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   Delaware

   Delaware Location Originally in 1600, the Delaware River Valley from Cape Henlopen, Delaware north to include the west side of the lower Hudson Valley in southern New York. The Delaware were not migratory and appear to have occupied their homeland for thousands of years before the coming of the Europeans. During the next three centuries, white settlement forced the Delaware to relocate at least twenty times. By 1900 they had lived in: Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oklahoma. However, a government plan to move some of the Delaware to Minnesota was never carried out.

Delaware seal

   In 1600 the Delaware may have numbered as many as 20,000, but several wars and at least 14 separate epidemics reduced their population to around 4,000 by 1700. By 1845 it had fallen to combined total of about 2,000 Delaware and Munsee in both the United States and Canada. Current Delaware population has recovered to almost 16,000, most of whom live in Oklahoma. Nearly 10,000 Delaware are in eastern Oklahoma and, until very recently, were considered part of the Cherokee Nation. After a long struggle with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), they regained federal recognition in September, 1996 as the Delaware Tribe of Indians with their tribal offices in Bartlesville. The other federally recognized group is the Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma. Sometimes called the Absentee Delaware, its 1,000 members are descendants of a Missouri-Texas splinter group, many of whom reside near of the tribal headquarters at Anadarko.

   Delaware is not a Native American name. Exploring the Atlantic coast north of Jamestown in 1610, Captain Samuel Argall discovered a large bay which he named in honor of Sir Thomas West, Third Lord de la Warr and the first governor of the Virginia. Apparently, Governor West was unimpressed with this honor and returned to England without ever bothering to gaze upon his namesake. However, the name stuck. English colonists later used Delaware for the bay, the river and the native peoples who lived there. The Delaware called themselves Lenape translated either as "original people" or "true men."

   Language: Algonquin with three dialects - Munsee, Unami, and Unalactigo. Munsee was distinct from the other two and apparently was more closely related to Mahican.

   Occupying the area between northern Delaware and New York, the Lenape were not really a single tribe in 1600 but a set of independent villages and bands. There was no central political authority, and Lenape sachems, at best, controlled only a few villages usually located along the same stream.

Delaware

   The Lenape have been described as a warm and hospitable people. Their natural instinct was to be accommodating and peaceful, but this masked a temper which, if provoked, could react with terrible violence. Unami and Unalactigo villages were generally not fortified, but because of their proximity to the Mohawk, the Munsee towns were. Villages were occupied during summer with populations of several hundred. There was no concept of individual land ownership, but Lenape separated to defined family hunting territories (sometimes community owned) in the winter. Three types of wigwams were used: round with dome roof, oblong with arched roof, and oblong with a ridge pole. Dugout canoes were used rather than the familiar birchbark variety from the Great Lakes. Men did the hunting and fishing, but most of the Lenape's diet came from farming which was solely the responsibility of the women. Corn, squash, beans, sweet potatoes, and tobacco were grown, and fields often covered more than 200 acres.

   Men removed all facial hair and the women often colored their faces with red ocre. Tattooing was common to both sexes. Older men wore their hair long, but warriors usually had a scalp lock greased to stand erect. Although this hairstyle is often called a "Mohawk," it was common to most of the eastern tribes. Lenape sachems wore only a single eagle feather and there was nothing that resembled the Sioux war bonnet. Clothing was made from deerskins, and decorated with shell beads or porcupine quills, feather mantels, and other ornaments. The Lenape used a lot of copper which they obtained from the western Great Lakes through trade. Hammered into ornaments, it was also fashioned into pipes and arrowheads. By 1750 the Lenape had become very stylish in their dress, favoring silver nose rings and clothing decorated with bright cloth purchased from European traders. There was no formal marriage ceremony, but the Lenape were usually monogamous.

   Religious ceremonies were centered around a dedicated "big house." Dreams were considered very significant, so Lenape priests were divided into two classes: those who interpreted dreams and divined the future; and those dedicated to healing. The dead were buried in shallow graves, but method varied considerably: flexed, extended, individually, and sometimes groups. The Lenape believed in a afterlife, but without the Christian concept of heaven and hell - a source of considerable frustration for Moravian missionaries. Lenape were reluctant to tell their real name, and the use of nicknames was very common. The real name of Captain Pipe, the head of the Delaware Wolf clan in 1775 was Konieschquanoheel "maker of daylight." His nickname, however, was Hopocan meaning "tobacco pipe" - hence his historical name of Captain Pipe.

   In 1979 the BIA terminated the separate tribal status of the Delaware and Shawnee living among Cherokee in eastern Oklahoma in favor of the Cherokee Nation. Following a legal battle covering almost 20 years, the Delaware, who were the first tribe to sign a treaty with the United States, have just been successful in reversing this decision and regaining federal recognition as a separate tribe, the Delaware Tribe of Indians.

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