European contact 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 At the time of
sustained 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 the
Northeastern Woodlands. 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. Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify the Lenape people that lived there.
17th century 's 1682 treaty with the Lenape depicted in ''
Penn's Treaty with the Indians'', a 1771 portrait by
Benjamin West The Lenape had a culture in which the clan and family controlled property. Europeans often tried to contract for land with the tribal chiefs, confusing their culture with that of neighboring tribes such as the
Iroquois. As a further complication in communication and understanding, kinship terms commonly used by European settlers had very different meanings to the Lenape: "fathers" did not have the same direct parental control as in Europe, "brothers" could be a symbol of equality but could also be interpreted as one's parallel cousins, "cousins" were interpreted as only cross-cousins, etc. All of these added complexities in kinship terms made agreements with Europeans all the more difficult. The Lenape would petition for grievances on the basis that not all their families had been recognized in the transaction (not that they wanted to "share" the land). After the Dutch arrival and brief establishment of Fort Nassau (along the bank of the Delaware River in present-day
Gloucester City, New Jersey) in the 1620s, the Lenape were successful in restricting Dutch settlement until the 1660s to no further than
Pavonia in present-day
Jersey City along the Hudson. The Dutch finally established a garrison at
Bergen, which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province of
New Netherland. This land was purchased from the Lenape after the fact. 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 governing
Dutch West India Company. 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-day
upstate New York. The Lenape who produced
wampum in the vicinity of Manhattan Island temporarily forestalled the negative effects of the decline in trade. During the resulting
Beaver Wars in the first half of the 17th century, European colonists were careful to keep firearms from the coastally located Lenape, After the warfare, the Lenape referred to the Susquehannock as "uncles". The Iroquois Confederacy added the Lenape to the
Covenant Chain in 1676 and the Lenape were tributary to the Confederation until 1753, shortly before the outbreak of the
French and Indian War (a part of the
Seven Years' War in Europe). The historical record of the mid-17th century suggests that most Lenape polities each consisted of several hundred people but it is conceivable that some had been considerably larger prior to close contact, given the wars with the Susquehannock and the Iroquois, 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.
Epidemics of newly introduced European
infectious diseases, such as
smallpox, measles, cholera, influenza, and dysentery, further reduced the populations of Lenape. They and other Native peoples had no natural
immunity. Recurrent violent conflicts with Europeans also devastated Lenape populations. In 1682,
William Penn and
Quaker colonists created the English
colony of Pennsylvania beginning at the lower
Delaware River. A peace treaty was negotiated between the newly arriving colonists and Lenape at what is now known as
Penn Treaty Park. In the decades immediately following, some 20,000 new colonists arrived in the region, putting pressure on Lenape settlements and hunting grounds. Penn expected his authority and that of the colonial
Province of Pennsylvania government to take precedence.
18th century depicted in a 1735 portrait by
Gustavus Hesselius William Penn died in 1718. His heirs, John and Thomas Penn, and their agents were ruling the colony, and had abandoned many of
William Penn's practices. In an attempt to raise money, they contemplated ways to sell Lenape land to colonial settlers, which culminated in the
Walking 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 historian
Steven 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". In 1757, an organization known as the New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians wrote a constitution to
expel native Munsee Lenape from their settlements in the area of present-day
Washington Valley in
Morris County, New Jersey. Led by Reverend John Brainerd, colonists
forcefully relocated 200 people to Indian Mills, then known as
Brotherton, an industrial town with gristills and sawmills, that was the first Native American reservation in
New Jersey. Reverend John Brainerd abandoned the reservation in 1777. Through the 18th century, many Lenape moved west into the relatively depopulated upper
Ohio River basin, but they also sporadically launched violent raids on settlers far outside the area. Beginning in the 18th century, the
Moravian Church established missions in Lenape settlements. The Moravians required the Christian
converts to share Moravian
pacifism and live in a structured and European-style mission village. Moravian pacifism and unwillingness to take loyalty oaths caused conflicts with British colonial authorities, who were seeking aid against the French and their Native American allies in the
French 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. Other Lenape initially sided with
France, since they hoped to prevent further European colonial encroachment in their settlements. Their chiefs
Teedyuscung in the east and
Tamaqua near present-day
Pittsburgh shifted to building alliances with
British colonial authorities. Lenape leader
Killbuck (Bemino) assisted the British against the French and their Indian allies. In 1761, Killbuck led a British supply train from
Fort Pitt to
Fort Sandusky. In 1763, Bill Hickman, a Lenape, warned English colonists in the
Juniata 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. 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-day
Wyoming Valley region of Pennsylvania. Many Lenape joined in
Pontiac's War and were among the Native Americans who besieged present-day Pittsburgh that same year. between the western frontier strongholds of the British and the Patriots. The Americans had
Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) and the British, along with Indian allies, controlled the area of
Fort Detroit across the river in present-day
Michigan. Some Lenape fought against the American settlers and moved west, closer to Detroit, where they settled on the
Scioto and
Sandusky 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 and
Loyalists. The Americans agreed and built
Fort Laurens, which they garrisoned. Lenape sympathetic to the United States remained at Coshocton, and Lenape leaders signed the
Treaty 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 converted
Christian Munsees, lived in several mission villages run by
Moravian missionaries. Like the other bands, they also spoke the
Munsee branch of Lenape, an
Algonquian language. The British made plans to attack
Fort 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 just months later in August 1779. The Lenape had lost their protectors and found themselves without solid allies in the conflict, which compounded their dispossession at the hand of encroaching
American pioneers during and after the war.
Late 18th century treaties In 1780,
Munsee-speaking Lenape community leaders native to the
Washington Valley that had been
forcibly displaced to
Brotherton, wrote a "community treaty" to oppose selling any more land to white settlers: 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 three
Indian reserves in
Western Ontario, Canada. They are descendants of those Lenape of Ohio Country who sided with the British during the Revolutionary War. The largest reserve is at
Moraviantown, Ontario, where the Turtle
Phratry settled in 1792 following the war. The 1795
Treaty 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 the
river Ohio, eastward of the
Mississippi, and westward and southward of the
Great Lakes and the waters uniting them". The U.S. also agreed to provide an annual allowance to various Indigenous groups including the Lenape. In 1796, the
Oneidas of
New Stockbridge invited the Munsee Lenape to their
reservation. The initial Lenape response was negative; in 1798, Lenape community leaders Bartholomew Calvin, Jason Skekit, and 18 others signed a public statement of refusal to leave "our fine place in
Jersey". The Munsee later agreed to relocate to New Stockbridge to join the Oneidas. A few households stayed behind to assimilate into New Jersey. Two groups migrated to
Oneida County, New York, by 1802, the Brotherton Indians of New Jersey and the Stockbridge-Munsee. In 1822, the Munsee Lenape of
Washington Valley who had moved to
Stockbridge were
forcefully displaced by
white colonists again, over 900 miles' travel away, to
Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Anderson, Indiana, is named after
Chief 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.
Role in western history Many Lenape participated in the exploration of the western United States, working as trappers with the
mountain men, and as guides and hunters for wagon trains. They served as
army guides and scouts in events such as the
Second Seminole War,
Frémont's expeditions, and the
conquest of California during the
Mexican–American War. Occasionally, they played surprising roles as Indian allies.
Sagundai accompanied one of Frémont's expeditions as one of his Lenape guides. From California, Fremont needed to communicate with Senator Benton. Sagundai volunteered to carry the message through some 2,200 kilometres (1367 miles) of hostile territory. He took many scalps in this adventure, including that of a
Comanche with a particularly fine horse, who had outrun both Sagundai and the other Comanche. Sagundai was thrown when his horse stepped into a prairie-dog hole, but avoided the Comanche's lance, shot the warrior dead, and caught his horse and escaped the other Comanche. When Sagundai returned to his own people in present-day Kansas, they celebrated his exploits with the last war and scalp dances of their history, which were held at
Edwardsville, Kansas.
Texas Spanish Texas The Lenape migrated into Texas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Elements of the Lenape migrated from Missouri into Texas around 1820, settling around the
Red River and
Sabine River. The Lenape were peaceful and shared their territory in Spanish Texas with the
Caddo and other immigrating bands, as well as with the Spanish and ever-increasing American population. This peaceful trend continued after Mexico won their independence from Spain in 1821.
Mexican Texas In 1828, Mexican General
Manuel de Mier y Terán made an inspection of eastern Mexican Texas and estimated that the region housed between 150 and 200 Lenape families. The Lenape requested Mier y Terán to issue them land grants and send teachers, so they might learn to read and write the Spanish language. The general, impressed with how well they had
adapted to the Mexican culture, sent their request to
Mexico City, but the authorities never granted the Lenape any legal titles. The situation changed when the
Texas Revolution began in 1835. Texas officials were eager to gain the support of the Texas tribes to their side and offered to recognize their land claims by sending three commissioners to negotiate a treaty. A treaty was agreed upon in February 1836 that mapped the boundaries of Indian lands, but this agreement was never officially ratified by the Texas government. In 1854, the
U.S. Congress passed the
Kansas–Nebraska Act, which created the
Territory of Kansas and opened the area for white settlement. It also authorized negotiation with Indian tribes regarding
removal. The Lenape were reluctant to negotiate for yet another relocation, but they feared serious trouble with white settlers, and conflict developed. As the Lenape were not considered United States citizens, they had no access to the courts and no way to enforce their property rights. The United States Army was to enforce their rights to reservation land after the Indian Agent had both posted a public notice warning trespassers and served written notice on them, a process generally considered onerous. Major B.F. Robinson, the Indian Agent appointed in 1855, did his best, but could not control the hundreds of white trespassers who stole stock, cut timber, and built houses and squatted on Lenape lands. By 1860, the Lenape had reached consensus to leave Kansas, which was in accord with the government's Indian removal policy.
Oklahoma The main body of Lenape arrived in
Indian Territory in the 1860s. The two
federally recognized tribes of Lenape in Oklahoma are the
Delaware Nation, headquartered in
Anadarko, Oklahoma, and the
Delaware Tribe of Indians, headquartered in
Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The Delaware Tribe of Indians were required to purchase land from the reservation of the
Cherokee Nation; they made two payments totaling $438,000. A court dispute followed over whether the sale included rights for the Lenape as citizens within the Cherokee Nation. While the dispute was unsettled, the
Curtis Act of 1898 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.
20th century In 1979, the United States
Bureau of Indian Affairs revoked the tribal status of the Lenape living among Cherokee in Oklahoma. They began to count the Lenape as Cherokee. The Lenape had this decision overturned in 1996, when they were recognized by the federal government as a separate tribal nation.
21st century The Cherokee Nation filed suit to overturn the independent federal recognition of the Lenape. The tribe lost federal recognition in a 2004 court ruling in favor of the Cherokee Nation but regained it on July 28, 2009. After recognition, the tribe reorganized under the
Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. Members approved a constitution and by laws in a May 26, 2009, vote. Jerry Douglas was elected as tribal chief. In 2004, the
Delaware Nation filed suit against Pennsylvania in the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking to reclaim included in the 1737
Walking Purchase to build a casino. In the suit titled
The Delaware Nation v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the plaintiffs, acting as the successor in interest and political continuation of the Lenni Lenape and of Lenape Chief
Moses Tunda Tatamy, claimed aboriginal and fee title to the 315 acres of land located in
Forks Township in
Northampton County, near the town of
Tatamy, Pennsylvania. 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 of
aboriginal title is
nonjusticiable, including in the case of
fraud. Because the extinguishment occurred prior to the passage of the first
Indian Nonintercourse Act in 1790, that Act did not avail the Lenape. As a result, the court granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss. In its conclusion the court stated: "... we find that the Delaware Nation's aboriginal rights to Tatamy's Place were extinguished in 1737 and that, later, fee title to the land was granted to Chief Tatamy—not to the tribe as a collectivity." Not every Lenape now lives in Oklahoma. Many live in the Northeast, and some Munsee Lenape are applying for state recognition. ==Contemporary tribes and organizations==