The Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians

by Edwin Robert Walker

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.