The Delaware was the seat of the Lenni-Lenapé (a as a in father, é as a in mate—Lenahpa), or "Original people," or people born of the earth on which they lived, who were recognized, at the time of the discovery, as the head or "Grandfather" of the Algonquian nations. From their principal seat on the tide-waters of the Delaware, and their jurisdiction on that stream, they became known and are generally met in history as the Delawares. In tribal and sub-tribal organizations they extended over Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York as far north as the Katskills, speaking dialects radically the same as that of the parent stock. [FN-5] They were composed of three primary totemic tribes, the Minsi or Wolf, the Unulachtigo or Turkey, and the Unami or Turtle, of whom the Turtle held the primacy. They were a milder and less barbaric people than the Iroquoian tribes, with whom they had little affinity and with whom they were almost constantly in conflict until they were broken up by the incoming tide of Europeans, the earliest and the succeeding waves of which fell upon their shores, and the later alliance of the English with their ancient enemies, the confederated Six Nations of New York, who, from their geographical position and greater strength from their remoteness from the demoralization of early European contact, offered the most substantial advantages for repelling the advances of the French in Canada. Ultimately conquered by the Six Nations, and made "Women," in their figurative language, i. e. a people without power to make war or enter into treaties except with the consent of their rulers, they nevertheless maintained their integrity and won the title of "Men" as the outcome of the war of 1754-6. Their history has been fully—perhaps too favorably—written by Heckewelder and others. The geographical names which they gave to the hills and streams of their native land are their most remindful memorial. While western New York was Iroquoian, southern New York was Lenni-Lenape or Algonquian.
[FN-1] Also written Oteseontio and claimed as the name of a spring. The lake is a small body of water lying 1,800 feet above tide level, in the town of Jefferson, Schohare County. It is usually quoted as the head of the West Branch of Delaware River.
[FN-2] "Guwam; modifications, Choam, Schawan. The stem appears to be Shawano, 'South,' 'Coming from the south,' or from salt water." (Brinton.)
[FN-3] Affidavit of Johannes Decker, Hist. Or. Co. (quarto) p. 699: "Called by the Indians Lamas-Sepos, or Fish Kill, because they caught the shad there." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 698, et. seq.)
[FN-4] Paghkataghan means "The division or branch of a stream"—"Where the stream divides or separates." The Moravian missionaries wrote the name Pachgahgoch, from which, by corruption, Papagonck. The Papagoncks seem to have been, primarily, Esopus Indians, and to have retreated to that point after yielding up their Esopus lands. (See Schaghticoke.)
[FN-5] Two slightly different dialects prevailed among the Delawares, the one spoken by the Unami and the Unulachtigo, the other the Minsi. The dialect which the missionaries Learned, and in which they composed their works, was that of the Lehigh Valley. We may fairly consider it to have been the upper or inland Unami. It stood between the Unulachto and Southern Unami and the true Minsi. (Dr. Brinton.) The dialects spoken in the valley of Hudson's River have been referred to in another connection.
[Minisink,] now so written and preserved as the name of a town in Orange County, appears primarily, in 1656, on Van der Donck's map, "Minnessinck ofte t' Landt van Bacham," which may be read, constructively, "Indians inhabiting the back or upper lands," or the highlands. [FN] Heckewelder wrote: "The Minsi, which we have corrupted to Monsey, extended their settlements from the Minisink, a place named after them, where they had their council seat and fire," and Reichel added, "The Minisinks, i. e. the habitation of the Monseys or Minsis." The application was both general and specific to the district of country occupied by the Minsi tribe and to the place where its council fire was held. The former embraced the mountainous country of the Delaware River above the Forks or junction of the Lehigh Branch; the latter was on Minnisink Plains in New Jersey, about eight miles south of Port Jervis, Orange County. It was obviously known to the Dutch long before Van der Donck wrote the name. It was visited, in 1694, by Arent Schuyler, a credited interpreter, who wrote, in his Journal, Minissink and Menissink as the name of the tribal seat. Although it is claimed that there was another council-seat on the East Branch of the Delaware, that on Minisink Plains was no doubt the principal seat of the tribe, as records show that it was there that all official intercourse with the tribe was conducted for many years. Schuyler met sachems and members of the tribe there and the place was later made a point for missionary labor. Their village was palisaded. On one of the early maps it is represented as a circular enclosure. In August, 1663, they asked the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam, through Oratamy, sachem of the Hackinsacks, "For a small piece of ordnance to use in their fort against the Sinuakas and protect their corn." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 290.) In the blanket deed which the tribe gave in 1758, to their territory in New Jersey they were styled "Minsis, Monseys, or Minnisinks." Minsis and Monseys are convertible terms of which the late Dr. D. G. Brinton wrote: "From investigation among living Delawares, Minsi, properly Minsiu, formerly Min-assin-iu, means 'People of the stony country,' or briefly, 'Mountaineers.' It is the synthesis of Minthiu, 'To be scattered,' and Achsin, 'Stone.' according to the best native authority." Apparently from Min-assin we have Van der Donck's Minn-essin; with locative -k, -ck, -g, -gh, Minn-essin-ks, "People of the stony country," back-landers or highlanders. Interpretations of less merit have been made. One that is widely quoted is from Old Algonquian and Chippeway Minnis, "Island," and -ink, locative; but there is no evidence that Minnis was in the dialect spoken here; on the contrary the record name of Great Minnisink Island, which is supposed to have been referred to, was Menag'nock, by the German notation Menach'hen-ak. Aside from this Minnissingh is of record at Poughkeepsie, in 1683, where no island is known to have existed, and in Westchester County the same term is met in Men-assink (Min-assin-ink), "At a place of small stones." The deed description at Poughkeepsie located the tract conveyed "On the bank of the river," i. e. on the back or ridge lands. (See Minnis-ingh.) The final s which appears in many of the forms of the name, and especially in Minsis, is a foreign plural.
[FN] "Minnessinck ofte t' Landt Van Bacham," apparently received some of its letters from the engraver of the map. Ofte—Dutch and Old Saxon, av—English of—was probably used in the sense of identity or equivalency. Bacham—Dutch, bak; Old High-German, Bahhoham—describes "An extended upper part, as of a mountain or ridge." In application to a tribe, "Ridge-landers," "Highlanders," or "Mountaineers." On the Hudson the tribe was generally known as Highlanders. The double n and the double s, in many of the forms, show that e was pronounced short, or i.