LENAPE INDIANS OF DELAWARE

LENAPE ARE SEVERAL BANDS OF NATIVE AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH SHARED CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC TRAITS. THEIR NAME MEANS "THE PEOPLE". IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES THEY LIVED IN THE AREA AROUND AND BETWEEN THE DELAWARE AND LOWER HUDSON RIVERS - THEIR TERRITORIES WERE WIDESPREAD. THEY ORGANIZED INTO CLANS BY MATRILINEAL. THEIR PRIMARY CROPS WERE CORN BEANS AND SQUASH. THEY HUNTED AND COLLECTED SEAFOOD.

AFTER THE 17TH CENTURY THE COLONY OF NEW NETHERLAND WAS INVOLVED IN NATIVE AMERICAN FUR TRADE. THE TRAPPING DEPLETED THE BEAVER POPULATION AND WAS DISASTROUS FOR THEM. THEN THESE NATIVES WERE INFECTED BY DISEASES OF THE EUROPEANS AND THEIR CONFLICT WITH THEM.

THEY WERE PUSHED OUT OF THEIR LANDS BY IROQUOIS SPEAKING PEOPLE. DURING THE NEXT 100 YEARS THEY WERE PUSHED OUT OF ALL OF THEIR LANDS BY IROQUOIS. THEY MOVED TO THE OHIO VALLEY. DURING 1860'S MOST LENAPE REMAINED IN THE EASTERN US AND MOVED WEST TO THE OHIO VALLEY.

THEY NOW LIVE IN OKLAHOMA, KANSAS, WISCONSIN, ONTARIO, AND TRADITIONAL HOMELANDS. EARLY INDIAN TRIBES ARE BETTER UNDERSTOOD AS LANGUAGE GROUPS, RATHER THAN AS NATIONS. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS FOUND OF MUNSEE SPEAKING LENAPE BURIALS INCLUDED ETHNIC IROQUOIAN REMAINS INCLUDED ALONG WITH THOSE OF LENAPE. THE TWO GROUPS WERE BITTER ENEMIES BEFORE RECORDED HISTORY. THEY INTERMARRIED AND ADOPTED CAPTIVES INTO THEIR TRIBES. THEY MARRIED OUTSIDE OF THEIR CLAN. THE EUROPEAN PEOPLE WHO WROTE ABOUT LENAPE PEOPLE DID NOT UNDERSTAND THEIR CULTURE. EARLY EUROPEAN CHRONICLERS DID NOT UNDERSTAND SOME CONCEPTS.

LAND WAS ASSIGNED TO A CERTAIN CLAN FOR HUNTING, FISHING, AND CULTIVATION. PRIVATE OWNERSHIP WAS UNKNOWN. LAND BELONGED TO THE CLAN. THEY COMMUNALLY HUNTED AND PLANTED LARGE SCALE AGRICULTURE TO ACCOMPANY GATHERING ACTIVITIES. THESE FOLKS WERE BASICALLY A SEDENTARY PEOPLE WHO SEASONALLY CAMPED. THEY HARVESTED LARGE AMOUNTS OF CLAMS AND SHELLFISH. THESE MAY HAVE 15,000 LENAPE IN 80 SETTLEMENTS.

THE FIRST RECORDED CONTACTS WITH EUROPEANS AND LENAPE WAS IN 1524 BY GIOVANNI VERRAZZANO. THEN IN 1631 DUTCH SETTLERS FOUNDED A COLONY AT DELAWARE CALLED SWAN VALLEY. A BAND OF LENAPE KILLED 32 DUTCH SETTLERS AFTER A MISHAP. THE DUTCH GOT EPIDEMICS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES CARRIED BY EUROPEANS.

OVER A PERIOD OF 176 YEARS EUROPEAN SETTLERS PROGRESSIVELY PRESSED THE LENAPE OUT OF THE EAST COAST AND OHIO. THEY EVENTUALLY MOVED TO ONTARIO,
CANADA.

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