Delaware. A confederacy, formerly
the most important of the Algonquian stock, occupying the entire basin of
Delaware river in east Pennsylvania and south New York, together with most
of New Jersey and Delaware. They called themselves Lenape or Leni-lenape,
equivalent to 'real men,' or 'native, genuine men'; the English knew them
as Delaware, from the name of their principal river; the French called
them Loups, 'wolves,' a term probably applied originally to the Mahican on
Hudson rivers, afterward extended to the Munsee division and to the whole
group. To the more remote
Algonquian tribes they, together with all their
cognate tribes along the coast far up into New England, were known as Wapanaehki, 'easterners,' or 'eastern land people,' a term which appears
also as a specific tribal designation in the form of
Abnaki. By virtue of
admitted priority of political rank and of occupying the central home
territory, from which most of the cognate tribes had diverged, they were
accorded by all the Algonquian tribes the respectful title of
"grandfather," a recognition accorded by courtesy also by the
Huron. The
Nanticoke,
Conoy, Shawnee, and
Mahican claimed close connection with the Delaware and preserved the tradition of a common origin.
The Lenape, or Delaware proper, were composed of 3
principal tribes, treated by Morgan as phratries, viz:
Munsee,
Unami, and
Unalachtigo (q. v.), besides which
some of the New Jersey bands may have constituted a fourth. Each of these
had its own territory and dialect, with more or less separate identity,
the Munsee particularly being so far differentiated as frequently to be
considered an independent people.
The early traditional history of the Lenape is
contained in their national legend, the Walam
Olum (q. v.). When they made their first treaty with Penn, in 1682,
the Delaware had their council fire at Shackamaxon, about the present
Germantown, suburb of Philadelphia, and under various local names occupied
the whole country along the river. To this early period belongs their
great chief, Tamenend, from whom the
Tammany Society takes its name.
The different bands frequently acted separately but regarded themselves as
part of one great body. About the year 1720 the Iroquois assumed dominion
over them, forbidding them to make war or sales of lands, a condition
which lasted until about the opening of the French and Indian war. As the
whites, under the sanction of the Iroquois, crowded them out of their
ancient homes, the Delaware removed, to the Susquehanna, settling at
Wyoming and other points about 1742. They soon crossed the mountains to
the headwaters of the Allegheny, the first of them having settled upon
that stream in 1724. In 1751, by invitation of the Huron, they began to
form settlements in east Ohio, and in a few years the greater part of the
Delaware were fixed upon the Muskingum and other streams in east Ohio,
together with the Munsee and Mahican, who had accompanied them from the
east, being driven out by the same pressure and afterward consolidating
with them. The Delaware, being now within reach of the French and backed
by the western tribes, asserted their independence of the Iroquois, and in
the subsequent wars up to the treaty of Greenville in 1795 showed
themselves the most determined opponents of the advancing whites. The work
of the devoted Moravian missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries forms
an important part of the history of these tribes (see
Gnadenhuetten, Missions).
About the year 1770 the Delaware received permission
from the Miami and
Piankishaw
to occupy the country between the Ohio and White river south, in Indiana,
where at one time they had 6 villages. In 1789, by permission of the
Spanish government, a part of them removed to Missouri, and afterward to
Arkansas, together with a band of Shawnee. By 1820 the two bands had found
their way to Texas, where the Delaware numbered at that time probably at
least 700. By the year 1835 most of the tribe had been gathered on a
reservation in Kansas, from which they removed, in 1867, to Indian
Territory and incorporated with the Cherokee Nation.
Another band is affiliated with the
Caddo and
Wichita in west Oklahoma, besides which there are a few scattered remnants
in the United States, with several hundred in Canada, under the various
names of Delaware, Munsee, and
Moravians.
It is impossible to get a definite idea of the numbers
of the Delaware at any given period, owing to the fact that they have
always been closely connected with other tribes, and have hardly formed
one compact body since leaving the Atlantic coast. All the estimates of
the last century give then and their connected tribes from about 2,400 to
3,000, while the estimates within the present century are much lower.
Their present population, including the Munsee, is about 1,900,
distributed as follows: Incorporated with Cherokee Nation, Indian
Territory, 870; Wichita Reservation, Oklahoma, 95; Munsee, with
Stockbridge, in Wisconsin, perhaps 260; Munsee, with Chippewa, in Kansas,
perhaps 45; "Moravians of the Thames," Ontario, 347; " Munsee of the
Thames," Ontario, 122, with Six Nations on Grand river, Ontario, 150.
