The Lenapé and their Legends

Sketches of

Lenape

Migrations o

in the Provinces of Penn

Lenape as

s that for a certain time they occupied a recognized position as

ology attached a two-fold

rivileges, had that of proposing a cessation of hostilities in time of war. A proposition from them to drop the war club could be entertained without compromising the reputation o

ent surgeons, who had facilities of observation among the Western tribes[173]. Certain young men of the tribe, apparently vigorous and of normal development, were deprived of the accoutrements of the male sex, clothed like women, and assigned women's work

hat they were appointed as peace-makers in an honorable man

account is

ngers to the Delawares wi

und the Woman. No one shall harm the Woman; and if one does, we shall speak to him and say, 'Why strikest thou the Woman?' Then all the Men shall attack him who has struck the Woman. The Woman shall not go to war, but shall do her best to keep the peace. When the Men around her fight one a

e the aim of the Iroquois, and were ple

and invited the Delawares, and spoke t

e Delaware nation to be t

long gown of a woman, and

say that thenceforward th

entence was in

other nations that they listen to good and not to evil. The medicine you shall use for those nati

the Delawares should make agricult

into your hands a co

These belts have ever since been carefully preserved

subjection in a manner consoling to their national vanity. Gen. Harrison dismisses it as impossible;[175] Albert Gallatin says, "it is too incred

mpum belts with their meaning were still preserved unless he knew it to be a fact. It is repeated emphatically by Heckewelder, wh

d that it meant a great deal more. They undoubtedly were the acknowledged peace-makers over a wide area, and this in consequence of

tors, to which we adhere without any deviation in these near 200 years, to which nation the 5 nations and British have

y directly to them, so as to secure

78; for, as David Zeisberger wrote: "If the Delawares had taken part against the Americans in the present war, America would have had terrible experiences; for the neutrali

the border, "the peace-belt was sent to our brethren, the Delawares, that they might send it to all t

n 1756 they sent a belt to them, with a most insulting message:[183] "You will remember that you are our women; our forefathers made you

id, at a council at Burlington,[184] "The Munseys

tain, Canassatego, at a council at Philadelphia, in 1742. Turning to th

ore sell land than women. * * * We charge you to remove instantly. We don't give you the liberty to think about it. We as

chief he seized him by his long hair and pu

ion. The Lenape had been grossly cheated out of their lands by the trick of the so-called "Long Walk," in 1735, and they refused to vacate their huntin

of their warlike northern neighbors. They found themselves in the position of the Persian chief

H?nden is

rspricht, der widersp

ten-Hall

t toward the close of the sixteenth century the unending wars between the Delaware confederacy and the Iroquois had reduced the latter almost to destruction. The Jesuit missionaries tell us this.[186] The turning point in their affairs was the settlement of the

n 1727, when they stated that their conquest of the Delawares was about the time William Penn f

ley of that river. Mr. William P. Foulke is quite correct in his conclusion that, "Upon the whole we may concl

to aid them in an attack on the Senecas, but the Quakers declined the foray. The next year the Minsi asked Governor Benjamin Fletcher at least to protect them again

subjection nor womanhood w

n, and worthy of an invitation to join a war. On July 6th, 1694, Governor Wm. Markham met in conference the fa

re Indians do nothing but stay at home and boil your pots, and are like

ing always been a peaceful people, and resolving to live so; and being but weak and verie few in number, cannot

upy any degrading position, although they were un

Nations, adding "that many years ago they had been made tributaries to the Mingoes." He also shewed "a long Indian pipe, with a stone head, a wooden shaft, and feathers fixt to it like wings. This pipe, they said, upon making their submission to the Five Nations, who had subdued them, and o

en. It is by no means so remote as Mr. Heckewelder thought, who located the occurrence at Norman's Kill, on the Hudson, between 160

ce of the Delawares refusing to join the Iroq

e chiefs, in 1732, to Governor Gordon, who had inqu

ly was as

etle there, for there was a Greatt noise In the Greatt house and thatt in three years time,

rom us, Come brothers assistt us Lett us fall upon and fightt with the English. Wee answered them no, we

now wee will pettycoatts on you, and Look upon you as women for the future, and nott as men. Therefore, you Shawanese Look back toward Ohi

on Meheahoaming and He Take Meheahoaming and putt itt on Ohioh, and Ohioh He putt on W

the ceremony were probably p

ccount is borne out by an

give of their Pennsylvania lands in 1736, the boundaries are defined as "Westward to the Setting of the Sun, and Eastward to the furthest springs of the Waters running into the said River," i. e., the Susquehannah;[197] and to do away with any doubt that the tract thus defined included all the land in this part to which they had a claim, the Release goes on to recite that "our true intent and meaning was and is to release all our Right, Claim and Pretensions whatsoever to all and every the Lands lying within the Bounds and Limits of

questioned the sales made by the Lenapes or Minsis east of that river. * * The findings of Gal

urchased by Penn in 1699, that the confir

k off the petticoat" from the Lenape, and "handed them the war belt."[200] The year subsequent they m

yes, when reminded by the Senecas that the petticoats were still on his people, scornfully repudia

Treaty of Greenville, that their delegates came forward and "officially declared that the Lenape were

Migrations o

he Lenape. But some account of their number and migrations will a

he province was by William Penn. He stated that there were ten di

nite with the Ottawas.[204] In 1721 the Frenchman Durant speaks of them as "exceedingly decreased."[205] Already they had yielded to the pressure of the

to leave the waters of their river, and remove to Shamokin (now Sunbury) and Wyoming, on the Susquehann

settlements, in 1748, he reported their warriors there a

and English, and suffered considerable losses. At its close they were estimated to

n central and eastern Ohio, establishing their chief fire on the Tuscarawas r

tinguished war-chief, Koquethagachton, known to the settlers as "Captain White Eyes," declared, in 1775, in favor of the Federal cause, and renounced for himself and his people all dependence o

1788, was but one event in the murderous war between the races that co

Zeisberger also, in 1791, conducted his colony of Christian Indians to Canada, and founded the town of Fairfield, on the Retrenche river. Thus, in both directions the Delawares were driven off the soil o

x towns, the largest of which was Woapikamikunk or Wapeminskink, "Place of Chestnut Trees." This tract was guaranteed them "in perpetuity" by the treaty of Vincennes, 1808.[211] Nevertheless, just ten years

s being Mohegans and Nanticokes.[212] Their head chief was Thahutoowelent, of the

s,"[213] which is small matter of wonder, when they had seen the peaceful Christian converts of their nation massacred three times, in c

winter of 1818-19, states that they lived in log huts and bark s

lawares that appeared i

e reported, in 1850, as possessing there 375,000 acres and numbering about 1500 souls. Four yea

ination has about 300 of the tribe on the reservation at Moraviantown, in the province of Ontario, Canada. A second reservation in Ca

in the Provinces of New

unity to introduce the Christian religion to the natives than

ade a creditable effort to acquire the native tongue and preach Christianity to the savages about him. He translated t

steps in this direction. Such was not the case. I have not found the record of any one of them who s

instruction to the Indians. But the Meeting took no steps in this direction. He himself, when in the colony in 1701, made some attempts to address them on religious subjects, as did also Frie

rovince.[217] His labors extended over four years, and were productive of some permanent good results among the New Jersey Indians, and this in spite of the suspicions, opposition and evil example

," a few who had been converted, among others the chief Moses Tatemy, petitioned the Council to remain on their lands, some of which were direct persona

us service in the church militant, had registered himself as destinirter Heidenbote-"appointed messenger to the heathen"-in the corner-stone of the Brethren's House, at Bethlehem; already the pious Rauch had collected a small but earnest congregation of Mohegans at She

id narrative of Bishop Edmund de Schweinitz, grouped around the marked individuality of the devoted Zeisberger-pages which none can read

ion that the Lenape would form a native Christian State, their ancient supremacy revived and applied to the dissemination of peace, piety and civilization among their fellow-tribes-this cherished hope of