FOODWAYS OF THE
LENAPE INDIANS
◦ The Lenape Indians practiced both hunting and gathering techniques as well
as small scale horticulture.
◦The great variety of game and edible plants in Hudson Valley allowed the
Lenape to mainly subsist upon what they could hunt and gather in the
surrounding landscape.
◦The Lenape made sure to never eat any meat that was rare or raw. They
would thoroughly cook the meat until it fell off of the bone. Even dried meat
would be soaked in water and cooked through before being consumed.
◦Lenape would usually eat with their hands, and if the food was too hot, use
skewers made of bone or wood
◦The dishes the Lenape used were wooden bowls, clam shells, and turtle
shells
HUNTING
◦ Lenape men and older boys were assigned the job of hunting
◦ The most commonly hunted animals in Lenapehoking were deer, elk, black
bear and raccoons
◦The prime time for hunting was in Autumn, when the animals were fattened by
eating the abundant nuts
◦In Autumn, any able bodied men, women and older children would depart for
winter hunting camps. After a few months of hunting, they would return to the
permanent settlement laden with venison, skins, firewood, bone grease and
nuts
◦ Hunting territories of the Lenape Indians could be as large 200 square miles,
but most were much smaller.
◦These territories were bounded by natural markers, such as streams and
hillsides.
◦Traditional rights to hunting areas were honored
◦Most hunting areas were the interior mountain regions, because they were so
sparsely populated
◦Indians would generally not kill more than they could eat, process or use for
skins
HUNTING
TOOLS USED
◦ By the late woodland period, spears and lances had been replaced by
bows and arrows
◦ Stone projectile points were made of chert and other fine grained lithics
◦ These stone projectile points were more common than those made of
antler and bone
◦ Levanna and Madison projectile points were the most commonly
constructed points
◦ Madison points are more of an isosceles shape and the bases
are generally straight or slightly convex. They appear less
frequently than the Levanne projectile point. The Levanna point is
more equilateral with bases which are usually concave
◦ Arrow shafts were made of fine grained wood or cane
◦ A carefully selected stick would be soaked in water, heated over
a fire and re-shaped until it was in the desired shape. The stick
was then shaved to a uniform diameter, and lastly run through a
“shaft smoother”, which was a piece of sedimentary rock which
would sand the arrow shaft.
PROJECTILE POINTS
Madison Projectile Points
Levanna Projectile
Point
Arrow Shaft Smoothers
ANIMALS
DEER
◦ The white-tailed deer was a very important source of raw material for the Lenape Indians
◦The Meat could be eaten, either shortly after being killed by cooking over a fire or
boiling; or dried and stored for later use
◦The skin could be tanned and made into a variety of useful items, such as clothing,
sleeping robes, mats, wall hangings or bags
◦The antlers and bones could be made into a variety of tools, such as needles,
hooks, skewers and projectile points, as well as ornamental objects
◦The tendons and intestines could be made into sinew and used as a thread or as a
binder
◦Hooves could be made into rattles, and even sometimes into glue
◦Deer were hunted all year round, but mainly in autumn and early winter
◦Hunters would use a variety of methods to getting deer.
◦Stalking was the most common method. A hunter would follow a deer,
sometimes for miles, taking advantage of the fact that deer would always run in
arcs. Hunters would follow the same animal, heading it off, and forcing it to run for
hours until it was tired and the hunter could get with in closer range
◦ Burning of forests and thickets was done to make tracking and stalking easier, but
it also created fields with tall grasses that elk and deer needed to thrive.
Hunters would sometimes burn a large ring, forcing the animals further into the
center, which enabled the hunters to acquire a large amount of game in a fast and
efficient manner.
◦The Lenape would also use communal drives if there were enough people and
animals. A group of men would herd the deer in the direction of a v-shaped
enclosure, called a fyke
ANIMALS
BLACK BEAR
◦ Black bears were another very important resource to the Lenape Indians
◦ Meat was good to eat
◦ Fat was rendered and used as a pomade for hair, as well as an ointment for
the skin [useful in preventing sunburn and keeping mosquitoes away]
◦ Oil was used to dip venison in
◦ Pelt with fur left on was an especially good sleeping robe and it could
also be used to make winter moccasins
◦ The canines and claws were also occasionally used for necklaces and
ornaments
◦The black bear was treated with more respect than any other game animal, and was
referred to as “grandfather”
◦ The black bear got this nickname because it looked somewhat human-like
while standing on its hind legs, and even more so when skinned
◦ Special care was taken to not offend the spirit of the bear, and help it return
to the spirit world.
◦ Some tribes would dispose of the bones carefully, so as to make sure that
dogs would not gnaw on them
◦The black bear pelt was also a costume worn by Mesingw in the important “Big House”
ceremony
ANIMALS
◦ Other animals hunted by the Lenape were:
◦ Raccoon, the meat was similar to the black bear’s
◦ Elk, which provided good skins and meat
◦ Beavers were eaten, and tails were considered a delicacy and the
best tasting meat available
◦ Porcupines were also considered a delicacy, and its quills were
dyed and used as decoration for clothing and as ornaments for a
septum piercing
◦ Skunk and pole-cat were eaten, as there was no offensive odor to
the meat
◦ Squirrels were eaten in times of sickness, or when there was no
other meat available
◦ Panther, lynx, wolf, bobcat, fox and other carnivores’ pelts were
used, but the meat was never eaten as it was too strong.
◦ Birds provided meat, eggs and feather for decoration.
◦ Turtles provided meat, eggs and their shells which could be used
as rattles or as utensils
ANIMALS
GATHERING
◦ Another way the Indians in Lenapehoking supplemented their diet was through
extensive gathering
◦ The job of gathering was delineated to women and children
◦ Gathering was important because the caloric intake of gathered foods far
surpassed the calories spent collecting them
◦ The Lenape utilized about 370 native plants
◦ These plants were used not only for foods and beverages, but also
for medicinal, ceremonial, smoking, dyeing and utilitarian purposes
◦ Through hundreds of years of trial and error, the Indians learned which plants
and which parts of those plants were useful and edible
◦ Depending upon the season, women and children would contribute between
60-80 percent of the diet
◦ One of the most important items collected for consumption were the nuts from
local trees
GATHERING
NUTS
◦ Nuts were an important part of Lenape diet, as they were abundant and a good source of both protein and
fat
◦ Chestnuts are composed of 11% protein and 7% fat, with the rest of it being starch
◦ Acorns from the White and Bur oak trees were low enough in tannic acid that they
didn’t require as much prep as other types of acorns. These nuts are low in protein, but very high
in fats and carbohydrates
◦ Other nuts eaten were black walnut, beechnut, butternut and hickory
◦ Nuts were processed to be eaten right away and were also stored for later consumption
◦ The nuts were oftentimes roasted in hot ashes, crushed in wooden mortars, and the mash was
then put in basket strainers and leached in running water to separate the meat from the shell
◦ The mashed nut meat would be dried and stored for winter.
◦ Beechnuts had to be processed a little differently because of their hard shells.
◦ The beechnut would first be pounded in a mortar, next both shell and
meat would be placed in water to boil. After a bit, the oil would float to the
top. This nut oil would then be skimmed off and saved for later use.
◦ “Nut milk” was another important product obtained from nuts
◦ This was prepared by taking boiled and mashed nuts and passing them through
very fine strainers. The “milk” would come out, which was full of proteins and fats
White Oak Acorn
Chestnuts
GATHERING
◦ Other foods gathered by Lenape women and children were:
◦ Different types of spring and summer berries, such as strawberries,
elderberries, huckleberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries,
black thimble-berries, cedar berries
◦ Different types of leaves and sticks, which were used to make teas
◦ Tubers, such as cattail
◦ Different fruits, like persimmons and apples
◦ Mushrooms
◦ Bird and turtle eggs
◦ Shellfish and crustaceans
◦ Frogs and turtles
FISHING
◦The rivers, streams and wetlands of the Hudson Valley provided a plentiful amount
of resources to the Lenape Indians
◦ From the fresh water streams the Lenape were able collect drinking
water
◦Many different types of fish were caught in using a variety of tools and
skills
◦ Crustaceans and shell fish could be gathered from both fresh and salt
water
Different stages of bone
fishhook construction
Stone net sinkers
FISHING
◦ Because it connects to the ocean, the Hudson River has an amazing variety of
both fresh and salt water species
◦The Lenape Indians knew this, and supplemented their diet with whatever they
could get from the river
◦Men, women and children would all participate in gathering shellfish and
crustaceans along the shores
◦Men and older boys would use nets, weirs, hooks, spears, double pointed fish
gorges and harpoons to obtain fish
◦Often times, men would go out on a stream in canoes and stretch
nets across the entire length of it
◦Other times, Lenape men would use the nets to herd fish towards the
weirs
◦Weirs were also constructed above the low tide level, so when the tide
went out, fish would be trapped and left behind, easily picked up by
women and children
◦Many fishing implements did not survive in the archaeological record, nor do the
easily decomposed fish bones.
◦One item used in fishing, a netsinker, is one of the most commonly found
stone tools at archaeological sites which are located near water ways.
◦This is probably because they are easily made and so a disposable item
FISHING
◦Many different species of fish were caught and eaten. The most common of
these fish were:
◦ Sturgeon, which could reach up to 16 feet long, and well over 200
pounds. The large back plates, called scutes, are sometimes found in
archaeological sites which date to before Henry Hudson entered the
river.
◦ Shad were extremely plentiful when they came into the
Hudson River in early spring to spawn. It was recorded that in the 19th
century, fisherman would catch between 14 and 20 million pounds of
shad a year.
◦ Striped bass were another large fish which would return to the river
to spawn
◦ Eel would be fished on their return trip to the ocean, and caught by
the hundreds in a special type of net known as an “eel pot”
◦Occasionally whales, porpoises and harbor seals supplemented the
diet, usually these were beached animals
COMMON FISH
Striped Bass
American Shad
American Eel
American Sturgeon
FISHING
◦Other animals the Lenape Indians gathered from waterways for consumption,
were:
◦Conches: the meat could be eaten and the inner whorl of the shell
could be cut and sanded to a bead of desired size. These beads
could be used in decoration or for wampum
◦Clams: the meat was good to eat, and Quahog Clam shells could be
used as utensils, tools, and wampum
◦Oysters: the shells of oysters are a very common find at Lenape
sites along the Hudson River
◦ Mussels
◦ Crabs
◦ Crayfish
◦ Lobsters
FARMING
◦ Despite the fact that there were many different types of food available to
hunt and forage for, the Lenape Indians practiced small scale horticulture
◦ The Lenape planted and tended to three main crops which were maize,
squash and beans. This trinity of plants is known as “The Three Sisters”
◦ The corn stalks provided support for the beans to grow, the
squash kept moisture in the soil with its broad leaves, while
simultaneously keeping down weeds, and the beans helped to
return nitrogen to the soil that was taken out by the corn
◦ Beans contain amino acids and tryptophan, which the body
needs to produce protein and niacin. Combined with maize, this
creates a relatively balanced diet.
FOOD PROCESSING
◦ Most vegetables were eaten as they ripened, but some were also dried and stored for
later consumption
MAIZE
◦ This vegetable could be eaten in a variety of ways.
◦ If fresh, it could be eaten raw, be boiled, roasted, or made into
succotash, which combines it with beans, veggies and meat/fish
◦ Maize could by dried by first boiling it, then it would be dried out, the kernels
would be removed from the cob and stored in bark or skin containers
◦ Once dried, it could be made into
◦ Hominy, which is made by boiling the kernels with wood ash
◦ Flour, which is made by finely grinding the dried kernels with a
stone mortar and pestle. The flour could be made into various
foods, such as unleavened bread and sapan [cornmeal gruel, which
was a Lenape staple food]
FOOD PROCESSING
BEANS
◦ Beans could be eaten fresh
◦ They could also be dried
◦This was done by first boiling the beans for a few minutes, then
drying them out and storing them in bark or skin containers
SQUASH/PUMPKINS
◦Like corn and beans, squash and pumpkins were often times eaten fresh, but
could also be dried and put away for the winter months
◦These vegetables were dried by cutting them into thin rings, stringing
the rings onto a strip of leather and hanging it in the sun to dry. These
dried rings could be stored by hanging them from rafters, or by being
put in storage containers