Title: The Lenni Lenape: or Delaware Indians
Author: Walker, Edwin Robert
Language: English
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  THE LENNI LENAPE
  OR DELAWARE INDIANS


  BY
  EDWIN ROBERT WALKER
  CHANCELLOR OF NEW JERSEY


  SOMERVILLE, NEW JERSEY
  THE UNIONIST-GAZETTE ASSOCIATION, PRINTERS
  1917


  One hundred copies reprinted from the
  October, 1917, number of the
  “Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society”



The Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians

 AN ADDRESS BY EDWIN ROBERT WALKER BEFORE THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL
 SOCIETY AT NEWARK, OCTOBER 31ST, 1917.


In commencing this address I shall take the liberty of paraphrasing the
opening of Sir Walter Scott’s charming novel “Ivanhoe,” and say:

In that pleasant district of North America formerly known as Nova
Caesarea or New Jersey, and latterly as New Jersey, there extended in
ancient times a large forest covering the greater part of the beautiful
hills and plains which lie between the Atlantic Ocean and the river
Delaware. The remains of this extensive wood are to be seen at this day
in the deciduous trees of the northern and the ever verdant pines of
the southern section of our state. Here haunted of yore the stag and
the doe, here were fought several of the most desperate battles of the
War of the Revolution, and here also flourished in ancient times those
bands of roving savages whose deeds have been rendered so popular in
American story.

These aborigines are familiarly known to us as the Delaware Indians.
They were known to themselves as the Lenni Lenape. I shall call them
indifferently “Lenape” and “Delawares.”

The name bestowed upon New Jersey by the Indians was “Shéjachbi,”
(pronounced as if spelled “Shá-ak-bee.”) They claimed the whole area
comprising New Jersey. Their great chief Teedyescung stated at the
conference at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1757, that their lands reached
eastward from river to sea.

When I was a boy I presumed that the word “Delaware” was an Indian
name, evolved by the savages themselves and by them bestowed upon the
river and bay. I was well grown up before I learned that the word was
originally three words “De La Warr,” and that it was the name of an
ancient English family ennobled in the time of Edward II, who reigned
from 1307 to 1327. The particular scion of that ancient house for
whom the Delaware River and Bay and the State of Delaware were named,
was Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, born July 9, 1557. He succeeded his
father in the peerage in 1602 and interested himself in the plans
for the colonization of Virginia; became a member of the Council of
Virginia in 1609, and the next year was appointed governor and captain
general for life. He sailed for Virginia in March, 1610, arriving at
Jamestown in June following with additional emigrants and supplies,
just in time to forestall the abandonment of the colony. He returned to
England in 1611 and sailed again for Virginia in 1618, but died on the
voyage.

It was from the lordly title of this distinguished nobleman and
adventurer that we get our present name “Delaware.” It is undoubtedly
of Norman origin, that is, “De La Warr” is.

I cannot claim anything original for this address. Much has been
written about the Indians and I have read much of what has been
written. What follows has, of course, been drawn from the sources
of information in works upon the Indians to be found in most of the
extensive libraries.

The word Lenni Lenape is not pronounced as it is spelled,--that is, the
last word is not. That, phonetically, would be Len-apee, but it is to
be pronounced as though spelled Len-au- pay,--Lenâpé. The river known
to us as the Delaware they called the Lenape Wihittuck, meaning river
or stream of the Lenape.

The Lenape were divided into three sub-tribes, (1) the Minsi (2)
the Unami and (3) the Unalachtigo. “Minsi” means people of the stony
country, or mountaineers; “Unami,” the people down the river, and
“Unalachtigo,” people who live near the ocean. The three sub-tribes had
each its totemic animal from which it claimed a mystical descent. The
Minsi had the wolf, the Unami the turtle and the Unalachtigo the turkey.

Whence came the Indians? Rafinesque, in “The American Nations,” says
that the annals of the Lenni Lenape contain an account of creation,
telling of Kitanitowill, a God, the first and eternal being, who
caused the earth, water, sun, moon and stars. This legend also tells of
a bad spirit, Makimani, although the theory about an Indian satan seems
not to be accepted by some historians,--and it seems that such a being
was not believed in by the Lenape when the white men first went among
them.

These annals of the Lenni Lenape given by Rafinesque tell also of a
flood and the passage of the Indians and their settlement in America.
From whence they passed does not appear, and doubtless this mystery is
destined to remain forever unsolved.

In 1822 Rafinesque procured in Kentucky a record pictured on wood
giving some of the legends of the Lenape Indians. This record is
called the Walam Olum or Red Score. The original is not in existence
so far as is known, but a manuscript copy made by Rafinesque in 1833
is preserved. The first accurate reproduction of this, figures and
text, was published in 1885 in “The Lenape and their Legends,” with
complete text and symbols of the Walam Olum, by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton,
of Philadelphia.

Dr. Brinton thus summarizes the narrative of the Walam Olum:

“At some remote period the ancestors of the Lenape dwelt probably in
Labrador. They journeyed south and west to the St. Lawrence, near
Lake Ontario. Next they dwelt for some generations in the pine and
hemlock regions of New York, fighting often with the Snake people and
the Talega, agricultural nations, living in fortified towns in Ohio
and Indiana. They drove out the former but the latter remained in the
Upper Ohio and its branches. The Lenape, now settled on the streams
in Indiana, wished to remove to the East to join the Mohegans and
others of their kin who had moved there directly from northern New
York. So they united with the Hurons to drive out the Talega from the
Upper Ohio, which was not fully accomplished for many centuries, some
Cherokees lingering there as late as 1730.”

The Indians almost universally believed the dry land they knew to be a
part of a great island surrounded by waters whose limits were unknown
and beyond which was the home of the Light and Sun. The Delawares
believed that the whole was supported by a fabled turtle, whose
movements caused earthquakes, and who had been their first preserver;
their legend in that respect being as follows: Back in the far distant
past there was a great overflow of water, submerging the earth, and
but few people survived. They took refuge on the back of a turtle.
Presently a loon flew by, which they asked to dive and bring up the
land. Trying, but failing in the immediate vicinity, he tried afar off
and returned with a small quantity of earth in his bill. The turtle,
guided by the loon, swam to the place where the earth was found and the
survivors there settled and repeopled the land.

It will probably be a matter of some surprise to most of you to learn
that there is authority for believing that New Jersey was a wilderness,
uninhabited by human beings until the year 1396, when King Wolomenap
(Hollow Man) led his people into the Delaware Valley where they settled
and overran New Jersey.

The Reverend Mr. Beatty, in his mission from New York in 1766, to the
western Indians, received from a person whom he credited, the following
tradition, which he had from some old men among the Delaware tribe:
That of old time their people were divided by a river, and one part
tarried behind; that they knew not for a certainty how they first came
to this continent, but gave this account: that a king of their nation,
when they formerly lived far to the west, left his kingdom to his two
sons; that the one son making war upon the other, the latter thereupon
determined to depart, and seek some new habitation; accordingly he set
out accompanied by a number of people, and after wandering to and fro
for the space of forty years, they at length came to the Delaware where
they settled three hundred and seventy years before, that is, before
1766, which goes back to 1396. The way they kept account of this was by
putting a black bead of wampum every year on a belt which they used for
that purpose. Rafinesque gives a list of Lenape Kings and says their
annals tell of Wolomenap (Hollow Man), the 77th, and that he was king
at the falls of the Delaware (Trenton); the first one there, according
to the legend.

The earliest white travelers in this part of the country looked upon
the natives as simply savages and little different from the wild beasts
about them, and did not trouble themselves to study their institutions
or traditions, and that has been done in comparatively recent times.

The Indians found here by the first explorers and travelers were
splendid physical specimens, well built and strong, with broad
shoulders and small waists, dark eyes, white teeth, coarse black
hair, of which the men left but a single tuft on the top of the head
to accommodate an enemy’s scalping knife. There were few that were
crippled or deformed.

History tells us of at least one Indian who was not straight,--of
stature, I mean,--and that was Billy Bowlegs, a Seminole chief, who
fought in the Florida wars. But he was not a Jersey Indian.

The Indians had a habit of anointing their bodies with oil and the fat
of beasts and fishes which they claimed protected their skins from the
fierce rays of the summer sun and the penetrating cold of winter.

As they lived mainly by hunting and fishing, their habitations, which
were called “wigwams,” were temporary structures which could easily be
removed when occasion required. They generally slept on skin or leaves
spread on the bare ground, and some had crude board floors, which
inspired Roger Williams to indict these lines:

  “God gives them sleep on ground or straw,
  On sedge mats or on board,
  When English beds of softest down
  Sometimes no sleep afford.”

From these humble lodgings no one was ever turned away and the generous
hospitality of the Indians was noticed with admiration by travelers.
The Indian’s dinner generally consisted of meat and vegetables, cooked
in the same vessel, which was rarely, if ever, cleansed. His breakfast
generally consisted of maize, that is, Indian corn, pounded in a mortar
till crushed and then boiled. This was his ach-poan, whence comes the
name “corn-pone,” which we all know, and, I may say, all like. Their
thirst was quenched by drinking the broth of boiled meat, or by drafts
of pure water. They had no intoxicating liquors until the advent of
the white man. Their only stimulant was tobacco, which they smoked in
pipes manufactured by themselves. They had no cigars, and the festive
cigarette was entirely unknown to them, in fact was then unknown to
everybody.

The Lenape did not depend solely on the trophies of the chase for their
subsistence. They were, to a comparatively large extent, engaged in
agriculture and raised a variety of edible plants, corn, beans, sweet
potatoes and squashes, among them. A hardy variety of tobacco was also
cultivated.

The art of the potter was not unknown to the Delawares, and their
skill in bead work and feather mantles, and dressing animal skins,
excited admiration. Their weapons were mostly of stone, but there was
considerable native copper used for arrow heads, and also for pipes and
ornaments. They had paints and dyes made from vegetables and minerals
found in their neighborhood.

In making a canoe they would fell a tree by means of their stone axes
or by burning into the trunk at the base and would hollow out the trunk
by fire, or in later times, would make a framework and cover it with
bark and thus make a vessel large enough to carry a dozen or more men
and to bear a thousand pounds or more of freight, and yet it would be
so light that two or three men could carry it.

Although they were usually clad only in the skins of animals they had
learned to make a coarse cloth from the fiber of nettles and other
plants which they twisted and wove with their fingers. They made rope,
purses and bags in the same way, and had needles made of small bones
and wooden splints, with which they were quite dexterous. Like all
primitive people the Indians were very fond of ornaments and adorned
themselves with shells and beads and other articles skillfully and
decoratively fashioned by themselves. The white beads made by the
Indians were called “wampum” and the blue, purple or violet ones
“suckanhoch.” They were made of shells and other suitable materials.
Used first merely for ornamentation, this wampum came to be so much in
demand that it assumed the character of currency, and it was so used by
the white settlers as well as the Indians as neither had any other kind
of money. Some white men tried to make wampum but their crude product
was promptly rejected as counterfeit.

As the straight-limbed and erect Indians had no intoxicating liquors,
pimpled noses were not to be found among them. Nor did they use profane
language, so far as I have been able to learn. What a contrast between
them and some of their white brethren! The late W. Clark Russell, in
one of his inimitable sea stories, thus describes the English captain
of a vessel: “His face was purple with grog blossoms, his legs were
bent like the tines of a pitch-fork and he was charged to the throat
with a fo-castle vocabulary,” which is, as you may have heard, redolent
of profanity.

The Indians were never very numerous in New Jersey, at least not
after the advent of the white settlers. It has been estimated that
in 1648 there were in the various tribes about 2,000 warriors all
told, which would make a total population of about 8,000. After this
time they disappeared rapidly. In 1721 they were said to be few and
friendly,--the fewer the more friendly, doubtless.

Kalm, a Swedish traveler, who spent some time here in 1747, observed
that the disappearance of the native population was principally due to
two agencies,--smallpox and brandy. It will be remembered, I believe,
by everyone, that intoxicating liquors were sold to the Indians by
the whites even in defiance of colonial statutes forbidding it. The
practice of violating excise laws, which we have every reason to
believe still goes on, appears, therefore, to be of ancient origin and
to be founded upon considerable historic precedent.

The cupidity of the early settlers led them to sell liquor to the
Indians and countless evils ensued. One day in 1643, at Pavonia in
this state, an Indian who had become intoxicated through the Dutch
plying him with liquor, was asked if he could make good use of his
bow and arrow. For an answer he aimed at a Dutchman thatching a house
and shot him dead. An Englishman had been killed a few days before by
some Indians of the Achter Col village. The whites were exasperated
and demanded the surrender of the murderers, which was refused,
being contrary to Indian custom. Some of the whites trespassed on
the Indians’ cornfields, and when resisted shot three of the savages
dead. A war seemed imminent, and in alarm many of the Indians fled
for protection to the neighborhood of the Fort on Manhattan Island.
The Dutch took advantage of this opportunity, and on the night of
February 25, 1643, one party slaughtered their unsuspecting guests
on the Island, while another party came to Pavonia and attacked the
Indian village there, when the women and children were all asleep. The
ferocity displayed by the whites on this occasion was never exceeded
by the Indians. I will spare you any detailed account of the horrible
tragedy, and will only add that as the result of the night’s butchery
about eighty Indians were killed and thirty made prisoners. Eleven
tribes arose to avenge this cruel slaughter, but were no match for
the well-armed whites, and a thousand Indians were slain. Peace was
concluded at a conference, April 22, 1643, Oratamy, sachem of the
Indians living at Achinheshacky (Ach-in-hesk-acky), who declared
himself commissioned by the Indians, answering for them. Yet, more
trouble followed, but in 1645 another treaty was made between the
whites and the Indians, Oratamy making his mark thereto. In 1649 a
number of leading Indians made further propositions for a lasting
peace, the principal speaker being Pennekeck (the chief behind the
Col), in the neighborhood of Cummipaw,--probably a considerable village
of the Hackensacks. Chief Oratamy was present but said nothing.
However, his superiority was recognized by the gift of some tobacco and
a gun, while the members of the tribe received only small presents.

During the ten years from 1645 to 1655, there were occasional
encounters between Indians and whites, ten to fourteen of the latter
being killed in that period in the vicinity of New Amsterdam.

The whites were constantly encroaching on the natives everywhere, and
in the neighborhood of Pavonia a considerable settlement of Dutch had
grown up. The Indians became restive as they saw their lands slipping
away from them, and finally seem to have planned the extirpation of the
invaders. Very early on the morning of September 15, 1655, sixty-four
canoes, filled with five hundred armed Indians, landed on Manhattan
Island, and the warriors speedily scattered through the village. Many
altercations occurred between them and the Dutch during the day. Toward
evening they were joined by two hundred more Indians. Three Dutchmen
and as many Indians were killed. The Indians then crossed over to
Pavonia and to Staten Island, and in the course of three days destroyed
buildings and cattle, killed about fifty whites and carried off eighty
men, women and children into captivity. It was the last expiring effort
of the natives near New York to check the resistless advance of the
Swannekins, as they called the Dutch.

For a time the Indians believed they had the advantage, and proceeded
to profit by it with great shrewdness. They brought some of their
prisoners to Pavonia and treated with the whites for their ransom,
demanding cloth, powder, lead, wampum, knives, hatchets, pipes and
other supplies. Chief Pennekeck finally sent fourteen of his prisoners
over to the Dutch authorities and asked for powder and lead in
return; he got what he wanted and two Indian prisoners besides. The
negotiations continued, until Pennekeck had secured an ample supply of
ammunition, and the Dutch had received most of their people back again.
To the credit of the Indians it should be said that no complaint was
made of the treatment of their captives.

The authorities of New Netherlands were greatly disturbed by the brief
but destructive war just mentioned, and as a precaution against the
recurrence of such an event advised the erection of a block-house of
logs, in sight of the Indians, near Achinheshaky. Affairs seem to have
gone smoothly between the Dutch and the Hackensacks thereafter.

When the English conquered New Netherlands in 1664, they were careful
to cultivate the friendship of the Hackensack chief, and Governor
Philip Carteret wrote two letters in 1666 to Oraton, as he called him,
in relation to the proposed purchase of the site of Newark. The chief
was very old at this time and unable to travel from Hackensack to
Newark to attend the conference between the whites and the natives. And
so there passed from view that striking figure in the Indian history of
New Jersey. It is said that he was prudent and sagacious in council,
prompt, energetic and decisive in war, as the Dutch found to their cost
when they recklessly provoked him to vengeance.

The few glimpses we are afforded of this Indian chieftain clearly show
him to have been a notable man among men in his day, and that he was
recognized as such not only by the aborigines of New Jersey, but by
the Dutch rulers with whom he came in contact. Mr. Nelson says that
the name of such a man is surely worthy of commemoration, even two
centuries after his spirit has joined his kindred in the happy hunting
ground of his race. He was unaware, or had forgotten, that there is a
public hall in Newark called “Oraton Hall” in honor of the great chief.

The names, number and position of all the New Jersey tribes have not
been ascertained, but it is known that about 1650 the tribe occupying
the area around the Falls of the Delaware, quaintly written “ye ffalles
of ye De La Ware,” where Trenton now stands, was named “Sanhican.”
Their chief was Mosilian, who commanded about 200 braves at the falls.
An artificial stream of considerable beauty, parallelling the Delaware
River and running along the southwesterly boundary of the city, built
originally to supply water power to mills, but now disused for that
purpose, has been named Sanhican Creek.

The Sanhicans were noted for the manufacture of stone implements,
making beautiful lance and arrow heads of quartz and jasper. There are
several vocabularies of their dialect extant.

Each tribe had a sachem or head chief. After the death and burial of
one, the subordinate chiefs, called sagamores, met with the councillors
and people, the new sachem being agreed upon, they prepared the
speeches and necessary belts. They then marched to the town where the
candidate was and one of the chiefs declared him to be the sachem in
place of the deceased. The common chiefs were chosen for their personal
merit,--their bravery, wisdom or eloquence, and the office was not
hereditary. When one was elected a sachem or chief, his name was taken
from him and a new one bestowed at the time of his installation. He
could be deposed at any time by the council of his tribe and his office
was vacated by removal to another locality.

The council of each tribe was composed of the sachem and other chiefs,
experienced warriors or aged and respected heads of families, elected
by the tribe. The executive functions of the government were performed
by the sachems and chiefs, who were also members of the council, which
was legislature and court combined. Here matters concerning the welfare
of the tribe were discussed and offences against the good order of
the tribe were considered; crimes committed against individuals were
not regarded as sins, and they were settled between the persons and
families concerned, upon the principle _lex talionis_.

There are exceptions to all rules, and the rule of the Indians that
they would not revenge wrongs upon individuals but would leave their
kin to do so, seems sometimes to have been departed from, as will
appear from the following: In 1671 two Dutchmen were murdered on
Matinicunk (now Burlington) Island in the river Delaware, by Indians,
because Tashiowycan, whose sister was dead, said that he would requite
her by killing Christians, which he and another Indian proceeded to
do. This was reported to, and considered by, the whites in council,
who were informed that two sagamores of the nation of the murderers
promised their assistance to bring them in or have them knocked in the
head. This scheme of vengeance was carried out, and two Indians sent
by the sachems to take the murderers, came upon Tachiowycan’s wigwam in
the night and one of them shot him dead, and they carried his body to
New Castle where it was hung in chains. The other murderer, hearing the
shot, bolted into the woods and was never caught.

Each tribe had its totem, generally an animal, which was a sort of
heraldic device like the coat of arms of an armor-bearing family. Each
totem of the Lenape recognized a chieftain, a sachem. These were “peace
chiefs.” They could neither go to war themselves nor send or receive
the war belt. War was declared by the people at the instigation of
“war captains,” valorous “braves,” who had distinguished themselves by
personal prowess, and especially by success in forays against an enemy.

Every Indian boy was trained in the craft of field, wood and water.
They were early taught to use the bow and arrow, to fish with hook
and line,--hooks of bone and lines of hemp,--to spear fish with a
forked pole and to trap them by means of a brush net. As the boy grew
older he learned to wield the stone hatchet, known to the whites as a
“tommy- hawk.” He was now expected to distinguish himself in the hunt,
especially in the killing of deer, the noblest game of man,--white or
red.

We are told that the Indians were wonderful archers. Presumably most of
them were, and probably some of them were not. I suppose they had their
William Tells and Sir Walter Tyrrels.

We all remember the legend of William Tell’s great feat in archery
in 1307 when an Austrian bailiff demanded homage of him which Tell
refused, and for which he was sentenced to death, but was given the
chance of ransoming himself by shooting an apple from off his son’s
head at very long range, a feat which he triumphantly performed.

The misadventure of Sir Walter Tyrrel was, that on August 2d, in the
year 1100, William II, surnamed Rufus or the Red Rover (from the color
of his hair), was hunting in the New Forest accompanied by Sir Walter
Tyrrel, a French gentleman. A stag suddenly started up and Tyrrel let
fly at him an arrow which struck a tree, and, glancing off, hit the
King in the breast, killing him instantly. Sir Walter immediately put
spurs to his horse, gained the channel coast and embarked for France,
where he joined the Crusades as a voluntary penance for his involuntary
crime. There is a fine old English ballad commemorating this regicidal
tragedy, the refrain of which is: “Instead of a royal stag that day a
King of England fell.”

When a mere boy the Indian would be permitted to sit at the council
fire and hear discoursed, by the sages of his tribe, the affairs
of state. When old enough to go on the war-path he was taught the
war-whoop, _kowamo_, and how to hurl the war-club, and to use the
tomahawk.

The Indians were fairly accurate in the computation of time. The Lenape
did not have a fixed beginning to their year, but reckoned from one
seeding time to another, or from when the corn was ripe. They had a
word “grachtin” for year and counted their ages and the sequence of
events by yearly periods. The records of their people, preserving the
memory of events, myths and fables, were kept on marked sticks. At
first they were marked with fire, but latterly they were painted, the
colors as well as the figures having certain meanings.

The character of the Delawares was estimated very differently. The
missionaries were severe upon them. One said they were unspeakably
indolent and slothful, had little or no ambition, not one in a thousand
had the spirit of a man. Another spoke of their alleged bravery with
the utmost contempt, and characterized them as the most ordinary and
the vilest of savages. Yet, still another missionary wrote that he did
not believe that there were any people on the earth more attached to
their relatives and friends than were the Indians.

For more than forty years after the founding of Pennsylvania there was
not a murder of a settler committed by an Indian. And General William
H. Harrison wrote that a long and intimate knowledge of the Delawares,
in peace and war, as friends and enemies, had left upon his mind the
most favorable impressions of their character for bravery, generosity,
and fidelity to their engagements.

The religious beliefs of the Delawares resembled closely those of the
other Indian nations. They were the worship of Light, especially in
its concrete manifestations of fire and sun; of the four winds, as the
rain bringers; and of the Totemic animals. The idea of a bad spirit,
a devil, appears to have been wholly unknown to the Indians until
instilled into their minds by the whites, as already remarked. They had
a general belief in the soul or spiritual part of man. Their doctrine
was that after death the soul went South where it would enjoy a happy
life for a certain time and would then return and be born again into
the world.

An important class among the Indians were those who were by the whites
called “medicine men,” who were really the native priests. They were
of two schools, one devoting themselves to divination, the other to
healing. The title of the former among the Delawares was “powwow,”
meaning dreamer. They claimed the power of dreaming truthfully of the
future, and were the interpreters of the dreams of others. Of course
they were fakirs, though palpably so only to themselves and not at all
to their followers. The other school of the priestly class was called
“medeu,” meaning conjurer. Some of them professed great austerity of
life, had no fixed abode, exorcised sickness and officiated at funeral
rites.

When the white settlers first came to New Jersey the Lenape had not
reached the stage of progress where the office of priest had been
separated from that of physician. Nor was the “profession” at all
exclusive. Anyone was eligible to enter it. The Lenape were tolerant
of the religious beliefs of others, although some of the medicine men
tried to incite their dupes to massacre certain missionaries. The Grand
Council of the Delawares in 1775 decreed religious liberty.

When the missionaries came among the Indians these shrewd and able
medicine men, “powwow” and “medeu,” accustomed to practice upon the
credulity of the unsuspecting red-skin, foresaw that the new faith
would destroy their power and incidentally curtail their revenues, and
therefore they vigorously attacked the gospel teachings, and often
the self-sacrificing missionaries to the Indians were compelled to
complain of the evil influence exerted by these false prophets upon
the aborigines.

The principal sacred ceremony of the Indians was the dance and
accompanying song. This was called the “kanti kanti,” meaning to sing.
From this noisy rite the white settlers coined the word “cantico,”
which still survives and is a word with us.

The early English occupants of America gave little attention to the
Indian language beyond an acquisition of what was indispensable to
trading with the natives. Dr. Brinton declares that William Penn
professed to have acquired a mastery of it, but says that from the
specimens Penn gives it is evident that all he studied was the traders’
jargon, which was about a near pure Lenape as pigeon English is to
Macaulay’s periods.

In the Lenape language, which contains two slightly different
dialects, all words are derived from simple monosyllabic roots,
by means of affixes and suffixes, and they do not come within our
grammatical category as nouns, adjectives, verbs and other parts of
speech, but are indifferent themes, and to this there appear to be
few exceptions. The genius of the language is _holophrastic_, that
is, its effort is to express the relationship of several ideas by
combining them in one word. This is an example: “popochpoalimawoawoll”
(po-poch-po-al-i-ma-wo-a-woll), meaning “they beat them” and
“wunshillawoawoll” (wun-shill-a-wo-woll), meaning “they killed them.”

During the War of the Revolution the Delawares were first neutral and
then partisans of the Americans and thus prevented attack by hostile
Indians on the Jersey towns and settlements.

The Delawares were passionately fond of their ancestral traditions and
their forefathers, and cherished the belief that they were the wisest
and bravest of men. They loved to rehearse their genealogies. They were
so skilled at it that they could repeat the chief and collateral lines
with the utmost readiness.

The Indians were all passionately fond of games and were mostly
inveterate gamblers, yet, according to authority, they cultivated
among themselves a most scrupulous honesty, always kept their promises,
insulted no one, were hospitable to strangers and faithful to their
friends even unto death.

On the subject of the Indians’ devotion to gambling the following
may be pardoned. Bret Harte, in one of his humorous and purposely
ungrammatical wild western poems, speaking of his friend Bill Nye’s
visit to a mining camp, said:

  “For the camp has gone wild
    On this lottery game,
  And has even beguiled
    Injin Dick’ by the same.”

and, later on,

  “When Nye next met my view
  Injin Dick was his mate;
  And the two around town was a-lying
  In a frightfully dissolute state.”

and, continuing,

  “Which the war dance they had
  Round a tree at the Bend
  Was a sight that was sad;
  And it seemed that the end
  Would not justify the proceeding
  As I quiet remarked to a friend.”

The Indians never forgot and rarely forgave an injury. They imitated
the wild beasts in their cruelty and ferocity in wreaking vengeance on
a foe. Their crude idea of justice included an eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth, and so on. By their unwritten code the thief was compelled
to restore the stolen article or its value, and for a second offense
he was stripped of all his goods. When one killed another it was left
to the dead Indian’s relatives to slay the offender, but unless this
was done within twenty-four hours, it was usual to accept a pecuniary
recompense, payable in wampum.

The simple savage, living in close contact with nature, sees only
health as the normal condition of man. When the form, once animated
and vigorous, lay still and cold, it was an unfathomable mystery to
him, and, according to Dr. Brinton, in all the Indian tribes, there was
no notion of natural death. No Indian “died,” he was always “killed.”
Death in the course of nature was unknown to the Indians. When one died
by disease they supposed he had been killed by sorcery, or some unknown
venomous creature.

The Indians’ dread of death would lead them to speak of it by
circumlocution or euphemism, as “You are about to see your
grandfathers,” or, as among the whites, “If anything should happen.”
They had a vague belief that the spirit of the dead haunted their
earthly homes, which Philip Freneau has thus apostrophized:

  “By midnight moons, o’er moistening dews,
    In vestments for the chase arrayed,
  The hunter still the deer pursues,
    The hunter and the deer, a shade.”

A very important feature of conference with the Indians was an exchange
of presents. The wily savages saw no sense in giving away valuables
unless they received presents of equal value in return, and if their
gifts were not reciprocated they quietly took them back, whence we get
the phrase “Indian giver,” which we learn in childhood to call the
playmate who gives us an apple or a stick of candy and later takes it
back.

The conferences between the colonists and the Indians were attended
with much formality and ceremony. At a conference held at Easton,
Pennsylvania, October 16th, 1758, there were present the governors of
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, gentlemen of their councils, Indians and
interpreters.

Governor Francis Bernard of New Jersey spoke to the Indians, and said:

  “Brethren of all the confederated nations:

As you proposed your questions concerning Teedyescung separately, I
think proper to give you a separate answer thereto.

I know not who made Teedyescung so great a man; nor do I know that he
is any greater than a chief of the Delaware Indians settled at Wyomink.
The title of king could not be given him by an English governor; for we
know very well that there is no such person among the Indians, as what
we call a king. And if we call him so, we mean no more than sachem or
chief. I observe in his treaties which he has held with the governor of
Pennsylvania (which I have perused since our last meeting) that he says
he was a woman, till you made him a man, by putting a tomahawk into
his hand; and through all of those treaties, especially in the last,
held at this town, he calls you his uncles, and professes that he is
dependent on you; and I know not that anything has since happened to
alter his relation to you. I therefore consider him still to be your
nephew.

  Brethren,

I am obliged to you for your kind promises, to return the captives
which have been taken from us. I hope you will not only do so, but will
also engage such of our allies and nephews, as have taken captives from
us, to do the same. That you may be mindful of this I give you this
belt.”

After the governor had done speaking, and his answers were interpreted
in the united nations and Delaware languages, the Indian chiefs were
asked if they had anything to say. On which Tagashata arose, and made a
speech to his cousins the Delaware and Minisink Indians, directing his
discourse to Teedyescung, and said:

  “Nephews,

You may remember all that passed at this council-fire. The governors
who sit there have put you in mind of what was agreed upon last year:
They both put you in mind of this promise, and desire you will perform
it: You have promised it, and must perform it. We your uncles promised
to return the prisoners. We your uncles, have promised to return all
the English prisoners among us, and therefore we expect that you
our cousins and nephews will do the same. As soon as you come home,
we desire that you will search carefully in your towns for all the
prisoners among you that have been taken out of every province, and
cause them to be delivered up to your brethren. You know that it is an
article of this peace that was made between you and your brethren: In
conformity of which you received a large peace belt; of which belt we
desire you to give an account, and let us know what is become of it,
and how far you have proceeded in it.”

After this was interpreted in the Delaware language, it was observed
that there were no Minisink Indians present; the governors therefore
desired that Mr. Peters and Mr. Read would procure a meeting of the
chiefs of the united nations, Delawares and Minisinks, and cause the
speech of Tagashata to be interpreted to the Minisinks in the presence
of their uncles.

A word about the title to lands in New Jersey will be of interest.
After the English conquest of New Netherlands in 1664, King Charles
II granted to his brother James, Duke of York, afterwards James II,
certain territory including New Jersey; and the Duke of York, in the
same year granted New Jersey to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George
Carteret, in recognition of, and in reward for, valiant services
performed by those noblemen for the unfortunate Charles I, father of
the Duke. It is certainly unfortunate for anyone to have his head
chopped off or be otherwise executed, and it is in that sense alone
I use the word “unfortunate” with reference to the perfidious King.
The tribunal that tried Charles I pronounced him a traitor, murderer
and public enemy. And I agree entirely with the declaration of that
illustrious martyr to liberty. Colonel Algernon Sidney, who, speaking
of the execution of Charles I, said it was the “justest and bravest
action that was ever done in England or anywhere else.”

Lord Berkeley granted and conveyed his undivided one-half interest in
New Jersey to John Fenwick, who conveyed the same to William Penn, Gawn
Lawry and Nicholas Lucas, but in which Edward Byllynge claimed to have
an equitable interest by reason of matters that are immaterial to this
story. In this situation and on July 1, 1676, Sir George Carteret,
William Penn, Gawn Lawry, Nicholas Lucas and Edward Byllynge, five
persons, made the famous _quintipartite_ deed dividing the province
into East and West Jersey, whereby Sir George Carteret became the owner
in severalty of East Jersey, and Penn, Lawry and Lucas of West Jersey,
subject to the same trust for Byllynge as the same was subject (not
disclosing what it was).

William Penn acquired this interest in New Jersey before he obtained
any in Pennsylvania, and several years before he visited America the
first time. Sir George Carteret, owner of East Jersey, pledged himself
to purchase lands from the Indians from time to time as required by
the settlers; and Penn, the dominant owner of West Jersey, found the
practice of acquiring title from the Indians an old and established
custom, and followed it. In 1682 the legislature passed an act in
which it was provided that no person should buy lands from the Indians
without a written authorization of the Province, the grant to be to the
proprietors who would reimburse the purchasers. In practice, however,
the deeds always appear to have been made to the purchaser, who bought
of the proprietors on presentation of the deeds to them. The actual
title to the soil was derived from the King of England who claimed it
by right of discovery and conquest. The Indian title was a possessory
one, that of an occupant only, and was not of the fee, and “fee” means
the absolute ownership. Taking deeds from the Indians, therefore, was
a sort of buying one’s peace in the possession and occupancy of the
soil in which the grantee had the fee. The Indians had no ownership in
“severalty,” which means that they did not own lots or tracts whereon
they dwelt themselves or which were in possession of their tenants, but
the ownership of the land, such as it was, was common to the tribe.

Perhaps you would be interested in knowing the contents of an Indian
deed. I shall insert one in this paper. It appears by recital and
covenant in it that the Indian grantors claimed that they were the only
true, sole and proper owners of the land conveyed. The deed was made
by certain Indian sachems to certain of the council of proprietors of
West Jersey. It is recorded in Liber AAA of Deeds in the office of the
secretary of state, at page 434, etc., and is taken from the record
_verbatim et literatum_, as follows:

“To all person to whome these presents shall Come we Caponohkamhcon
Chekanthakainan Kelelaman Hokontoman all Indian Sachemas and the
onely sole and proper owners of the tract of Land hereafter described
and by these presents bargained and sould send Greetings Know ye
that we the said Indian Sachemas for and in consideration of fivety
fathom of Wampum thirty blew matchcotes thirty Red mattchcotes Eight
inglish cotes twenty white blankets twenty stroudwaters thirty shirts
fourty pare of Sotckings twenty one Kettles Tenn Gunns Twenty Hoes
Twenty Hatchets fivety knives thirty Tobacko Boxes thirty Tobacko
tongs thirty Lookeing glasses one Pound of Read Lead one rundlett
of Gun Powder fourty barrs of Lead one pound of Beads one hundred
tobacco pipes five hundred fishookes five hundred Needles one hundred
and fivety awles sixty flints twnety paire of Scissors and fiveteen
Gallons of Rum to us in hand paid by Mahlon Stacy Samuell Jennnigs
Thomas Gardiner George Deacon Christopher Wetherell John Wills
John Hugg Jun Isaac Sharp and John Reading all of them members of
the Councill of Proprietors for the time being within the westerne
division of the Province of New Jersey The Receipt of all which said
goods above mentioned We the said Sachemas doe hereby acknowledge
and therewith to be fully contented satisfied and paid have granted
bargained and sold aliened Enfoeffed Released and confirmed and by
these presents doe fully freely and absolutely Grant Bargaine and
sell Alyene enfoeffe Release and confirme unto the said Mahlon Stacy
Samuell Jennings Thomas Gardiner George Deacon Christopher Wetherill
John Wills John Hugg Isaac Sharpe and John Reading and to ther heires
and Assignes forever all that tract or parcell of Land Situate above
the falls of Delawar and lying and being within the Westerne division
of the province of New Jersey aforesaid being Limited and bounded in
manner following That is to say Begining at the River Dellawar at the
mouth of a westarne brooke called Laokolong as from thence along the
old Indian purchase line which was formerly made by Adlord Bowde to
the white oake tree standing by the side of an Indian Road Leading
from Arhelomonsing unto Neshaning or Coponockons wigwam and so from
the said corner along by A line of marked trees North and by East or
thereabouts along by the bounds of Hoyhams land untill it meet with
a branch of Rariton River called Neshaning and so down the same unto
the mouth of a brooke or Runn called Peescutchola and so along the
Northermost branch of the same along by the bounds of Nymhainmans
alias Squahikkons land unto an Indian Towne called Toquemenching and
from thence along the Indian Road Leading to Sheroppees plantation
called Asinkoweerkong North and by west or thereabouts by trees markt
along the road and from Sheroppees plantation along a line of marked
trees North west and by North to a runn on the back side of Ohoeming
and so downe the same untill it empties it selfe into a branch of
Rariatn River called Caponanlong and so up the said brooke by the
bounds of aquatoons land untill it devides it selfe into two branches
and soe from the said forks by a line of marked trees south west and
west south west by the land of Chekanshakaman untill it meet with a
brooke called the upper Neshasakowerk and soe downe the same to the
mouth thereof emptieing it selfe into Dellawar river and so downe
the said River to the mouth of Loakolong being the place of first
beginning togeather with all and Singular the Mines Minerals Woods
Waters Fowleings Fishings Huntings and all other Royalties franchises
powers profitts Commodities Hereditaments and appurtenances whatsoever
to the said tract of land belonging or in any wise appertaining and
all estate Right title interest use possession propertie Claime and
demand whatsoever of us the said Indian sachamas of in and to the said
granted land and premisses and every part thereof with apurtenances
full and free liberty at all times hereafter soe the above said Indian
Sacchamas our heires successors and Subjects to hunt fish and fowle
uppon the unimproved land within the above described tract of land
Alwayes excepted Reserved and foreprised To have and to hold the above
described tract of land and granted premisses and every part thereof
with the appurtenances unto the said Mahlon Stacy Samuell Jennings
Thomas Gardiner George Deacon Christopher Whetherell John Wills John
Hugg Isaac Sharpe and John Reading there heires and assignes forever
to the onely proper use and behoofe of themselves and the rest of the
english proprietors within the said westerne division of the Province
aforesaid who have subscribed and are concerned in and shall contribute
their respective proportions towards this present purchasers to their
severall and respective heires and assignes forever more And We the
said Indian Sachemas for ourselves our heires and successors severally
and respectively doe covenant promise and grant with the said English
proprietors above mentioned and their heires and assignes severally
and respectively by these presents that we are the onely true sole and
proper owners of the abovesaid tract of land and granted premisses and
now have good right full power lawfull and absolute authority to grant
bargains and sell the same in manner abovesaid and also that the same
premisses is and are free & cleare of and from all and all other former
Gifts Grants Bargaine Sales and all other incumbrances whatsoever made
done or at any time preceeding this date committed or suffered by us
the above Indian Sachemas or by any others whatsoever with or by our
Consent knowledge or procurement and we the said Indian Sachemas for
ourselves our heirs and successors severally and respectively all
the above described tract of land and granted premisses with every
part thereof with the appurtenances unto the said english Proprietors
and their heires and assignes severally and respecitvely against us
the said Indian Sachemas and our heires and successors severally
and respectively and against all other Indian or Indians whatsoever
Claimeing or pretending to Claime any right Title or interest of in or
to the same shall and will warrant and forever defend by these presents
in witness whereof We have hereunto fixed our hands and seales this
eleaventh day of November Anno Dom 1703:

  Coponakonkikon:     X   his marke (L. S.).
  Hurkanntaman:       X   his marke (L. S.)
  Chekanshakaman:     X   his marke (L. S.).
  Kelalaman:          X   his marke (L. S.).”

Each nation had its boundaries, the lands within which were subdivided
between the tribes. These boundaries were generally marked by
mountains, rivers and lakes, and encroachments on their lands by
neighboring tribes were resented as a sort of poaching on their hunting
and fishing domains. There were, however, Indian paths which were
common highways through the territory of the various tribes, which,
later, in numerous instances, were widened into public roads, many of
which exist unto this day. The Indians freely traveled by these paths
from the ocean to the interior, especially to the ancient council fires
at Easton, Pennsylvania.

By 1757 the Delawares had become comparatively few and a conference
was held at Crosswicks with the view of settling matters in difference
between them and the inhabitants of the colony, and the legislature
appointed commissioners with power to inquire into the matter. Another
conference was held at Crosswicks in 1758, at which Teedyescung,
King of the Delawares, was present with a large number of Indians,
and progress was made. The Delawares asked that a tract of land in
Burlington county be bought for their occupancy for which they agreed
to release all their rights to lands in New Jersey. The legislature
appropriated £1600 to carry that project into effect and a tract of
land of about 3,000 acres was purchased for the purpose. This place
was called “Brotherton” and about 200 Indians located on it. In 1822
the remnant of the Delawares removed from New Jersey, the legislature
appropriating some $3,500 for the purchase of their new homes and
transportation to them. In 1832 an appropriation of $2,000, asked for
by the Delawares, was made in final extinguishment of all Indian claims
in New Jersey which arose out of the reservation to them of certain
hunting and fishing rights in the treaty of 1758. In acknowledgment
of the benefaction of New Jersey to the Delawares in 1822 their
representative, Bartholomew S. Calvin, himself an Indian, wrote a
letter to the legislature in which he said: “Not a drop of our blood
have you spilled in battle--not an acre of our land have you taken but
by our consent. They place the character of New Jersey in bold relief,
a bright example to those states within whose territorial limits our
brethren still remain. Nothing save benison can fall upon her from the
lips of a Lenno Lenape.”

This was the valedictory of the Lenape in New Jersey; and the haunts
that knew them formerly knew them no more.

As “along the banks of the sacred Nile, Isis no longer wandering weeps,
searching for the dead Osiris,” so along the banks of the historic
Delaware, the Indian maiden no longer watches, waiting the return of
her dusky lover from the war-path or the chase. As “the divine fires
of Persia and of the Aztecs, have died out in the ashes of the past,
and there is none to rekindle, and none to feed the holy flames,”
so the camp fires of the Indians in New Jersey have flickered and
expired, never to be relighted, never again to send a gleam athwart the
nocturnal skies.

Lord Campbell concludes the introduction to his monumental work, the
“Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England,” by quoting from Lord Chief
Justice Crewe, and says:

“Time hath its revolutions; there must be a period and an end to all
temporal things--_finis rerum_--an end of names and dignities, and
whatever is _terrene_--for where is Bohun? Where is Mowbray? Where is
Mortimer? Nay, which is more and most of all, where is PLANTAGENET?
They are entombed in the urns and sepulchres of mortality!”

And I ask: Where are the Lenni Lenape?

Teedyescung, Oraton, Mosilian and the other sachems and sagamores of
old Schéjachbi (New Jersey) have long since gone to the happy hunting
ground, and the remnant of their tribes is on a reservation in the far
West, perishing as a type and destined to become extinct as a people.

The Indians have gone from New Jersey, never, never to return. But we
shall not forget them! While pictures are painted; while books are
printed; while children perennially play Indians all around us, we
shall ever be vividly reminded of those bands of roving savages whose
deeds have been rendered so popular in American story.



Transcriber’s Notes

A few minor errors in punctuation were fixed.

Page 3: “desidious trees” changed to “deciduous trees”

Page 5: “Rafineseque gives” changed to “Rafinesque gives”

Page 12: “him to vengenance” changed to “him to vengeance”

Page 15: “did not belive” changed to “did not believe”, “committd by
an” changed to “committed by an”

Page 16: “ws the “profession”” changed to “was the “profession””

Page 20: “Teedyuscung so great” changed to “Teedyescung so great”

Page 21: “woud procure a meting” changed to “would procure a meeting”



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