Lenape

The Lenape are a northeastern Native American tribe and are among the several hundred tribes within the Algonquian linguistic family. [Page 1348]European and Euro-American settlers referred to the Lenape as the Delaware. The Lenape were part of the Eastern Woodlands culture. Their traditional lifestyle was based on subsistence agriculture. After centuries of Euro-American population growth and the federal government's decision to remove all eastern Native Americans to the west in the early 1800s, many Lenape were forced to relocate to the western United States within present-day Oklahoma and Kansas. Today, the Lenape live both in their ancestral homelands and in western territory and seek to preserve their cultural heritage.

The Lenape, also known as the Lenni-Lenape, traditionally inhabited a region in the northeastern United States that they referred to as Lenapehoking, or Land of the Lenape. This region encompassed parts of the states of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. The area was heavily wooded and had numerous rivers and streams. The traditional Lenape lifestyle was largely sedentary and centered on subsistence agriculture and the surrounding natural environment, which also provided a spiritual base.

Two related linguistic and cultural groups composed the Lenapi: northern-based Lenapi who spoke a Munsee dialect and southern-based Lenape who spoke a Unami dialect. Some Lenape recognize three groupings: the Munsee (Wolf), Unami (Turtle), and Unalachigo (Turkey). The Lenape refer to themselves as Lenape, which is variously translated as true, original, or common people. Some scholars credit the name “Delaware” as coming from the English settler Lord de la Warr, whereas others credit the name's origin to a Swiss colonial mispronunciation of a Lenape word. Land was communal, and resources were freely shared among tribal members.

Like other Eastern Woodlands tribes, the Lenape practiced settled agriculture on the rich farmlands within their traditional territory. Crops included corn, squash, and beans. The Lenape were also hunters and gatherers. Food included deer, elk, bear, beaver, otter, muskrat, raccoon, mink, wild cats, fish, and various birds and waterfowl. Tools included fish weirs, bows and arrows, dugout canoes, and stone tools such as axes, spears, and arrowheads. Religion was centered on the natural environment and was both animistic and polytheistic.

A 1915 photo of Jennie Bobb and her daughter, Nellie Longhat, both from the Lenape tribe, also called Delaware Indians because their territory was alongside the Delaware River

Most Lenape lived in small villages or bands, although a few large villages did exist. Long-houses and wigwams were typical Lenape dwellings. Work was divided by gender, with children receiving instruction at an early age. Male roles included woodworking, land clearing, building houses, and hunting, trapping, and fishing. Men also served as warriors. Female roles included planting, harvesting, gathering, food preparation and seasonal storage, pottery, weaving, and making clothing.

The extended family was the basic social unit. Related families were organized into one of three clans: Wolf, Turtle, and Turkey. Clan membership, like Lenape society as a whole, was matriarchal. Male chiefs, also known as sachems, provided [Page 1349]political, social, and religious leadership for the various clans and villages. A chief and council of elders provided overarching political leadership, while other tribal members played advisory roles. Military leadership was separate.

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