Lenape

For other uses, see Lenape (disambiguation).
"Delaware Indians" and "Delaware people" redirect here. For other American Indians from present-day Delaware, see Category:Native American tribes in Delaware. For individual people from the state of Delaware, see List of people from Delaware.

Lenape
Delaware people
Delaware: Lënapeyok
The Lenape territory, known as Lenapehoking, as of the 16th and 17th centuries, with speakers of Munsee (north), Unalachtigo (center), and Unami (south). Inset: The location of the region in the present-day United States.[1][2][3]
Total population
c. 16,000[4]
Regions with significant populations
Oklahoma, U.S.11,195 (2010)[5]
Wisconsin, U.S.1,565
Ontario, Canada2,300
Languages
English, Munsee, and Unami[4] as a second language
Religion
Christianity, Native American Church,
traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Other Algonquian peoples
PersonLënape
     (Monsi /
     Wënami)
PeopleLënapeyok
     (Monsiyok /
     Wënamiyok)
LanguageLënapei èlixsuwakàn
     (Monsii èlixsuwakàn /
     Wënami èlixsuwakàn)
CountryLënapehòkink
     (Monsihòkink /
     Wënamihòkink)
Two Delaware Nation citizens, Jennie Bobb and her daughter Nellie Longhat, in Oklahoma, in 1915[6]

The Lenape (English: /ləˈnɑːpi/, /-peɪ/, /ˈlɛnəpi/;[7][8] Lenape languages: [lənaːpe][9]), also called the Lenni Lenape[10] and Delaware people,[11] are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada.[4]

The Lenape's historical territory includes present-day northeastern Delaware, all of New Jersey, the eastern Pennsylvania regions of the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania, and New York Bay, western Long Island, and the lower Hudson Valley in New York state.[notes 1] Today they are based in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

During the last decades of the 18th century, European settlers and the effects of the American Revolutionary War displaced most Lenape from their homelands[12] and pushed them north and west. In the 1860s, under the Indian removal policy, the U.S. federal government relocated most Lenape remaining in the Eastern United States to the Indian Territory and surrounding regions. Lenape people currently belong to the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, the Stockbridge–Munsee Community in Wisconsin, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference n10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Fariello, Leonardo A. "A Place Called Whippany" Archived July 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Whippanong Library, 2000 (retrieved July 19, 2011)
  3. ^ Kraft, The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage,[page needed]
  4. ^ a b c Pritzker 422
  5. ^ "Pocket Pictorial." Archived 2010-04-06 at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission. 2010: 13. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  6. ^ "Art on the Prairies: Delaware", All About the Shoes. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  7. ^ "Definition of Lenape". Merriam Webster. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  8. ^ "Lenape". Dictionary.com. 2023.
  9. ^ "Delaware Indians". Lenape Talking Dictionary. Delaware Tribe of Indians. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  10. ^ Zeisberger, David (1827). Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. Philadelphia: James Kay. ISBN 978-0-404-15803-3.
  11. ^ William, Brandon (1961). Alvin M., Josephy Jr. (ed.). The American Heritage Book of Indians. American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc. pp. 180–211. LCCN 61-14871.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference josephy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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