latter with a large Cherokee
population as well. There are other Delaware tribes as well
in Pennsylvania and New York (Delaware Indian Nation-PA). And
in New Jersey, a very old tribe, the "Sand Hill" tribe.
In this past decade, the last of the full blood Delaware
have died. Like the dinosaur, the Lenape are nearly extinct;
leaving only a few to carry on the traditions from a time long
ago when the earth was pure, as well as the air and water. The
Lenape have always been known as "The Keepers of the Earth"
and will continue this path and seekers of peace has always
been our way. Honor those few that have chosen this path, for
as long as their is one Lenape left our rich heritage will
survive...
For more info on the Lenape, we suggest the following;
The Lenape
Robert S. Grumet - Indians of North America 1989
Dikon Among the Lenape, the New Jersey Delaware
Harrigton - 1937
The Lenape and their Legends
Daniel G. Briton - 1884
The Lenape, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography
Herbert C. Kraft - 1986
For more info-language and clothing;
Western Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma web page at www.westerndelaware.nsn.us.
Lehigh County (Allentown, Pennsylvania) Historical Society's
web page at www.lenape.org.
Shawnee (Ohio) web page at www.zaneshawneecaverns.org.
Delaware Tribe of Indians web page at www.delawaretribeofindians.nsn.us.
Lenape Delaware History Web Site at http://lenape-delawarehistory.freeyellow.com
Delawares of Idaho, Inc. at www.delawaresofidaho.org