Katana VentraIP

Lënapeyok

11,195 (2010)[5]

1,565

2,300

Lënape
     (Monsi /
     Wënami)

Lënapeyok
     (Monsiyok /
     Wënamiyok)

The Lenape's historical territory includes present-day northeastern Delaware, all of New Jersey, the eastern Pennsylvania regions of the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania, and New York Bay, western Long Island, and the lower Hudson Valley in New York state.[notes 1] Today they are based in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.


During the last decades of the 18th century, European settlers and the effects of the American Revolutionary War displaced most Lenape from their homelands[12] and pushed them north and west. In the 1860s, under the Indian removal policy, the U.S. federal government relocated most Lenape remaining in the Eastern United States to the Indian Territory and surrounding regions. Lenape people currently belong to the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, the Stockbridge–Munsee Community in Wisconsin, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario.

Name[edit]

The full name Lenni Lenape originates from two autonyms, Lenni, which means "genuine, pure, real, original", and Lenape, meaning "real person" or "original person"[13] lënu may be translated as "man".[14]


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 as Lenapehoking,[1] the Lenape historical territory, which spanned what is now eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Lower New York Bay, and eastern Delaware.


The tribe's common name Delaware comes from the French language. English colonists named the Delaware River for the first governor of the Province of Virginia, Lord De La Warr. The British colonists began to call the Lenape the Delaware Indians because of where they lived.


Swedish colonists also settled in the area, and Swedish sources called the Lenape the Renappi.[15]

Languages[edit]

The Unami and Munsee languages belong to the Eastern Algonquian language group and are largely mutually intelligible. Moravian missionary John Heckewelder wrote that Munsee and Unami "came out of one parent language"/[18] Only a few Delaware First Nation elders in Moraviantown, Ontario, fluently speak Munsee.[19]


William Penn, who first met the Lenape in 1682, said the Unami used the following words: "mother" was anna, "brother" was isseemus and "friend" was netap. 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'."[20]


The Lenape languages were once exclusively spoken languages. In 2002, the Delaware Tribe of Indians received grant money to fund The Lenape Talking Dictionary, preserving and digitizing the Southern Unami dialect.[21]

Wolf, Tùkwsit

[26]

History[edit]

European contact[edit]

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.

Early colonial era[edit]

At the time of sustained European contact in the 17th and 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 the Northeastern Woodlands.[53] Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Lenape roughly encompassed the area around and between the Delaware and lower Hudson rivers, and included the western part of Long Island in present-day New York.[54] Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"[55]), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify the Lenape people that lived there.

Contemporary tribes and organizations[edit]

U.S. federally recognized tribes[edit]

Three Lenape tribes are federally recognized in the United States:

Aberg, Alf. The People of New Sweden: Our Colony on the Delaware River, 1638–1655. (, 1988). ISBN 91-27-01909-8.

Natur & Kultur

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.  B009SMVNPW.

ASIN

Bierhorst, John. Mythology of the Lenape: Guide and Texts. University of Arizona Press, 1995.  978-0-8165-1573-8.

ISBN

Brinton, Daniel G., C.F. Denke, and Albert Anthony. A Lenâpé – English Dictionary. Biblio Bazaar, 2009.  978-1-103-14922-3.

ISBN

Burrows, Edward G. and Mike. Wallace. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1989. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.  0-19-514049-4.

ISBN

Carman, Alan, E. Footprints in Time: A History and Ethnology of The Lenape-Delaware Indian Culture. Trafford Publishing, 2013.  978-1-4669-0742-3.

ISBN

Dalton, Anne. The Lenape of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Ontario (The Library of Native Americans). Powerkids Publishing, 2005.  978-1-4042-2872-6.

ISBN

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.  978-1-258-62207-7.

ISBN

Donehoo, George P. A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania. Wennawoods Publishing, 1997.  978-1-889037-11-0.

ISBN

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.  978-0-8020-7136-1.

ISBN

Fur, Gunglong. A Nation of Women: Gender and Colonial Encounters Among the Delaware Indians (Early American Studies). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.  978-0-8122-2205-0.

ISBN

Goddard, Ives (1978). "Delaware". In Trigger, Bruce G. (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15: Northeast. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 213–239.

Grumet, Robert S. The Lenapes (Indians of North America). Chelsea House Publishing, 1989.  978-0-7910-0385-5.

ISBN

Harrington, Mark. A Preliminary Sketch of Lenape Culture. New Era Printing Company, 1913.  B0008C0OBU.

ASIN

Harrington, Mark. Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape. Forgotten Books, 2012.  B008J7N986.

ASIN

Harrington, Mark R. Vestiges of Material Culture Among the Canadian Delawares. New Era Printing Company, 1908.  B0008AV2JU.

ASIN

Harrington, Mark R. The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes. Rutgers University Press, 1963.  978-0-8135-0425-4.

ISBN

Heckewelder, John G.E. The History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and Neighboring States. Uhlan Publishing, 2012.  B009UTU6LK.

ASIN

Heckewelder, John G.E. Names Which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians Gave to Rivers, Streams, and Localities (Classic Reprint). Forgotten Books, 2012.  978-1-4400-5862-2.

ISBN

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.  978-0-393-30640-8.

ISBN

Jennings, Francis. The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire. W. W. Norton and Company, 1990.  978-0-393-30302-5.

ISBN

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.  978-0-8156-2650-3.

ISBN

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.  B000KJFFCY.

ASIN

Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., ed. (1961). The American Heritage Book of Indians. American Heritage Publishing Co. pp. 188–189.  61014871.

LCCN

Kalter, Susan (editor). Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the First Nations: The Treaties of 1736–62. University of Illinois Press, 2006.  978-0-252-03035-2.

ISBN

Kraft, Herbert. The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage, 10,000 BC to AD 2000. Lenape Books, 2001.  978-0-935137-03-3.

ISBN

Kurlansky, Mark. The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007.  978-0-345-47639-5.

ISBN

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.  978-0-405-11648-3.

ISBN

Marsh, Dawn G. A Lenape Among the Quakers: The Life of Hannah Freeman. University of Nebraska Press, 2014.  978-0-8032-4840-3.

ISBN

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.  978-0-912608-13-6.

ISBN

Myers, Albert Cook (editor). Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630–1707. Nabu Press, 2012.  978-1-279-95624-3.

ISBN

Newcomb, William W. The Culture and Acculturation of the Delaware Indians. University of Michigan, 1956.  B0007EFEXW.

ASIN

Newman, Andrew. On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.  978-0-8032-3986-9.

ISBN

Olmstead, Earl P. Blackcoats Among the Delaware: David Zeisberger on the Ohio Frontier. Kent State University Press, 1991.  978-0-87338-434-6.

ISBN

Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.  978-0-19-513877-1.

ISBN

Repsher, Donald R. "Indian Place Names in Bucks County". As cited in . Retrieved March 15, 2012.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011343/http://www.lenapenation.org/main.html

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.  978-0-8122-2024-7.

ISBN

Soderlund, Jean R. Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society before William Penn. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

Spady, James. "". 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.

Colonialism and the Discursive Antecedents of Penn's Treaty with the Indians

Trowbridge, C.C. Delaware Indian Language of 1824 (American Language Reprints Supplement Series; edited by James A. Rementer). Evolution Publications and Manufacturing, 2011.  978-1-935228-06-6.

ISBN

Van Doren, Carl, and Julian P. Boyd. Indian Treaties Printed by Benjamin Franklin, 1736–1762. Nabu Press, 2011.  978-1-178-59363-1.

ISBN

Vansina, Jan. Oral Tradition as History. Oxford, 1985.  0-85255-007-3.

ISBN

Wallace, Paul, A.W. Indians in Pennsylvania (Revised Edition). Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2000.  978-0-89271-017-1.

ISBN

Wallace, Paul, A.W. Indian Paths of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1998.  978-0-89271-090-4.

ISBN

Weslager, Clinton, Alfred (C.A). A Brief Account of the Indians of Delaware. Literary Licensing, LLC, 2012.  978-1-258-23895-7.

ISBN

Weslager, C.A. A Man and His Ship: Peter Minuit and the Kalmar Nyckel. Middle Atlantic Press, 1990.  978-0-9625563-1-9.

ISBN

Weslager, C.A. Delaware's Buried Past: A Story of Archeological Adventure. Rutgers University Press, 1968.  B000KN4Y3G.

ASIN

Weslager, C.A. Delaware's Forgotten Folk: The Story of the Moors and Nanticokes. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.  978-0-8122-1983-8.

ISBN

Weslager, C.A. Delaware's Forgotten River: The Story of the Christina. Hambleton Company, 1947.  B0006D8AEO.

ASIN

Weslager, C.A., and A. R. Dunlap. Dutch Explorers, Traders And Settlers In The Delaware Valley, 1609–1664. Literary Licensing, LLC, 2011.  978-1-258-17789-8.

ISBN

Weslager, C.A. Magic Medicines of the Indians. Signet, 1974.  B001VIUW08.

ASIN

Weslager, C.A. New Sweden on the Delaware (Middle Atlantic Press, 1988).  0-912608-65-X.

ISBN

Weslager, C.A. Red Men on the Brandywine (New and Enlarged Edition). Hambleton Company, 1953.  B00EHSFKEC.

ASIN

Weslager, C.A. The Delaware Indians: A History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1972.  0-8135-0702-2.

ISBN

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.  978-0-912608-06-8.

ISBN

Weslager, C.A. The English on the Delaware: 1610–1682. Rutgers University Press, 1967.  978-0-8135-0548-0.

ISBN

Weslager, C.A. The Nanticoke Indians: A Refugee Tribal Group of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1948).  B0007ED7Z4.

ASIN

Weslager, C.A. The Swedes and Dutch at New Castle. Middle Atlantic Press, 1990.  978-0-912608-50-1.

ISBN

Zeisberger, David. A Lenâpé-English Dictionary: From An Anonymous [Manuscript] In The Archives Of The Moravian Church At Bethlehem, [Pennsylvania]. Nabu Press, 2012.  978-1-278-79951-3.

ISBN

Zeisberger, David. David Zeisberger's History of Northern American Indians (Classic Reprint). Forgotten Books, 2012.  B008HTRBDK.

ASIN

Zeisberger, David. Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. Forgotten Books, 2012.  B008LQRNGO.

ASIN

Zeisberger, David. The Diary of David Zeisberger: A Moravian Missionary Among the Ohio Indians, Volume 1. Ulan Press, 2012.  B00A6PBD82.

ASIN

Zeisberger, David. The Diary of David Zeisberger: A Moravian Missionary Among the Ohio Indians, Volume 2. Ulan Press, 2012.  B009L4SVN4.

ASIN

Zeisberger, David. Zeisberger's Indian Dictionary: English, German, Iroquois—The Onondaga and Algonquin—The Delaware. Harvard University Press, 1887.  1-104-25351-8. "The Delaware" that Zeisberger translated was Munsee, and not Unami.

ISBN

Adams, Richard Calmit, The Delaware Indians, a brief history, Hope Farm Press (Saugerties, NY 1995) [originally published by Government Printing Office, (Washington, DC 1909)]

Bierhorst, John. The White Deer and Other Stories Told by the Lenape. New York: W. Morrow, 1995.  0-688-12900-5

ISBN

Brown, James W. and Rita T. Kohn, eds. Archived August 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine ISBN 978-0-253-34968-2. Indiana University Press (2007).

Long Journey Home

Grumet, Robert Steven (2009). The Munsee Indians: a history. Civilization of the American Indian. Vol. 262. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.  978-0-8061-4062-9. OCLC 317361732.

ISBN

Kraft, Herbert: The Lenape: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. New Jersey Historical Society, 1987.  978-0-911020-14-4.

ISBN

Kraft, Herbert. The Lenape or Delaware Indians: The Original People of New Jersey, Southeastern New York State, Eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and parts of western Connecticut. Lenape Books, 1996.  978-0-935137-01-9.

ISBN

O'Meara, John, Delaware-English / English-Delaware dictionary, Toronto: University of Toronto Press (1996)  0-8020-0670-1.

ISBN

The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006). ISBN 1-57181-672-0

Otto, Paul

Pritchard, Evan T., Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York. Council Oak Books: San Francisco, 2002, 2007.  1-57178-107-2.

ISBN

Richter, Conrad, The Light In The Forest. New York: 1953.

official website

Delaware Nation

official website

Delaware Tribe of Indians

official website

Stockbridge-Munsee Community

Archived October 15, 2018, at the Wayback Machine

Lenape Center

official website

Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware

official website

Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania

official website

Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation

official website

Ramapo Munsee Lenape Nation

Museum of Indian Culture

Lenape/English dictionary

Lenape (Southern Unami) Talking Dictionary

. New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

"Delaware. One of the most important tribes of Algonquian stock"