Name:__________________________
Who were the Lenape?
The Story of Creation
An early account told how Tantaque took a piece of coal out
of the fire where he sat, and began to write upon the floor.
He first drew a circle, a little oval, to which he made four
paws or feet, a head and a tail. “This,” said he, “is a
tortoise, lying in the water around it … this was or is all
water, and so at first was the world or the earth, when the
tortoise gradually raised its back up high, and the water ran
off of it, and thus the earth became dry … and there grew a
tree in the middle of the earth, and the root of this tree sent
forth a sprout beside it and there grew upon it a man, who was the first male.
This man was then alone, and would have remained alone; but the tree bent
over until its top touched the earth, and there shot therein another root, from
which came forth another sprout, and there grew upon it the woman, and from
these two are all men produced.”
The Land of the Lenape
The Lenape (len-AH-pay) or Delaware Indians lived in
an area they called “Lenapehoking,” which means
“Land of the Lenape.” Their land included all of what
is now New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania,
southeastern New York State, northern Delaware and
a small section of southeastern Connecticut. As part
of the Eastern Woodlands, Lenapehoking had many
rivers, streams and lakes and was densely forested
and rich in wildlife.
We now know that two related but distinct groups of
Indians occupied Lenapehoking; not three as is
sometimes stated. Those living in the northern half
(above the Raritan River and the Delaware Water
Gap) spoke a Munsee dialect of the Eastern Algonquian Delaware language,
while those to the south spoke Unami – a slightly different dialect of the same
language. The beliefs and cultures of these two general groups, although very
similar, differed somewhat. For convenience, we will use the word Lenape
(“common or ordinary people”) to refer to both the groups living in
Lenapehoking.
The Community
Some of the Lenape lived in large
villages of two to three hundred
people, but most of them lived in
small bands of 25 to 50 people.
Families were important to the
Lenape Indians. There were strong
ties between parents and children,
and among all the related families
that made up
the clan.
The Lenape had three clans (or phratries) – Wolf, Turtle
and Turkey – which traced their descent through the
female line. For example, if a mother belonged to the
Turtle Clan, then each of her children also belonged to
the same clan. The sons had to marry women from other clans, and their
children belonged to their mother’s clan.
Within their own groups the Indians were kind to one another. They felt a
sense of responsibility towards everyone in their community. They did not
steal from anyone in their own village, for there was no reason to do so. The
land belonged to the whole community, shelters were shared, and no one
hoarded valuable possessions.
Many of the groups inhabiting Lenapehoking had wellorganized ways of governing their clans and villages. The
chiefs – sometimes referred to as sachems - were chosen for
their behavior, skill in speaking, honesty, and ability to make
wise decisions. The chiefs also had to know about religion so
that they could lead the people in rituals and ceremonies.
War leaders were different. They gained power through
proven bravery and success in battle. They were able to gather young men
together and go off on a raid without the approval of the chief.
Sharing the Work
Everyone worked, but men and women were expected to do different tasks.
Starting at an early age, small children began to learn the skills they would
need when they grew up. The boys were taught woodcraft and hunting; the
girls, housekeeping and gardening.
Women’s Work
Women were responsible for the planting and
harvesting of crops and gathering wild foods. Some
of the crops were eaten as soon as it was
harvested, but much of it - together with wild foods
like berries, roots and nuts - were dried for winter
use. The women pounded corn into flour by using a
mortar and pestle. Nuts could be ground up and baked, or were
pressed to squeeze out their oil, which was used in cooking.
Maple syrup was made by collecting sap from maple trees in early spring and
boiling it down.
Women were skilled at making clay pots, weaving rush mats
and bags, and making baskets. They wove cornhusks for
slippers, mats and dolls, and made containers from elm and
birch bark. With fibers from plants, they spun and braided cords
for binding and carrying bundles. Women were also responsible
for preparing the hides for clothes and shelters. With bone tools, they scraped
the hair from the hides and cleaned them. Then they smoked them over a fire,
cut them into pieces and sewed the pieces with bone needles.
Men’s Work
Men cleared the land, built and repaired the houses,
and made dugout canoes by
felling large trees and alternately
burning and chopping through
them to the desired shape. They
constructed fishweirs and the
large fish baskets to gather the catch. Using bows and
arrows, the men hunted a variety of animals, although
deer, elk and bear were the Lenape’s largest prey. Deer were often hunted by
surrounding or herding them into pens or rivers. This method involved many
people forming into a large a circle as possible and by using fire or noise to
drive the animals to the hunters where they could be easily killed.
Trapping was another means by which the Lenape caught
animals like beaver, otter, muskrat, raccoon, mink and
wild cats. Turkey, eagle and other birds like partridge,
pigeon, wild ducks and geese were also shot or caught in
traps to be part of the Lenape diet.
Men were good warriors and sometimes had to go to war
to defend their homes, but left the management of the house to their wives
and often listened to the advice of the chief matron of his lineage in matters of
peace and war.
Tools
Tools played an important role in the lives of the Indians. Men used
them to make houses and dugout canoes,
fishweirs, bows and arrows, harpoons, tree
trunk mortars, wooden bowls, and many other
useful and ornamental objects. Women
employed
hoes and digging sticks in gardens; knives, choppers, scrapers,
millingstones and mullers were used in preparing meals. Some of these same
tools, along with awls and needles, were used to make clothing, moccasins,
mats, baskets, and fishnets.
The Lenape made the things they needed by utilizing the natural environment
around them. The raw materials needed to make stone tools,
weapons and household objects were most often found locally,
although special stone, as for example soapstone, had to
be obtained from distant quarries. Deer and elk, killed for food, also
provided bone and antler for fish hooks, needles, awls, skewers,
and ornaments. Their sinew and gut were used for sewing and
binding, and their hides for clothing and covers.
Rattles, and a kind of glue, were made from the hooves of
these animals. Bowls and cups were made from the upper shells of box
turtles, wood terrapins, and snapping turtles, and also from gourds and large
seashells. Pottery jars were formed out of clay removed from riverbanks or
lakeshores. Baskets and mats were woven from cattail reeds and from bast –
the inner bark and roots of certain trees.
Stone tools were made either by chipping and flaking, or by
pecking and grinding. Spearpoints, arrowheads, scrapers,
knives, drills and gravers were generally made from finergrained stones including flint and quartz that were easier to work
into sharp, crisply flaked implements. Axes, celts, gouges, adzes and other
heavy woodworking and domestic tools were usually made from coarser
stones. These types of tools were shaped by repeated pecking with a
hammerstone until the cobble or rock was eroded to the desired
shape. The tool might then be ground and polished
with a whetstone or with sand and water. The more it was
polished, the smoother the finish. Pendants, gorgets, and other
objects of special significance were frequently carved and polished with great
care and then drilled for attachment or suspension.