Delaware

Treaty With The Delaware, August 3, 1829

Articles of agreement made between John M’Elvain, thereto specially authorized by the President of the United States, and the band of Delaware Indians, upon the Sandusky River, in the State of Ohio, for the cession of a certain reservation of land in the said State. Article 1. The said band of Delaware Indians cede to the United States the tract of three miles square, adjoining the Wyandot reservation upon the Sandusky river, reserved for their use by the treaty of the Rapids of the Maumee, concluded between the United States and the Wyandots, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnees, Potawatamies, Ottawas, and Chippiwa … Read more

Treaty of August 21, 1805

A treaty between the United States of America, and the tribes of Indians called the Delawares, Pottawatimies, Miames, Eel River, and Weas. Articles of a treaty made and entered into, at Grouseland, near Vincennes, in the Indiana territory, by and between William Henry Harrison, governor of said territory, superintendent of Indian affairs, and commissioner plenipotentiary of the United States, for treating with the north western tribes of Indians, of the one part, and the tribes of Indians called the Delewares, Putawatimis, Miamis, Eel River, and Weas, jointly and severally by their chiefs and head men, of the other part. Article … Read more

Treaty of July 4, 1805

A treaty between the United States of America, and the sachems, chiefs, and warriers of the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chipawa, Munsee and Delaware, Shawanee, and Pottawatami nations, holden at Fort Industry, on the Miami of the lake, on the fourth day of July, Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and five. ARTICLE I. The said Indian nations do again acknowledge themselves and all their tribes, to be in friendship with, and under the protection of the United States. ARTICLE II. The boundary line between the United States, and the nations aforesaid, shall in future be a meridian line drawn north and … Read more

Shawnee Tribe

1710 Senex Map Portion

Formerly a leading tribe of South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. By reason of the indefinite character of their name, their wandering habits, their connection with other tribes, and because of their interior position away from the traveled routes of early days, the Shawnee were long a stumbling block in the way of investigators.

Unalachtigo Tribe

Unalachtigo Indians (properly W’nalātchtko, people who live near the ocean,’ because of their proximity to Delaware Bay – Brinton). The southernmost of the three main divisions of the Delaware, occupying the west bank of Delaware river, in Delaware, and probably also the east bank, in New Jersey, since many of the Delaware were forced to cross the river to escape the inroads of the Conestoga. Their totem was the turkey, whence they have been known as the Turkey tribe of the Delaware. According to Brinton the totem has no reference to gentes, but was merely the emblem of a geographic … Read more

Unami Tribe

Unami Indians. One of the principal divisions of the Delaware, formerly occupying the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, from the junction of the Lehigh southward about the Delaware line. According to Brinton, many of the New Jersey Delaware were Unami who had crossed the Delaware to escape the inroads of the Conestoga, and Ruttenber classes with this division the Navasink, Raritan, Hackensack, Aquakanonk, Tappan and Haverstraw, of northern New Jersey.  The Unami held precedence over the other Delaware.  Their totem was the turtle (pakoango). According to Morgan, they were one of the three gentes of the Delaware, while Brinton … Read more

Wappinger Indian Divisions

Sub-tribes, bands and divisions of the Wappinger Tribe of Indians. Kitchawak Kitchawak (perhaps akin to Chippewa Kichŭchǐwǐnk ‘at the great niybtaub.’ (W. Jones). Apparently a band or small tribe, or, as Ruttenber designates it, a “chieftaincy” of the Wappinger confederacy, formerly residing on the east bank of the Hudson in what is now Westchester County, New York. Their territory is believed to have extended from Croton river to Anthony’s Nose.  Their principal village, Kitchawank, in 1650, appears to have been about the mouth of the Croton, though one authority locates it at Sleepy Hollow.  They also had a village at … Read more

Wappinger Tribe

Wappinger Indians (‘easterners,’ from the same root as Abnaki). A confederacy of Algonquian tribes, formerly occupying the east bank of Hudson River from Poughkeepsie to Manhattan Island. and the country extending east beyond Connecticut River, Conn. They were closely related to the Mahican on the north and the Delaware on the south. According to Ruttenber their totem was the wolf. They were divided into 9 tribes: Wappinger proper Manhattan Wecquaesgeek Sintsink Kitchawank Tankiteke Nochpeem Siwanoy Mattabesec Some of these were again divided into subtribes. The eastern bands never came into collision with the Connecticut settlers. Gradually selling their lands as … Read more

Lenape Tribe

Lenape Tribe, Lenape Indians, Lenape People, Delaware Indians, Delaware tribe, Delaware People, Lenni-Lenape, Lenni-Lenapi People, Lenni-Lenape Tribe, Lenni-Lenape Indians. A confederacy, formerly the most important of the Algonquian stock, occupying the entire basin of Delaware river in east Pennsylvania and south New York, together with most of New Jersey and Delaware. They called themselves Lenape or Leni-lenape, equivalent to ‘real men,’ or ‘native, genuine men’; the English knew them as Delaware, from the name of their principal river; the French called them Loups, ‘wolves,’ a term probably applied originally to the Mahican on Hudson rivers, afterward extended to the Munsee … Read more

Delaware Indian Tribe Villages

The following is an alphabetical list of known villages of the Delaware Tribe: Achsinnink Ahasimus (Unami ?) Alamingo Allaquippa Alleghany Anderson’s Town Aquackanonk Au Glaize Bald Eagle’s Nest Beaversville Beavertown Bethlehem (Moravian) Black Hawk Black Leg’s Village Buckstown Bullets Town (?) Cashiehtunk (Munsee ?) Catawaweshink(?) Chikohoki (Unalachtigo) Chilohocki (?) Chinklacamoose (?) Clistowacka Communipaw (Hackensack) Conemaugh (?) Coshocton Crossweeksung Custaloga’s Town Edgpiiliik Eriwonec Frankstown (?) Friedenshuetten (Moravian) Friedensstadt (Moravian) Gekelemukpechuenk Gnadenhuetten (Moravian) Goshgoshunk Grapevine Town (?) Greentown (?) Gweghkongh (Unami?) Hespatingh (Unami?) Hickorytown Hockhocken Hogstown (?) Hopocan Jacob’s Cabins (?) Jeromestown (?) Kalbauvane(?) Kanestio Kanhanghton Katamoonchink (?) Kickenapawling (?) Kiktheswemud (?) … Read more

Moravian Tribe

Moravian Indians. Mahican, Munsee, and Delaware who followed the teachings of the Moravian brethren and were by them gathered into villages apart from their tribes. The majority were Munsee. In 1740 the Moravian missionaries began their work at the Mahican village of Shekomeko in New York. Meeting with many obstacles there, they removed with their converts in 1746 to Pennsylvania, where they built the new mission village of Friedenshuetten on the Susquehanna. Here they were more successful and were largely recruited from the Munsee and Delaware, almost all of the former tribe not absorbed by the Delaware finally joining them. … Read more

Munsee Tribe

Munsee Indians, Munsee People, Munsee First Nation (Min-asin-ink, ‘at the place where stones are gathered together. Hewitt). One of the three principal divisions of the Delaware, the others being the Unami and Unalachtigo, from whom their dialect differed so much that they have frequently been regarded as a distinct tribe. According to Morgan they have the same three gentes as the Delaware proper, viz, Wolf (Tookseat ), Turtle (Pokekooungo), and Turkey (Pullaook). Brinton says these were totemic designations for the three geographic divisions of the Delaware and had no reference to gentes. However this may be, the Wolf has commonly … Read more

Nanticoke Tribe

Nanticoke Indians (from Nentego, var. of Delaware Unechtgo, Unalachtgo, ‘tidewater people’).  An important Algonquian tribe living on Nanticoke River of Maryland, on the east shore, where Smith in 1608 located their principal village, called Nanticoke. They were connected linguistically and ethnically with the Delaware and the Conoy, notwithstanding the idiomatic variance in the language of the latter. Their traditional history is brief and affords but little aid in tracing their movements in prehistoric times. The 10th verse of the fifth song of the Walam Olum is translated by Squier: “The Nentegos and the Shawani went to the south lands.” Although … Read more

Conoy Tribe

Conoy Indians. An Algonquian tribe, related to the Delawares, from whose ancestral stem they apparently sprang, but their closest relations were with the Nanticoke, with whom it is probable they were in late prehistoric times united, the two forming a single tribe, while their language is supposed to have been somewhat closely allied to that spoken in Virginia by the Powhatan. Heckewelder believed them to be identical with the Kanawha, who gave the name to the chief river of West Virginia. Although Brinton calls this “a loose guess,” the names Conoy, Ganawese, etc., seem to be forms of Kanawha Conoy … Read more

Delaware Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Allaquippa Allaquippa. A Delaware woman sachem of this name lived in 1755 near the mouth of Youghiogheny River, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and there may have been there a small Delaware settlement known by her name. Buckongahelas Buckongahelas (breaker in pieces) . A Delaware chief who lived during the Revolutionary period; born in the first half of the 18th century. He was the son of Wewandochwalend, apparently a chief of a Delaware band in Ohio. Buckongahelas became the head warrior of all the Delaware Indians then residing on Miami and White rs. Although he took part with the English against the colonists, … Read more

Axion Tribe

Axion Indians (‘the muddy place’, from assiscu ‘mud’). A division of the New Jersey Delawares, formerly living on the East bank of Delaware River, between Rancocas Creek and the present Trenton. In 1648 they were one of the largest tribes on the river, being estimated at 200 warriors. Brinton thinks the name may be a corruption of Assiscunk, the name of a creek above Burlington. For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Axion as both an ethnological study, and as a people. Evelin (1648) in Proud, Pa., I, 113, 1797.