Home Page
Lenape Indian History --- Copyright: Norman E Sindlinger 2021
Based upon archeological evidence, the Lenni-Lenape Indians lived for an estimated ten-thousand years in all of New Jersey, southeastern New York, eastern Long Island, eastern Pennsylvania, and northeastern Delaware. They called their homeland ‘Lenapehoking.’
During the last ice age, about twelve-thousand years ago, the depth of the Bering Sea decreased by about 150 feet opening a land bridge of walkable areas between Asia and Alaska. Some historians disagree with this theory saying American Indians came to the American continent on boats across the Pacific Ocean.
From early in the 1600s, European colonists begin taking Native American ancestral lands, forcing the Lenape and almost all other tribes to repeatably relocate westward to Indian Territory and as far north as Canada. This is their final head-quarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. They are commonly known as the Delawares
Lenape Chief Tamanend
Tamanend “The Affable,” was the Chief of Chiefs and the Turtle Clan of the Lenni-Lenape nation in the Delaware Valley signing the first of six Peace treaties with William Penn. He is best known as a lover of peace.
Lenape Chief Lappawinsoe
Part of the reason Lappawinsoe and the other Lenape chiefs signed the Walking Purchase Treaty that turned out to be fraudulent was to honor their peaceful relationship with William Penn who had died 19 years earlier.
Lenape Chief White Eyes
As Head Chief (1700-1778) he was a famous Sachem of the Turtle clan. He served as a Lenape Captain during the Revolution. He was a personal friend of George Washington and he became a Colonel in 1778 in the American Army.
William Penn Peace Treaty
Ohio Missionary
Lenape Village Scene
Lenape Village Scene
Lenape Man & Wife
Lenape Warriors
1830 Indian Removal Act
President Andrew Jackson
In 1830, President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner, approved the Indian Removal Act. This Act gave the US federal government the power to forcibly move 60,000 Indians from their homes in Georgia, North and South Kentucky, and Florida. They were moved to lands west of the Mississippi River so that white settlers could farm Indian lands for cotton. Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chocktaw, Chickasaw, and Winnebago tribes were driven in chains and at gun-point by 7,000 soldiers in this long march called The Trail of Tears. It took 3 months in the harshest weather. Indian removals took place for more than 10 years, from 1830-to 1840, as tribes were continuously pushed off their lands. More than 5,000 Indian men, women, and children died on the Trail of Tears of disease, starvation, and exhaustion. The long trail included the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Oklahoma.