The Lenâpé and Their Legends / With the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticity

by Daniel G. Brinton

"At last they settled on the four great rivers (which we call Delaware, Hudson, Susquehannah, Potomack), making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of 'Lenape-wihittuck' (the river or stream of the Lenape), the centre of their possessions.

"They say, however, that the whole of their nation did not reach this country; that many remained behind, in order to aid and assist that great body of their people which had not crossed the Namaesi Sipu, but had retreated into the interior of the country on the other side. * * *

"Their nation finally became divided into three separate bodies; the larger body, which they suppose to have been one-half the whole, was settled on the Atlantic, and the other half was again divided into two parts, one of which, the strongest, as they suppose, remained beyond the Mississippi, and the remainder where they left them, on this side of that river.

"Those of the Delawares who fixed their abodes on the shores of the Atlantic divided themselves into three tribes. Two of them, distinguished by the names of the Turtle and the Turkey, the former calling themselves Unâmi, and the other Unalâchtgo, chose those grounds to settle on which lay nearest to the sea, between the coast and the high mountains. As they multiplied, their settlements extended from the Mohicanittuck (river of the Mohicans, which we call the North or Hudson river) to the Potomack." * * * "The third tribe, the Wolf, commonly called the Minsi, which we have corrupted into Monseys, had chosen to live back of the other two." * * * They extended their settlements from the Minisink, a place named after them, where they had their council seat and fire, quite up to the Hudson, on the east; and to the west or southward far beyond the Susquehannah.

"From the above three tribes, the Unami, Unalachtgo and the Minsi, had, in the course of time, sprung many others, * * * the Mahicanni, or Mohicans, who spread themselves over all that country which now composes the Eastern States, * * * and the Nanticokes, who proceeded far to the south, in Maryland and Virginia."

On their conquests during the period of their western migrations, the Delawares based a claim for hunting grounds in the Ohio valley. It is stated that when they had decided to remove to the valley of the Muskingum, their chief, Netawatwes, presented this claim to the Hurons and Miamis, and had it allowed.[241] They also claimed lands on White River, Indiana, and their settlement in that region at the close of the last century was regarded as a return to their ancient seats.

Nevertheless, in the earliest historic times, when the whites first came in contact with the Lenape tribes, none of them dwelt west of the mountains, nor, apparently, had they any towns in the valley of the west branch of the Susquehanna or of its main stream.

Although the above mentioned facts point to a migration in prehistoric times from the West toward the East, there are indications of a yet older movement from the northeast westward and southward to the upper Mississippi valley. A legend common to the western Algonkin tribes, the Kikapoos, Sacs, Foxes, Ottawas and Pottawatomies, located their original home north of the St. Lawrence river, near or below where Montreal now stands. In that distant land their ancestors were created by the Great Spirit, and they dwelt there, "all of one nation." Only when they removed or were driven west did they separate into tribes speaking different dialects.[242]

The Shawnees, who at various times were in close relation with the Delawares, also possessed a vague migration myth, according to which, at some indefinitely remote past, they had arrived at the main land after crossing a wide water. Their ancestors succeeded in this by their great control of magic arts, their occult power enabling them to walk over the water as if it had been land. Until within the present century this legend was repeated annually, and a yearly sacrifice offered up in memory of their safe arrival.[243] It is evidently a version of that which appears in the third part of the Walam Olum.

One of the curious legends of the Lenape was that of the Great Naked or Hairless Bear. It is told by the Rev. John Heckewelder, in a letter to Dr. B. S. Barton.[244] The missionary had heard it both among the Delawares and the Mohicans. By the former, it was spoken of as amangachktiátmachque, and in the dialect of the latter, ahamagachktiât mechqua.[245]