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{{short description|Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect-multi|2|Delaware Indians|Delaware people|other American Indians from present-day Delaware|Category:Native American tribes in Delaware|individual people from the state of Delaware|List of people from Delaware}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
|group      = Lenape<br />Delaware people
|native_name= {{langx|del|Lënapeyok}}
|image      = Bandoleer Bag MET vs1999 484 12.jpg
|caption    = Lenape beaded bandolier bag at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
|population = {{circa}} 16,000
| total_ref = <ref name=p422>Pritzker 422</ref>
|region1    = [[Oklahoma]], U.S.
|pop1       = 11,195 (2010)
|ref1 = <ref>[http://www.ok.gov/oiac/Publications/ "Pocket Pictorial."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100406044653/http://www.ok.gov/oiac/Publications/|date=2010-04-06}} ''Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission.'' 2010: 13. Retrieved 10 June 2010.</ref>
|region2    = [[Wisconsin]], U.S.
|pop2       = 1,565
|ref2       = 
|region3    = [[Ontario]], Canada
|pop3       = 2,300
|ref3       =
|languages  = [[English language|English]], [[Munsee language|Munsee]], and [[Unami language|Unami]]<ref name=p422/> as a second language
|religions  = [[Christianity]], [[Native American Church]],<br />traditional tribal religion
|related    = Other [[Algonquian peoples]]
}}
{{Infobox ethnonym|person= Lënape<br/>{{in5}}([[Munsee|Monsi]] /<br/>{{in5}}[[Unami people|Wënami]]) |people= Lënapeyok<br/>{{in5}}([[Munsee|Monsiyok]] /<br/>{{in5}}[[Unami people|Wënamiyok]]) |language=[[Delaware languages|Lënapei èlixsuwakàn]]<br/>{{in5}}([[Munsee language|Monsii èlixsuwakàn]] /<br/>{{in5}}[[Unami language|Wënami èlixsuwakàn]]) |country= [[Lenapehoking|Lënapehòkink]]<br/>{{in5}}([[Munseehoking|Monsihòkink]] /<br/>{{in5}}[[Unamihoking|Wënamihòkink]])}}
[[File:Lenape01.jpg|thumb|Two [[Delaware Nation]] citizens, Jennie Bobb and her daughter Nellie Longhat, in [[Oklahoma]], in 1915<ref>[http://www.allaboutshoes.ca/en/paths_across/art_on_prairies/index_4.php "Art on the Prairies: Delaware"], ''All About the Shoes.'' Retrieved 19 July 2011.</ref>]]
The '''Lenape''' ({{IPAc-en|lang|l|ə|ˈ|n|ɑː|p|i}}, {{IPAc-en|-|p|eɪ}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɛ|n|ə|p|i}};<ref>{{cite web|title=Definition of Lenape|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Lenape|website=Merriam Webster|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190813041752/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Lenape|archive-date=August 13, 2019|access-date=July 6, 2017}}</ref><ref>"[https://www.dictionary.com/browse/lenape Lenape]". Dictionary.com. 2023.</ref> {{IPA|del|lənaːpe|label= [[Lenape languages]]:}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Delaware Indians |url=https://www.talk-lenape.org/detail?id=3901 |website=Lenape Talking Dictionary |publisher=Delaware Tribe of Indians |access-date=24 February 2023}}</ref>), also called the '''Lenni Lenape'''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zeisberger |first1=David |title=Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians |date=1827 |publisher=James Kay |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-0-404-15803-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02VkAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> and '''Delaware''' people,<ref name="AmHeritageBk">{{cite book|last=William|first=Brandon|url=https://archive.org/details/americanheritage00bran|title=The American Heritage Book of Indians|publisher=American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.|year=1961|editor=Alvin M.|editor-first=Josephy Jr. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanheritage00bran/page/180 180–211]|lccn=61-14871|url-access=registration}}</ref> are an [[Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands|Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands]], who live in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]].<ref name=p422/>

The Lenape's historical territory included present-day northeastern [[Delaware]], all of [[New Jersey]], the eastern [[Pennsylvania]] regions of the [[Lehigh Valley]] and [[Northeastern Pennsylvania]], and [[New York Bay]], western [[Long Island]], and the lower [[Hudson Valley]] in [[New York (state)|New York state]].<ref name="description" group="notes" /> Today communities are based in [[Oklahoma]], [[Wisconsin]], and [[Ontario]].

During the last decades of the 18th century, [[European colonization of the Americas|European settlers]] and the effects of the [[American Revolutionary War]] displaced most Lenape from their homelands<ref name=josephy/> and pushed them north and west. In the 1860s, under the [[Indian removal]] policy, the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. federal government]] relocated most Lenape remaining in the [[Eastern United States]] to the [[Indian Territory]] and surrounding regions. 

[[Federally recognized]] Lenape tribes are the [[Delaware Nation]] and [[Delaware Tribe of Indians]] in [[Oklahoma]], and the [[Stockbridge–Munsee Community]] in [[Wisconsin]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Newland |first1=Bryan |title=Notice Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs |journal=Federal Register |date=8 January 2024 |volume=89 FR 944 |url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/01/08/2024-00109/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of |access-date=12 July 2025}}</ref> Lenape in Canada are the [[Munsee-Delaware Nation]], [[Delaware Nation at Moraviantown|Moravian of the Thames First Nation]], and the [[Delaware First Nation]] of the [[Six Nations of the Grand River]] in [[Ontario]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Southern First Nations Secretariat |url=https://fnp-ppn.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/fnp/Main/Search/TCMain.aspx?TC_NUMBER=1084 |website=Tribal Council Detail |publisher=Government of Cananda |access-date=12 July 2025}}</ref>

==Name==
The name '''Lenni Lenape''' originates from two autonyms, ''{{Lang|del|Lenni}}'', which means "genuine, pure, real, original", and ''{{Lang|one|Lenape}}'', meaning "real person" or "original person".<ref>[https://www.etymonline.com/word/Lenape#etymonline_v_6680 "Online Etymology Dictionary."] Retrieved October 10, 2019.</ref> ''{{Lang|del|Lënu}}'' may be translated as "man".<ref name=talking>[http://www.talk-lenape.org/search.php?q=man&ls=english&x=0&y=0 "Lenape Talking Dictionary."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203010003/http://www.talk-lenape.org/search.php?q=man&ls=english&x=0&y=0 |date=2013-12-03 }} ''[[Delaware Tribe of Indians]].'' Retrieved December 2, 2013.</ref>  Adam DePaul, the Storykeeper of the [[Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania]], calls the name "an anglicized grammatical error that basically translates as the 'original people people.'" While acknowledging that some Lenape do identify as Lenni Lenape or Delaware, DePaul says "the best word to use when referring to us is simply 'Lenape.'"<ref>{{cite web |title=The Lenape and the Land |url=https://schuylkillcenter.org/the-lenape-and-the-land/ |website=schuylkillcenter.org |publisher=The Schuylkill Center |access-date=27 September 2024 |date=1 November 2021}}</ref>

When first encountered by European settlers, the Lenape were a loose association of closely related peoples who spoke similar languages and shared familial bonds in an area known as [[Lenapehoking]],<ref name=n10>Newman 10</ref> the Lenape historical territory, which spanned what is now eastern [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Lower New York Bay]], and eastern [[Delaware]].

The tribe's common name ''Delaware'' comes from the [[French language]]. English colonists named the [[Delaware River]] for the first governor of the [[Province of Virginia]], [[Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr|Lord De La Warr]]. The [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] colonists began to call the Lenape the Delaware Indians because of where they lived.

[[Sweden|Swedish]] colonists also settled in the area, and [[Swedish language|Swedish]] sources called the Lenape the ''Renappi''.<ref>Goddard 235</ref>

== Historical homelands==
[[Image:Lenape Languages.png|250px|thumb|The Lenape territory, known as [[Lenapehoking]], as of the 16th and 17th centuries, with speakers of [[Munsee]] (north), [[Unalachtigo]] (center), and [[Unami language|Unami]] (south). Inset: The location of the region in the present-day [[United States]].<ref name="n10"/><ref>Fariello, Leonardo A. [http://www.whippanong.org/hanover.html "A Place Called Whippany"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727143055/http://www.whippanong.org/hanover.html |date=July 27, 2013 }}, ''Whippanong Library,'' 2000 (retrieved July 19, 2011)</ref><ref>Kraft, ''The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage,''{{page needed|date=December 2013}}</ref>]]
{{Main|Lenapehoking}}
[[File:Lenapehoking.png|thumb|A map of [[Lenapehoking]], comprising present-day [[New Jersey]], southern [[New York (state)|New York]], and eastern [[Pennsylvania]], where many Lenape confederations were based in the 16th and 17th centuries]]
The historical Lenape country, [[Lenapehoking]] (''Lënapehòkink''), was a large territory that encompassed the [[Delaware Valley|Delaware]] and [[Lehigh Valley]] regions of eastern Pennsylvania and [[New Jersey]] from the north bank of the [[Lehigh River]] along the west bank of the [[Delaware River]] into [[Delaware]] and the [[Delaware Bay]]. Their lands also extended west from western [[Long Island]] and [[New York Bay]], across the [[Lower Hudson Valley]] in [[New York (state)|New York]] to the lower [[Catskills]] and a sliver of the upper edge of the [[North Branch Susquehanna River]]. On the west side, the Lenape lived in several small towns along the rivers and streams that fed the waterways, and likely shared the hunting territory of the [[Schuylkill River]] [[Drainage basin|watershed]] with the rival [[Iroquoian Peoples|Iroquoian]] [[Susquehannock]].<ref name="AmHeritageBk" />

Today, the Munsee-Delaware Nation has its own [[Indian reserve]], [[Munsee-Delaware Nation|Munsee-Delaware Nation 1]], in southwest [[Ontario]]. The Delaware Nation at Moraviantown has a small, {{Convert|13|sqmi|adj=on}} reserve in [[Chatham-Kent]], Ontario. The Delaware of Six Nations shares the [[Glebe Farm 40B]] in [[Brantford, Ontario]], and [[Six Nations Indian Reserve No. 40]], shared with six [[Haudenosaunee]] peoples in Ontario.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community has a {{Convert|22139|acre|km2|adj=on}} [[Indian reservation]] in Wisconsin, with {{Convert|16255|acre|km2}} held in federal trust.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians |url=https://dpi.wi.gov/amind/tribalnationswi/mohican |website=Wisconsin Department of Public Education |date=September 5, 2017 |access-date=9 August 2023}}</ref> The Delaware Nation has a [[tribal jurisdictional area]] in [[Caddo County, Oklahoma]], that they share with the [[Caddo Nation]] and [[Wichita and Affiliated Tribes]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Delaware Nation |url=https://spthb.org/about-us/who-we-serve/delaware-nation/ |website=Southern Plains Tribal Health Board |date=April 10, 2017 |access-date=9 August 2023}}</ref>

==Languages==
The [[Unami language|Unami]] and [[Munsee language]]s belong to the Eastern [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian language group]] and are largely [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]]. [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] missionary [[John Heckewelder]] wrote that Munsee and Unami "came out of one parent language."<ref>Heckewelder ''The History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and Neighboring States'', 52</ref> As of 2023, only a few Delaware First Nation elders in [[Delaware Nation at Moraviantown|Moraviantown, Ontario]], fluently speak Munsee.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lunaape (Munsee-Delaware)|url=https://www.cbc.ca/originalvoices/language/lunaape/#:~:text=The%20Munsee%2DDelaware%20language%2C%20also,Delaware%20Nation%20near%20London%2C%20Ont. |access-date=24 February 2023 |work=CBC Indigenous |agency=Original Voices}}</ref>

[[William Penn]], who first met the Lenape in 1682, said the Unami used the following words: "mother" was ''{{Lang|unm|anna}}'', "brother" was ''{{Lang|unm|isseemus}}'' and "friend" was ''{{Lang|unm|netap}}''. He instructed his fellow English colonists: "If one asks them for anything they have not, they will answer, ''{{Lang|unm|mattá ne hattá}}'', which to translate is, 'not I have,' instead of 'I have not'."<ref>Myers, ''William Penn's Own Account of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians'', 23–24</ref>

The Lenape languages were once exclusively spoken languages. In 2002, the Delaware Tribe of Indians received grant money to fund ''The Lenape Talking Dictionary'', preserving and digitizing the Southern Unami dialect.<ref>{{cite web|date=2021|title=About Us|url=https://www.talk-lenape.org/about-us|access-date=25 October 2021|website=LENAPE TALKING DICTIONARY By English WORD or PHRASE}}</ref>

==Society==
{{see also|Lenape mythology}}

=== Clans and kinship systems===
[[File:Susie Elkhair-Deleware Tribe of Indians-(Lenape).jpg|thumb|upright|Susie Elkhair ([[Delaware Tribe of Indians]], 1845–1925), wearing a [[ribbonwork]] shawl and Delaware dress with medallions in [[Oklahoma]]]]
At the time of European settlement in [[North America]], a Lenape would have identified primarily with their immediate family and clan, friends, and village unit and, after that, with surrounding and familiar village units followed by more distant neighbors who spoke the same dialect, and finally, with those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually comprehensible languages, including the [[Nanticoke people]] who lived to their south and west in present western [[Delaware]] and [[Eastern Shore of Maryland|eastern Maryland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Northeast Indian Social Organization |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Northeast-Indian/Social-organization |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>

Among many [[Algonquian peoples]] along the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]], the Lenape were considered the grandfathers from whom other [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]]-speaking peoples originated.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

The Lenape had three clans at the end of the 17th century, each of which historically had twelve sub-clans.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carman |first1=Alan E. |title=Footprints in Time: A History and Ethnology of The Lenape-Delaware Indian Culture |date=September 16, 2013 |publisher=Trafford |isbn=978-1-4669-0742-3 |pages=88–90}}</ref> The three primary Lenape clans are: Wolf (Tùkwsit),<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.talk-lenape.org/results?query=wolf+clan |title = The Lenape Talking Dictionary {{pipe}} Search Results of "wolf clan" English to Lenape}}</ref> Turtle (Pùkuwànku),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://talk-lenape.org/detail?id=8924 |title = The Lenape Talking Dictionary {{pipe}} Detailed Entry View: Turtle clan}}</ref> and Turkey (Pële).<ref>{{cite web | url=http://talk-lenape.org/detail?id=8399 |title = The Lenape Talking Dictionary {{pipe}} Detailed Entry View – Fowl (Turkey) clan of the Lenape}}</ref> The Lenape clan system is [[matrilineality|matrilineal]], and historically they were a [[matrilocal residence|matrilocal]] society, that is, husbands moved into their wife's homes.<ref name="michael">{{cite web |last1=Michael |first1=Nicky Kay |title=Lenape Women in a Transitional Culture |url=https://openresearch.okstate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/88634e21-a596-4e98-aaea-662824393f5e/content |website=Open Research Oklahoma |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=4 December 2024 |pages=35–36 |date=1999}}</ref> Children belong to their mother's clan, from which they gain social status and identity.<ref name="michael"/> Within a marriage itself, men and women had relatively separate and equal rights, each controlling their own property and debts, showing further signs of a woman's power in the hierarchical structure.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Caffrey|first=Margaret M.|date=2000|title=Complementary Power: Men and Women of the Lenni Lenape|journal=American Indian Quarterly|volume=24|issue=1|pages=44–63|jstor=1185990|issn=0095-182X}}</ref>

=== Hunting, fishing, and farming ===
Lenape practiced [[companion planting]], in which women cultivated many varieties of the [[Three Sisters (agriculture)|Three Sisters]]: maize, beans, and squash. Men hunted, fished, and otherwise harvested [[seafood]]. In the 17th century, the Lenape practiced [[slash and burn]] agriculture. They used fire to manage land.<ref>Stevenson W. Fletcher, ''Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life 1640–1840'' (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1950), 2, 35–37, 63–65, 124.</ref><ref>Day, Gordon M. "The Indian as an Ecological Factor in the Northeastern Forests." ''Ecology'', Vol. 34, #2 (April 1953): 329–346. ''New England and New York Areas 1580–1800''.</ref><ref>Emily W.B. Russell, [https://www.proquest.com/openview/b4c71929d95a63cf36ee7fb0cc215c85/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y ''Vegetational Change in Northern New Jersey Since 1500 A.D.: A Palynological, Vegetational and Historical Synthesis''], Ph.D. dissertation (New Brunswick, PA: Rutgers University, 1979).</ref><ref>Russell, Emily W.B. "Indian Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States." ''Ecology'', Vol. 64, no. 1 (Feb. 1983): 78, 88.</ref><ref>''A Brief Description of New York, Formerly Called New Netherlands with the Places Thereunto Adjoining, Likewise a Brief Relation of the Customs of the Indians There,'' New York, NY: William Gowans. 1670. Reprinted in 1937 by the Facsimile Text Society, Columbia University Press, New York.</ref><ref>Smithsonian Institution—Handbook of North American Indians series: ''Handbook of North American Indians,'' Volume 15—Northeast. Bruce G. Trigger (volume editor). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 1978 References to Indian burning for the Eastern Algonquians, Virginia Algonquians, Northern Iroquois, Huron, Mahican, and Delaware Tribes and peoples.</ref> Controlled use of fire extended farmlands' productivity. According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape planted their primary crop, [[maize]], in March.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Munsee-Speaking Lenape Indians |url=https://blogs.shu.edu/mvdh/people/the-munsee-speaking-lenape-indians/ |website=The Watering Place}}</ref> Over time, the Lenape adapted to European methods of hunting and farming with metal tools.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Krykew |first=Sarah |date=July 15, 2016 |title=Lenni Lenape Methods of Gardening and Food Preparation |url=https://chaddsfordhistorical.wordpress.com/2016/07/15/lenni-lenape-methods-of-gardening-and-food-preparation/ |website=Chadds Ford Historical Society}}</ref>

The men limited their agricultural labor to clearing the field and breaking the soil. They primarily hunted and fished during the rest of the year: from September to January and from June to July, they mainly hunted deer, but from the month of January to the spring planting in May, they hunted anything from bears and beavers to raccoons and foxes.<ref name=":0" /> Dutch settler [[David Pietersz. de Vries|David de Vries]], who stayed in the area from 1634 to 1644, described a Lenape hunt in the valley of the ''Achinigeu-hach'' (or Ackingsah-sack, the [[Hackensack River]]), in which 100 or more men stood in a line many paces from each other, beating thigh bones on their palms to drive animals to the river, where they could be killed easily.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lenni Lenape Indian Tribe |url=https://www.comanchelodge.com/nations/delaware-tribe.html |website=Comanche Lodge}}</ref> Other methods of hunting included [[lasso]]ing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting the brush on fire. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area,<ref>Mark Kurlansky, 2006 {{page needed|date=December 2013}}</ref> and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round.<ref>Dreibelbis, 1978 , page 33</ref> One technique used while fishing was to add ground [[chestnuts]] to stream water to make fish dizzy and easier to catch.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Keoke |first1=Emory Dean |title=Food, Farming and Hunting |page=103}}</ref>

The success of these methods allowed the tribe to maintain a larger population than other, [[nomadic]] [[hunter-gatherer]] peoples in North America at the time, could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, around much of the current [[New York City]] area alone, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape in approximately 80 settlement sites.<ref>Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, 1999, p.5</ref> In 1524, Lenape in canoes met [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]], the first European explorer to enter [[New York Harbor]].

European settlers and traders from the 17th-century colonies of [[New Netherland]] and [[New Sweden]] traded with the Lenape for agricultural products, mainly maize, in exchange for iron tools. The Lenape also arranged contacts between the ''Minquas'' or ''Susquehannocks'' and the [[Dutch West India Company]] and [[Swedish South Company]] to promote the [[North American fur trade|fur trade]]. The Lenape were major producers of labor-intensive ''[[wampum]]'', or shell beads, which they traditionally used for ritual purposes and as ornaments. After the Dutch arrival, they began to exchange wampum for beaver furs provided by [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]]-speaking [[Susquehannock]] and other Minquas. They exchanged these furs for Dutch and, from the late 1630s, also Swedish imports. Relations between some Lenape and Minqua polities briefly turned sour in the late 1620s and early 1630s, but were relatively peaceful most of the time.<ref>{{Cite thesis |degree=Ph.D. |title=Cultural exchange, imperialist violence, and pious missions: Local perspectives from Tanjavur and Lenape country, 1720–1760 |last=Utz |first=Axel |year=2011 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University |pages=140–147|id={{ProQuest|902171220}} }}</ref>

=== Clothing and adornment ===
The early European settlers, especially the Dutch and Swedes, were surprised at the Lenape's skill in fashioning clothing from natural materials. In hot weather men and women wore only loin cloth and skirt respectively, while they used beaver pelts or bear skins to serve as winter mantles. Additionally, both sexes might wear [[Buckskin (leather)|buckskin]] leggings and moccasins in cold weather.<ref name=":1">Weslager, '' The Delaware Indians: A History'', 54</ref> Women would wear their hair long, usually below the hip, while men kept only a small "round crest, of about 2 inches in diameter". Deer hair, dyed a deep scarlet, as well as plumes of feathers, were favorite components of headdresses and breast ornaments for males.<ref>Kraft, ''The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage,'' 237–240</ref><ref name=":0" /> The Lenape also adorned themselves with various ornaments made of stone, shell, animal teeth, and claws. The women often wore headbands of dyed deer hair or wampum. They painted their skin skirts or decorated them with porcupine quills. These skirts were so elaborately appointed that, when seen from a distance, they reminded Dutch settlers of fine European lace.<ref>Kraft, ''The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage,'' 239</ref> The winter cloaks of the women were striking, fashioned from the iridescent body feathers of wild turkeys.<ref name=":1" />

=== Leisure ===
Lenni Lenape play the game of ''pahsaheman'': a football-like hybrid, split on gender lines. More than a hundred players were grouped into gendered teams (male and female) to try getting a ball through the other team's goal posts. Men could not carry and pass the ball, only use their feet, while the women could carry, pass, or kick.<ref name=":0" /> If the ball was picked up by a woman, she could not be tackled by the men, although men could attempt to dislodge the ball. Women were free to tackle the men.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://delawaretribe.org/blog/2013/06/27/pahsahman-the-lenape-indian-football-game/|title=Official Site of the Delaware Tribe of Indians » Pahsahëman — The Lenape Indian Football Game|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-24}}</ref>

Another common activity was that of dance, and yet again, gender differences appear: men would dance and leap loudly, often with bear claw accessories, while women, wearing little thimbles or bells, would dance more modestly, stepping "one foot after the other slightly forwards then backwards, yet so as to advance gradually".<ref name=":0" />

===Ethnobotany===
Lenape [[herbal medicine|herbalists]], who have been primarily women, use their extensive knowledge of plant life to help heal their community's ailments, sometimes through ceremony. The Lenape found uses in trees like [[Juglans nigra|black walnut]], which were used to cure ringworm, and with [[persimmon]]s which were used to cure ear problems.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hill|first=George|date=2015|title=DELAWARE ETHNOBOTANY|url=http://delawaretribe.org/wp-content/uploads/DEL-ETHNOBOTANY-Hill.pdf|website=Delawaretribe.org}}</ref>

The Lenape carry the nuts of ''[[Aesculus glabra]]'' in the pocket for [[rheumatism]], and an infusion of ground nuts mixed with sweet oil or mutton tallow for earaches. They also grind the nuts and use them to poison fish in streams.<ref>Tantaquidgeon, Gladys, 1972, Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians, Harrisburg. Pennsylvania Historical Commission Anthropological Papers #3, page 30</ref> They also apply a poultice of pulverized nuts with sweet oil for earache.<ref>Tantaquidgeon, Gladys, 1942, A Study of Delaware Indian Medicine Practice and Folk Beliefs, Harrisburg. Pennsylvania Historical Commission, page 25, 74</ref>

==History==

===European contact===
The first recorded European contact with people presumed to have been the Lenape was in 1524. The [[Age of Discovery|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 [[European colonization of the Americas|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 [[Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands|Northeastern Woodlands]].<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite book |last=Trigger |first=Bruce C. |author-link=Bruce Trigger |title=Handbook of North American Indians |editor=Sturtevant, William C. |year=1978 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington, DC|title-link=Handbook of North American Indians }}</ref> Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Lenape roughly encompassed the area around and between the [[Delaware River|Delaware]] and lower [[Hudson River|Hudson]] rivers, and included the western part of [[Long Island]] in present-day New York.<ref name="ReferenceA">[[Paul Otto (historian)|Paul Otto]], 179 "Intercultural Relations Between Native Americans and Europeans in New Netherland and New York" in ''Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations,''SUNY Press, 2009</ref> Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"<ref>see Mari Minato research on Lenape tribe http://www.mariminato.com/en/insitu/2016/lenapes_4.php#main-info</ref>), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify the Lenape people that lived there.

===17th century===
[[Image:Treaty of Penn with Indians by Benjamin West.jpg|thumb|[[William Penn]]'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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carpenter|first=Roger M.|title=From Indian Women to English Children: The Lenni-Lenape and the Attempt to Create a New Diplomatic Identity|date=2007|journal=Pennsylvania History|volume=74|issue=1|pages=1–20|doi=10.2307/pennhistory.74.1.0001|jstor=27778759|s2cid=160131350|issn=0031-4528|doi-access=free}}</ref> 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).<ref name="macleod">William Christie MacLeod. "[https://archive.org/stream/nsamericananthro24ameruoft#page/460/mode/2up The Family Hunting Territory and Lenape Political Organization]," ''[[American Anthropologist]]'' 24.</ref> 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, New Netherland|Pavonia]] in present-day [[Jersey City, New Jersey|Jersey City]] along the Hudson. The Dutch finally established a garrison at [[Bergen, New Netherlands|Bergen]], which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province of [[New Netherland]]. This land was purchased from the Lenape after the fact.<ref name="macleod"/>

[[New Amsterdam]] was founded in 1624 by the Dutch in what would later become [[New York City]]. Dutch settlers also founded a colony at present-day [[Lewes, Delaware]], on June 3, 1631, and named it ''[[Zwaanendael Colony|Zwaanendael]]'' (Swan Valley).<ref name="COLONIAL DELAWARE">Munroe, John A.: ''Colonial Delaware: A History'': [[Millwood, New York]]: KTO Press; 1978; pp. 9–12</ref> 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]].<ref>Cook, Albert Myers. ''Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware 1630–1707''. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912, p. 9</ref> 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.<ref name=Otto>[[Paul Otto (historian)|Otto, Paul]], 91 ''The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley''. New York: Berghahn Press, 2006.</ref>

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,<ref name="AmHeritageBk"/> while rival [[Iroquoian]] peoples in the north and west such as the [[Susquehannock]]s and [[Haudenosaunee]] became comparatively well-armed.<ref name="AmHeritageBk"/> They defeated the Lenape, and some scholars believe that the Lenape may have become [[Tributary state|tributaries]] to the Susquehannock.<ref>Jennings (2000), p. 117</ref> 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<ref>Goddard 213–216</ref> but it is conceivable that some had been considerably larger prior to close contact, given the wars between the Susquehannock and the Iroquois,<ref name=josephy>Josephy 188–189</ref> 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.<ref name=josephy/> In 1648, the [[Axion band]] of Lenape were the largest tribe on the Delaware River, with 200 warriors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ricky |first1=Donald B. |title=Indians of Maryland |date=1999 |publisher=Somerset |location=St. Clair Shoes, MI |isbn=9780403098774 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=88z94nv6rlwC}}</ref>

[[Epidemics]] of newly introduced European [[infectious diseases]], such as [[smallpox]], measles, cholera, influenza, and dysentery,<ref name="DeanSnow">{{cite journal |last1=Snow |first1=Dean R. |year=1996 |title=Mohawk demography and the effects of exogenous epidemics on American Indian populations |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=160–182 |doi=10.1006/jaar.1996.0006}}</ref> reduced the populations of Lenape. They and other Native peoples had no natural [[immunity (medical)|immunity]]. Recurrent violent conflicts with Europeans also devastated Lenape populations.

In 1682, [[William Penn]] and [[Quaker]] colonists created the English [[Province of Pennsylvania|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.<ref>Spady, "[https://www.academia.edu/479943/_Colonialism_and_the_Discursive_Antecedents_of_Penns_Treaty_with_the_Indians_in_William_A._Pencak_and_Daniel_K._Richter_eds._From_Native_America_to_Penns_Woods_Colonists_Indians_and_the_Racial_Construction_of_Pennsylvania_State_College_Pennsylvania_State_University_Press_2004_18-40 Colonialism and the Discursive Antecedents of Penn's Treaty with the Indians]," 18–40</ref>

===18th century===
{{Further|Lappawinsoe|Treaty of Easton|Walking Purchase}}
[[File:Gustavus Hesselius-Lapowinsa (larger).jpg|thumb|upright|Lenape chief [[Lappawinsoe]] 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".<ref name="Harper"/> In the end, all Lenape who still lived on the Delaware were driven off the remnants of their homeland under threats of violence. Some Lenape polities eventually retaliated by attacking [[Pennsylvania]] settlements. When they resisted European colonial expansion at the height of the [[French and Indian War]], British colonial authorities investigated the causes of Lenape resentment. The British asked [[Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet|Sir William Johnson]], Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to lead the investigation. Johnson had become wealthy as a trader and acquired thousands of acres of land in the [[Mohawk River]] region from the Iroquois Mohawk of New York.<ref name="Harper">{{cite book |last1=Harper |first1=Steven Craig |title=Promised Land: Penn's Holy Experiment, the Walking Purchase, and the dispossession of Delawares, 1600–1763 |year=2006 |location=Bethlehem, PA |publisher=Lehigh University Press}}</ref>

In 1757, an organization known as the New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians wrote a constitution to [[Forced displacement|expel]] native Munsee Lenape from their settlements in the area of present-day [[Washington Valley Historic District|Washington Valley]] in [[Morris County, New Jersey]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: New Jersey Association for helping the Indians records {{!}} Archives & Manuscripts |url=https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/hcmc-975-09-019 |access-date=2022-04-21 |website=archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu}}</ref> Led by Reverend John Brainerd, colonists [[Forced displacement|forcefully relocated]] 200 people to Indian Mills, then known as [[Indian Mills, New Jersey|Brotherton]], an industrial town with gristills and sawmills,<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last1=Barbara |first1=Hoskins |title=Washington Valley, an informal history |last2=Foster |first2=Caroline |last3=Roberts |first3=Dorothea |last4=Foster |first4=Gladys |date=1960 |publisher=Edward Brothers |oclc=28817174}}</ref> that was the first Native American reservation in [[New Jersey]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=The Brotherton Indians of New Jersey, 1780 {{!}} Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |url=https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/brotherton-indians-new-jersey-1780 |access-date=2022-04-21 |website=www.gilderlehrman.org}}</ref> Reverend John Brainerd abandoned the reservation in 1777.<ref name=":2" />{{Clarify|date=April 2022}}

In 1758, the [[Treaty of Easton]] was signed between the Lenape and European colonists. In it, the Lenape were required to move westward out of present-day [[New York (state)|New York]] and New Jersey, progressing into Pennsylvania and then to present-day [[Ohio]] and beyond.<ref>Keenan, ''Encyclopedia of American Indian Wars, 1492–1890,'' 1999, p. 234; Moore, ''The Northwest Under Three Flags, 1635–1796,'' 1900, p. 151.</ref> 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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}}

Beginning in the 18th century, the [[Moravian Church]] established missions in Lenape settlements.<ref>Gray, Elma. ''Wilderness Christians: Moravian Missions to the Delaware Indians''. Ithaca. 1956 {{page needed|date=December 2013}}</ref> The Moravians required the Christian [[Conversion to Christianity|converts]] to share Moravian [[pacifism]] and live in a structured and European-style mission village.<ref>{{cite book|last=Olmstead|first=Earl P.|title=Blackcoats among the Delaware: David Zeisberger on the Ohio frontier|location=Kent, Ohio|publisher=Kent State University Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-87338-434-6}}{{page needed|date=December 2013}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The History of the Kansas Munsee... |url=https://www.kansasmunsee.org/summary |website=The Kansas Munsee |access-date=July 10, 2023 |archive-date=December 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241216090846/https://www.kansasmunsee.org/summary |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Other Lenape initially sided with [[Kingdom of France|France]], since they hoped to prevent further European colonial encroachment in their settlements. Their chiefs [[Teedyuscung]] in the east and [[Tamaqua (Lenape chief)|Tamaqua]] near present-day [[Pittsburgh]] shifted to building alliances with [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] colonial authorities. Lenape leader [[Bemino|Killbuck]] (''also'' Bemino) assisted the British against the French and their Indian allies. In 1761, Killbuck led a British supply train from [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|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.<ref name=s118>Schutt, (2007), p.118</ref> 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.<ref>Schutt, (2007), p. 119</ref> Many Lenape joined in [[Pontiac's War]] and were among the Native Americans who besieged present-day Pittsburgh that same year.<ref name=s118/>

==== American Revolutionary War ====
{{anchor|Ohio: 1750s to 1812 (American Revolution and War of 1812)}}
{{main|Brodhead's Coshocton expedition|Gnadenhutten massacre|Western theater of the American Revolutionary War|Northern theater of the American Revolutionary War after Saratoga}}

During the early 1770s, missionaries, including [[David Zeisberger]] and [[John Heckewelder]], arrived in the Ohio Country near the Lenape villages. The [[Moravian Church]] sent these men to convert the [[Native Americans in the United States|Indigenous peoples]] to Christianity. They established several missions, including ''Gnadenhutten'', ''Lichtenau'', and ''Schoenbrunn''. The missionaries pressured Indigenous people to [[Civilizing mission|abandon their traditional customs]], beliefs, and ways of life, and to replace them with European and Christian ways. Many Lenape did adopt Christianity, but others refused to do so. The Lenape became a divided people during the 1770s, including in [[Bemino|Killbuck's]] family. Killbuck resented his grandfather for allowing the Moravians to remain in the Ohio country. The Moravians believed in pacifism, and Killbuck believed that every convert to the Moravians deprived the Lenape of a warrior to stop further white settlement of their land.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}}

In the beginning of the [[American Revolutionary War]], Killbuck and many Lenape claimed to be neutral. Other neighboring Indian communities, particularly the [[Wyandotte people|Wyandot]], the [[Mingo]], the [[Shawnee]], and the [[Munsee|Wolf Clan of the Lenape]], favored the British. They believed that by the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], restricting Anglo-American settlement to east of the Appalachian Mountains, the British would help them preserve a [[Indian barrier state|Native American territory]].

As the American Revolutionary War intensified, the Lenape in present-day [[Ohio]] were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in the war. When the war began, Killbuck found the Lenape caught between the British and their Indian allies in the West and the Americans in the East. The Lenape settled many smaller villages around their main village of ''[[Coshocton, Ohio|Coshocton]]'',<ref>{{ws|[[William Dean Howells]], "[[s:Three Villages/3 Gnadenhütten|Gnadenhütten]]," ''[[s:Three Villages|Three Villages]]'', Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1884}}, accessed 19 Mar 2010</ref> between the western frontier strongholds of the British and the Patriots. The Americans had [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|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]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Detroit |url=https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fort_Detroit |access-date=6 Jul 2023 |website=Ohio History Central}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Pitt |url=https://www.phmc.pa.gov:443/Museums/Military-History/Pages/Fort-Pitt.aspx |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission |language=en-US}}</ref>

Some Lenape fought against the American settlers and moved west, closer to Detroit, where they settled on the [[Scioto River|Scioto]] and [[Sandusky River|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 [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]]. The Americans agreed and built [[Fort Laurens]], which they garrisoned.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Our History |url=https://www.fortlaurensmuseum.org/ourhistory.html |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=Fort Laurens Museum |language=en}}</ref> 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 Munsee]]s, lived in several mission villages run by [[Moravian Church|Moravian missionaries]]. Like the other bands, they also spoke the [[Munsee]] branch of Lenape, an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] language.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History |url=https://www.kansasmunsee.org/mission-1 |website=The Kansas Munsee |access-date=July 10, 2023 |archive-date=March 6, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250306085850/https://www.kansasmunsee.org/mission-1 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

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.<ref name=":3" />

[[White Eyes]], the Lenape chief who had negotiated the Fort Pitt treaty, died in 1778. Subsequently, many Lenape at Coshocton eventually joined the war against the Americans. In response, American military officer [[Daniel Brodhead]] led an expedition out of Fort Pitt and on April 20, Brodhead and his men, including some U.S.-aligned Lenape, raided and destroyed the pacifist [[Christian Munsee|Moravian Christian Lenape]] settlement of ''Indaochaic'' also known as [[Lichtenau, Ohio|Lichtenau]]. Then the troop, aided by Lenape chief [[Gelelemend]], traveled to the nearby village of ''Goschachgunk,'' now known as [[Coshocton, Ohio]]. He divided his men into three regiments and laid their village to waste. On the first night, 16 warriors were captured, taken south of the village, and slaughtered; another 20 were killed in battle, and 20 civilians were taken prisoner. Surviving residents fled to the north. Colonel Brodhead convinced the militia to leave the Lenape at the remaining Moravian mission villages unmolested, since they were unarmed non-combatants.<ref name="Misencik2020">{{cite book |last1=Misencik |first1=Paul R. |last2=Misencik |first2=Sally E. |title=American Indians of the Ohio Country in the 18th Century |date=9 January 2020 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-7997-6 |page=107 |language=English}}</ref>

====Late 18th century treaties====
In 1780, [[Munsee language|Munsee-speaking]] Lenape [[community leader]]s native to the [[Washington Valley Historic District|Washington Valley]] that had been [[Forced displacement|forcibly displaced]] to [[Indian Mills, New Jersey|Brotherton]], wrote a "community treaty"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Micty |first=Joseph |date=6 January 1780 |title=Statement opposing white settlement on Indian land in Brotherton, New Jersey |url=https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/T-00540.01.pdf |website=The Gilder Lehrman Collection}}</ref><ref name=":2" /><ref>The Brotherton Indians' agreement to oppose white settlement, January 6, 1780. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/content-images/00540.01p1.web_.jpg</ref> to oppose selling any more land to white settlers:{{Blockquote|text=Be it known by this, that it has been in our consideration of late about settling of White People on the Indian Lands, And we have concluded that it is a thing which ought not to be, & a thing that will not be allowed by us, that of Renting or giving Leases for said Lands, hereafter, no, not by the proprietors themselves without the consent of the rest much more by those who has no Claim or Rite here ... 
We have come upon those resolutions we hope for our better living in friendship among one another, it may be that there is some which does not like white people for their Neighbours, for fear of their not agreeing as they ought to do. it might be about there children or about something they have about them we know not what, Again it may be the white Man may do something either upon Land, Timber or something else which some one of the proprietors would not like & from thence would come great deal of Disquietness, & many other ways which may plainly be seen into, by those that have any sense or reason—
 We are exceeding glad when we see we are like to live in Quietness among one another without giving any offence to one another, & this of keeping white people from among us will be a great step towards it, & for this reason we intend to stand by or rather stand Hand in hand against any coming on the Indian Lands.|author=Joseph Micty, Bartholomew Calvin, Jacob Skekit, Robert Skikkit, Derrick Quaquiuse, Benjamin Nicholus, Mary Calvin, Hezekiah Calvin}}

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 reserve]]s 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 [[Moravian 47, Ontario|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 [[Ohio River|river Ohio]], eastward of the [[Mississippi River|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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Treaty With The Wyandot, Etc., 1795 |url=https://treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-wyandot-etc-1795-0039 |website=Oklahoma State University Libraries Tribal Treaties Database}}</ref>

In 1796, the [[Oneida people|Oneidas]] of [[Stockbridge, New York|New Stockbridge]] invited the Munsee Lenape to their [[Indian reservation|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 [[New Jersey|Jersey]]".<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Brotherton statement of refusal to leave New Jersey |url=https://www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/glc0054002 |access-date=2022-04-21 |website=Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History}}</ref> The Munsee later agreed to relocate to New Stockbridge to join the Oneidas.<ref name=":04" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=New Stockbridge Tribe |url=https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/ctx/orgography/org0139.ocp.html |access-date=2022-04-21 |website=collections.dartmouth.edu}}</ref> A few households stayed behind to assimilate into New Jersey.<ref name=":2" />

===19th century===
In the early 19th century the amateur [[anthropologist]] [[Silas Wood]] published a book claiming that there were several American Indian tribes that were distinct to [[Long Island]], New York. He collectively called them the [[Metoac]]. Wood (and earlier settlers) often misinterpreted the Indian use of place names for [[Autonym (onomastics)|autonyms]]. Modern scientific scholarship has shown that in fact two linguistic groups representing two distinct [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] cultural identities lived on the island, not "13 individual tribes" as asserted by Wood. The bands to the west were Lenape. Those to the east were more related culturally to the Algonquian tribes of [[New England]] across Long Island Sound, such as the [[Pequot]].<ref>Strong, John A. ''Algonquian Peoples of Long Island'' Heart of the Lakes Publishing (March 1997). {{ISBN|978-1-55787-148-0}}</ref><ref>Bragdon, Kathleen. ''The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast,''Columbia University Press (2002). {{ISBN|978-0-231-11452-3}}.</ref> 

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 Historic District|Washington Valley]] who had moved to [[Stockbridge, New York|Stockbridge]] were [[Forced displacement|forcefully displaced]] by [[Settler colonialism|white colonists]] again, over 900 miles' travel away,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Green Bay to Stockbridge |url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Green+Bay,+Wisconsin/Stockbridge,+New+York+13409/@43.3606129,-90.8071141,5z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x8802e2e809b380f3:0x6370045214dcf571!2m2!1d-88.0132958!2d44.5133188!1m5!1m1!1s0x89d97bcac1f887a9:0x2d831a6e0698039!2m2!1d-75.5993462!2d42.9911796!3e0 |access-date=2022-04-21 |website=Green Bay to Stockbridge |language=en}}</ref> to [[Green Bay, Wisconsin]].<ref name=":04" />

==== Indiana to Missouri ====
By the ''[[Treaty of St. Mary's]]'', signed October 3, 1818, in [[St. Mary's, Ohio]], the Lenape ceded their lands in Indiana for lands west of the Mississippi and an annuity of $4,000. Over the next few years, the Lenape settled on the [[James River (Missouri)|James River]] in Missouri near its confluence with [[Wilsons Creek (Missouri)|Wilsons Creek]], occupying eventually about {{convert|40000|acre|km2}} of the approximately {{convert|2000000|acre|km2}} allotted to them.<ref>[http://delawaretown.missouristate.edu/removal.html "Removal Era"], accessed September 8, 2010</ref> [[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.<ref>[http://delawaretown.missouristate.edu/delaware.html "Delaware Town"], Missouri State University, accessed September 8, 2010</ref>

====Role in western history====
Many Lenape participated in the exploration of the western United States, working as trappers with the [[Mountain man|mountain men]], and as guides and hunters for wagon trains. They served as [[U.S. Army Indian Scouts|army guides and scouts]] in events such as the [[Second Seminole War]], [[John C. Frémont|Frémont's]] expeditions, and the [[conquest of California]] during the [[Mexican–American War]].<ref>Weslager, ''The Delaware Indians'', pp. 375, 378–380</ref><ref>Sides, Hampton, ''Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West'', Doubleday (2006), pp. 77–80, 94, 101, hardcover, 462 pages, {{ISBN|978-0-385-50777-6}}</ref><ref>Page lv of the introduction by Frank McNitt, [[James H. Simpson|Simpson, James H]], edited and annotated by Frank McNitt, foreword by Durwood Ball, ''Navaho Expedition: Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Navaho Country, Made in 1849'', University of Oklahoma Press (1964), trade paperback (2003), 296 pages, {{ISBN|0-8061-3570-0}}</ref> Occasionally, they played surprising roles as Indian allies.<ref>Sides, ''Blood and Thunder'', p. 181</ref>

[[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]].<ref>William E. Connelley. ''[https://archive.org/stream/standardhistoryo00conn#page/250/mode/2up/search/scalp+dances A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans]'', Vol. I. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1918, p. 250.</ref>

====Texas====

=====Spanish Texas=====
{{main|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 of the South|Red River]] and [[Sabine River (Texas–Louisiana)|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.<ref name="Lipscomb">Carol A. Lipscomb, "DELAWARE INDIANS," ''[[Handbook of Texas Online]]'' [https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bmd08], accessed July 8, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.</ref>

=====Mexican Texas=====
{{main|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 [[Acculturation|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.<ref name="Lipscomb"/>

=====Texas Republic=====

The Lenape remained friendly after Texas won its independence. [[Republic of Texas]] President [[Sam Houston]] favored a policy of peaceful relations with all tribes. He sought the services of the friendly Lenape, and in 1837, enlisted several Lenape to protect the frontier from hostile western tribes. Lenape scouts joined with Texas Rangers as they patrolled the western frontier. Houston also tried to get the Lenape land claims recognized, but his efforts were met only by opposition.

The next Texan President, Mirabeau B. Lamar, completely opposed all Indians. He considered them illegal intruders who threatened the settlers' safety and lands and issued an order for their removal from Texas. The Lenape were sent north of the Red River into Indian Territory, although a few scattered Lenape remained in Texas.

In 1841, Houston was reelected to a second term as president and his peaceful Indian policy was then reinstated. A [[Treaty of Bird's Fort|treaty]] with the remaining Lenape and a few other tribes was negotiated in 1843 at [[Bird's Fort, Texas|Fort Bird]] and the Lenape were enlisted to help him make peace with the [[Comanche]]. Lenape scouts and their families were allowed to settle along the Brazos and Bosque rivers in order to influence the Comanche to come to the Texas government for a peace conference. The plan was successful and the Lenape helped bring the Comanches to a treaty council in 1844.<ref name="Lipscomb"/>

=====State of Texas=====

In 1845, the Republic of [[Texas]] agreed to annexation by the US to become an American state. The Lenape continued their peaceful policy with the Americans and served as interpreters, scouts, and diplomats for the US Army and the [[Indian Bureau]]. In 1847, [[John Meusebach]] was assisted by Jim Shaw (a Lenape), in settling the German communities in the [[Texas Hill Country]]. For the remainder of his life, Shaw worked as a military scout in West Texas. In 1848, John Conner (Lenape) guided the [[Chihuahua-El Paso Expedition]] and was granted a league of land by a special act of the Texas legislature in 1853. The expeditions of the map maker Randolph B. Marcy through West Texas in 1849, 1852, and 1854 were guided by [[Black Beaver]] (Lenape).

In 1854, despite the history of peaceful relations, the last of the Texas Lenape were moved by the American government to the [[Brazos Indian Reservation]] near [[Graham, Texas]]. In 1859 the US forced the remaining Lenape to remove from Texas to a location on the [[Washita River]] in the vicinity of present [[Anadarko, Oklahoma]].<ref name="Lipscomb"/>

====Kansas reservation====
[[File:DelawareFarmKansas.jpg|thumb|A Lenape farm on a Delaware Indian Reservation in [[Kansas]] in 1867]]
Under the terms of the Treaty of the James Fork that was signed on September 24, 1829, and ratified by the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] in 1830, the Lenape were forced to move further west. They were granted lands in [[Indian Territory]] in exchange for lands on the James Fork of the [[White River (Arkansas)|White River]] in Missouri. These lands, in what is now Kansas, were west of the Missouri and north of the [[Kansas River]]. The main reserve consisted of about {{convert|1000000|acre|km2}} with an additional "outlet" strip {{convert|10|mi|km}} wide extending to the west.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/icc/v09/iccv09p346.pdf|title=9 Indian Claims Commission 346|website=okstate.edu|access-date=14 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234553/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/icc/v09/iccv09p346.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/icc/v12/iccv12ap404.pdf|title=12 Indian Claims Commission 404|website=okstate.edu|access-date=14 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233428/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/icc/v12/iccv12ap404.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>

In 1854, the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]], which created the [[Kansas Territory|Territory of Kansas]] and opened the area for white settlement. It also authorized negotiation with Indian tribes regarding [[Indian removal|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.<ref>Pages 401 to 409. Weslager, ''The Delaware Indians''</ref>

====Oklahoma====
The main body of Lenape arrived in [[Indian Territory]] in the 1860s.<ref name=east>Helen M. Stiefmiller, [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entryname=DELAWARE%E2%80%93EASTERN "Delaware, Eastern."], Oklahoma Historical Society, accessed May 6, 2017</ref> 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]].<ref name=ok>[http://www.newsok.com/delaware-tribe-regains-federal-recognition/article/3390312 "Delaware Tribe regains federal recognition"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319160656/http://www.newsok.com/delaware-tribe-regains-federal-recognition/article/3390312 |date=March 19, 2016 }} ''NewsOk.'' 4 Aug 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2009.</ref>

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. <!-- The Lenape fought the act in the courts but lost, and in 18?? (date? if this is in response to Curtis Act, it can't be 1867) the courts ruled that the Lenape had only purchased rights to the land in Oklahoma for the lifetimes of the owners. --> After the lands were allotted in 160-acre (650,000&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup>) 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stiefmiller |first=Helen M. |title=Delaware, Eastern. |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=DE011 |website=Oklahoma Historical Society}}</ref>

===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.<ref>[http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/plains/52660432.html "Delaware Tribe of Indians' federal recognition restored"], ''Indian Country Today.'' 7 Aug 2009 (retrieved 11 August 2009)</ref> 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.<ref name=ok/>

In September 2000, the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma received {{Convert|11.5|acre}} of land in [[Thornbury Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20000919&id=tNtRAAAAIBAJ&pg=4789,6286829&hl=en|title=Delaware Indians may use land donated by couple as burial ground|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |agency=Associated Press |date=September 19, 2000 |page=B-10 |access-date=April 14, 2018}}</ref>

In 2004, the [[Delaware Nation]] filed suit against Pennsylvania in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]], seeking to reclaim {{convert|315|acre|km2}} 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, Northampton County, Pennsylvania|Forks Township]] in [[Northampton County, Pennsylvania|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."<ref>{{cite court |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-3rd-circuit/1177750.html|litigants=The Delaware Nation v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 250 |court=United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit |access-date=April 14, 2018}}</ref>

Not every Lenape now lives in Oklahoma. Many live in the Northeast, and some Munsee Lenape are applying for state recognition.<ref name=":02">{{cite web|last=Cooper|first=Kenny|date=30 July 2021|title='We Just Want to be Welcomed Back': The Lenape Seek a Return Home|url=https://whyy.org/articles/we-just-want-to-be-welcomed-back-the-lenape-seek-a-return-home/|access-date=30 October 2021}}</ref>

==Contemporary tribes and organizations==
=== U.S. federally recognized tribes ===
Three Lenape tribes are [[Federally recognized tribe|federally recognized]] in the United States:
* [[Delaware Nation]] in [[Anadarko, Oklahoma]]<ref name="ncai_d">{{cite web|title=Tribal Directory: D|url=http://www.ncai.org/tribal-directory?letter=D|publisher=National Congress of American Indians|access-date=December 28, 2017}}</ref>
* [[Delaware Tribe of Indians]] in [[Bartlesville, Oklahoma]]<ref name=ncai_d/>
* [[Stockbridge-Munsee Community]] in [[Bowler, Wisconsin]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Tribal Directory|url=http://www.ncai.org/tribal-directory?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keyword=Stockbridge&submit=Search|publisher=National Congress of American Indians|access-date=December 28, 2017}}</ref>

===Canadian First Nations===
The Lenape who fled [[United States]] in the late 18th century settled in what is now [[Ontario]]. Canada recognizes three Lenape [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] with four [[Indian reserve]]s. Each is located in [[Southwestern Ontario]]:
*[[Munsee-Delaware Nation]], Canadian reserve near [[St. Thomas, Ontario]]
*[[Moravian 47, Ontario|Moravian of the Thames First Nation]], Canadian reserve near [[Chatham-Kent]]
*[[Delaware of Six Nations]] (at [[Six Nations of the Grand River]]), two Canadian reserves near [[Brantford, Ontario]]<ref name="dtoi">{{cite web|title=Removal History of the Delaware Tribe|url=http://delawaretribe.org/services-and-programs/historic-preservation/removal-history-of-the-delaware-tribe/|website=Delaware Tribe of Indians|access-date=28 December 2017}}</ref>

===State-recognized and unrecognized groups===
{{Seealso|Delaware Moors}}
Four groups who claim descent from Lenape people are [[state-recognized tribe]]s:
* [[Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware]] in [[Delaware]]<ref name="ncai">{{cite web |title=Tribal Directory: Lenape |url=http://www.ncai.org/tribal-directory?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keyword=Lenape&submit=Search |website=National Congress of American Indians |access-date=July 14, 2018}}</ref>
* [[Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape|Nanticoke-Lenni Lenape Tribal Nation]] in [[New Jersey]]<ref name=ncai/>
* [[Ramapough Lenape Nation]] in [[New Jersey]]<ref name=ncai/>
* [[Powhatan Renape Nation]] in [[New Jersey]]

More than a dozen organizations in [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania|url=https://www.lenape-nation.org/|access-date=2021-04-14|website=lenapenationofpa|language=en}}</ref> [[Virginia]], and elsewhere claim descent from Lenape people and are [[unrecognized tribes]]. Organizations in Pennsylvania, [[Idaho]], and [[Kansas]] have petitioned the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. federal government]] for recognition.<ref name=":02"/><ref>[http://500nations.com/tribes/Tribes_Petitions.asp "Petitions for Federal Recognition."] ''500 Nations.'' Retrieved January 20, 2012.</ref> One of these includes the [[Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania]] based in [[Easton, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania Cultural Center |url=https://sigalmuseum.org/?post_type=sigal-event&p=915 |website=Sigal Museum |access-date=22 February 2023}}</ref>

==Notable historical Lenape people==
This includes only Lenape documented in history. Contemporary notable Lenape people are listed in the articles for the appropriate tribe.
<!-- Do not add living people to this list -->

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Richard C. Adams]] (1864–1921), Lenape author of collections of traditional narratives, legal advocate for Lenape in Washington, D.C.
* [[Black Beaver]] (1806–1880), trapper, trader and scout; first inductee into the American Indian Hall of Fame
* [[Buckongahelas]] (c. 1720–1805), Wolf clan war leader
* [[Custaloga]] (died after 1775), Wolf clan leader 
* [[Nora Thompson Dean]] ([[Delaware Tribe of Indians]], 1907–1984), linguist
* [[Hannah Freeman]] (1731–1802), purportedly the last surviving Lenape in Chester County, Pennsylvania
* [[Charles Journeycake]] (1817–1894), chief of the Wolf clan from 1855 and principal chief from 1861; visited Washington, D.C., 24 times on his tribe's behalf<ref>S. H. Mitchell (1895) {{page needed|date=December 2013}}</ref>
*Kikthawenund ([[Chief William Anderson]]) (c. 1740 or 1750 – 1831), chief of the Turkey clan and signatory of the [[Treaty of Greenville]] and the [[Treaty of St. Mary's]]
*Sachem [[Gelelemend|Killbuck (Gelelemend)]], Turtle clan leader<ref>[http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=226 Killbuck, Ohio History Central.] July 1, 2005</ref>
* [[Captain Jacobs]] (died 1756), war chief
* [[Neolin]] (18th century), Lenape prophet
* [[Chief Newcomer]] ([[Netawatwees]], c. 1686–1776), founder the village of Gekelmukpechunk ([[Newcomerstown]]), Ohio in the 1760s
* [[Oratam]] (16th century), sachem of the [[Hackensack (Native Americans)|Hackensack]]
* [[Captain Pipe]] (Hopocan), (c. 1725–c. 1818), 18th century chief and member of the Wolf Clan
* [[Pisquetomen]] (died 1762), chief who assisted [[Christian Frederick Post]] in negotiating the [[Treaty of Easton]] in 1758
* [[Sassoonan]] or Allumapees (c. 1675–1747), 18th century chief and member of the Turtle clan
* [[Shingas]] (fl. 1740–1763), Turkey clan war leader
* [[Tamanend]] (c. 1625–c. 1701), leader reported to have negotiated treaty with [[William Penn]], and for whom [[Tammany Hall]] was named
* [[Tamaqua (Lenape chief)|Tamaqua]] (died c. 1770), chief who led peace negotiations following [[Pontiac's War]] for whom [[Tamaqua, Pennsylvania]] is named
* [[Teedyuscung]] (1700–1763), leader of the eastern Lenape
* [[Turtleheart]], chief and warrior who represented the Lenape at the [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix]] in 1768 
* [[White Eyes]] (c. 1730–1778), Turtle clan peace chief who negotiated the [[Treaty of Fort Pitt]]
{{div col end}}

==See also==
{{portal|Delaware}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Burial Ridge]]
* [[Esopus people]]
* [[Hell Town, Ohio]] (Lenape settlement in Ohio)
* [[Lenape mythology]]
* [[Lenape settlements]]
* [[Mohicans]]
* [[Munsee]]
* [[Native American tribes in Maryland]]
* [[Okehocking people]]
* [[Ramapough Mountain Indians]]
* [[Shamokin (village)|Shamokin]]
* [[Unalachtigo Lenape]]
* [[Walking Purchase]]
* [[Wappinger]]
{{div col end}}

==Commentary==
{{more citations needed|section|date=March 2021}}
{{reflist|group=notes|refs=
<ref name="description" group="notes">The Lenape's historic territories inside the divides of the frequently mountainous [[landforms]] flanking the [[Delaware River]]'s [[drainage basin]] include (from south to north and then counter-clockwise):
* The [[Delaware River]] shores from the river's eastern mouth and the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic sea coast]] to western [[Long Island]], including both [[New Amsterdam|colonial New York City]] and [[New Sweden|colonial New Jersey]]; 
* Portions of [[Western Connecticut]] up to present-day [[Massachusetts]];
* Regions west of there from [[Albany, New York]] to the [[Susquehanna River]] side of the [[Catskills]];
* Regions south of there through the eastern [[Pocono Mountains|Poconos]] outside the rival [[Susquehannock]] lands through the present-day [[Lehigh Valley]] of [[Province of Pennsylvania|colonial Pennsylvania]], south through [[Philadelphia]] west of the [[Delaware River]], and further south along a stretch of [[East Coast of the United States|Atlantic sea coast]] in northern [[Delaware Colony|colonial Delaware]].

The Susquehanna-Delaware watershed divides bound the frequently contested hunting grounds between the rival [[Susquehannock]] peoples and the Lenape peoples, and the Catskills and [[Berkshires]] served as a similar boundary in the northern regions during the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial era]].</ref>
}}
{{Notelist}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

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* Weslager, C.A. ''Delaware's Forgotten Folk: The Story of the Moors and Nanticokes''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-8122-1983-8}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''Delaware's Forgotten River: The Story of the Christina''. Hambleton Company, 1947. {{ASIN|B0006D8AEO}}.
* Weslager, C.A., and A. R. Dunlap. ''Dutch Explorers, Traders And Settlers In The Delaware Valley, 1609–1664''. Literary Licensing, LLC, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-258-17789-8}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''Magic Medicines of the Indians''. Signet, 1974. {{ASIN|B001VIUW08}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''New Sweden on the Delaware'' (Middle Atlantic Press, 1988). {{ISBN|0-912608-65-X}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''Red Men on the Brandywine'' (New and Enlarged Edition). Hambleton Company, 1953. {{ASIN|B00EHSFKEC}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''The Delaware Indians: A History.'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1972. {{ISBN|0-8135-0702-2}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''The Delaware Indian Westward Migration: With the Texts of Two Manuscripts, 1821–22, Responding to General Lewis Cass's Inquiries about Lenape Culture and Language''. Middle Atlantic Press, 1978. {{ISBN|978-0-912608-06-8}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''The English on the Delaware: 1610–1682''. Rutgers University Press, 1967. {{ISBN|978-0-8135-0548-0}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''The Nanticoke Indians: A Refugee Tribal Group of Pennsylvania.'' Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1948. {{ASIN|B0007ED7Z4}}.
* Weslager, C.A. ''The Swedes and Dutch at New Castle.'' Middle Atlantic Press, 1990. {{ISBN|978-0-912608-50-1}}.
* Zeisberger, David. ''A Lenâpé-English Dictionary: From An Anonymous [Manuscript] In The Archives Of The Moravian Church At Bethlehem, [Pennsylvania].'' Nabu Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-278-79951-3}}.
* Zeisberger, David. ''David Zeisberger's History of Northern American Indians'' (Classic Reprint). Forgotten Books, 2012. {{ASIN|B008HTRBDK}}.
* Zeisberger, David. ''Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians''. Forgotten Books, 2012. {{ASIN|B008LQRNGO}}.
* Zeisberger, David. ''The Diary of David Zeisberger: A Moravian Missionary Among the Ohio Indians, Volume 1''. Ulan Press, 2012. {{ASIN|B00A6PBD82}}.
* Zeisberger, David. ''The Diary of David Zeisberger: A Moravian Missionary Among the Ohio Indians, Volume 2''. Ulan Press, 2012. {{ASIN|B009L4SVN4}}.
* Zeisberger, David. ''Zeisberger's Indian Dictionary: English, German, Iroquois—The Onondaga and Algonquin—The Delaware''. Harvard University Press, 1887. {{ISBN|1-104-25351-8}}. "The Delaware" that Zeisberger translated was Munsee, and not Unami.

==Further reading==
* Adams, Richard Calmit, ''The Delaware Indians, a brief history'', Hope Farm Press (Saugerties, NY 1995) [originally published by Government Printing Office, (Washington, DC 1909)]
* Bierhorst, John. ''The White Deer and Other Stories Told by the Lenape''. New York: W. Morrow, 1995. {{ISBN|0-688-12900-5}}
* Brown, James W. and Rita T. Kohn, eds. [http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=57170 ''Long Journey Home''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100808084834/http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=57170 |date=August 8, 2010 }} {{ISBN|978-0-253-34968-2}}. Indiana University Press (2007).
* Champagne, Duane (1988). "The Delaware Revitalization Movement of the Early 1760s: A Suggested Reinterpretation." ''American Indian Quarterly'' 12 (2): 107–126.
* {{cite book |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-4062-9 |oclc=317361732 |volume=262 |last=Grumet |first=Robert Steven |title=The Munsee Indians: a history |location=Norman |series=Civilization of the American Indian |year=2009}}
* Kraft, Herbert: ''The Lenape: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography.'' New Jersey Historical Society, 1987. {{ISBN|978-0-911020-14-4}}.
* Kraft, Herbert. ''The Lenape or Delaware Indians: The Original People of New Jersey, Southeastern New York State, Eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and parts of western Connecticut''. Lenape Books, 1996. {{ISBN|978-0-935137-01-9}}.
* O'Meara, John, ''Delaware-English / English-Delaware dictionary'', Toronto: University of Toronto Press (1996) {{ISBN|0-8020-0670-1}}.
* [[Paul Otto (historian)|Otto, Paul]], ''The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley'' (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006). {{ISBN|1-57181-672-0}}
* Pritchard, Evan T., ''Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York.'' Council Oak Books: San Francisco, 2002, 2007. {{ISBN|1-57178-107-2}}.
* Richter, Conrad, ''The Light In The Forest.'' New York: 1953.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Lenape}}
{{EB1911 poster|Delaware Indians|Lenape}}

* [https://www.delawarenation-nsn.gov/ Delaware Nation], official website
* [https://delawaretribe.org/ Delaware Tribe of Indians], official website
* [https://mohican.com/ Stockbridge-Munsee Community], official website
* [https://www.thelenapecenter.com/ Lenape Center] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015002957/https://www.thelenapecenter.com/ |date=October 15, 2018 }}
* [http://www.lenapeindiantribeofdelaware.com/ Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware], official website
* [https://www.lenape-nation.org/ Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania], official website
* [https://www.nlltribalnation.org/ Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation], official website
* [https://ramapomunsee.net/ Ramapo Munsee Lenape Nation], official website
* [https://www.museumofindianculture.org/ Museum of Indian Culture]
* [http://www.gilwell.com/lenape/index.htm Lenape/English dictionary]
* [http://www.talk-lenape.org/ Lenape (Southern Unami) Talking Dictionary]
* {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Delaware (tribe)|display=Delaware. One of the most important tribes of Algonquian stock |short=x}}

{{Native Americans in Ohio}}
{{Native American Tribes in Oklahoma}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenape}}
[[Category:Lenape| ]]
[[Category:Algonquian ethnonyms]]
[[Category:Eastern Algonquian peoples]]
[[Category:First Nations in Ontario]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands]]
[[Category:Native American history of Delaware]]
[[Category:Native American history of New Jersey]]
[[Category:Native American history of Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Delaware]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in New Jersey]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Indiana]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Ohio]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Texas]]
[[Category:Native American people in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:People from New Netherland]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in West Virginia]]