Removal of the Delaware and Beyond

Removal from Ohio

After the Revolutionary War, white settlers imposed treaties that slowly reduced Delaware lands in Ohio. The Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785) opened up the Tuscarawas valley for white settlement, while the Treaty of Greenville (1795) pushed them out of Southern and Eastern Ohio.¹Weslager, The Delaware Indian Migration, 48-49.  Delaware people who remained close to European missionaries in Ohio fled to Canada during the American Revolution. Other groups of the Delaware established villages along the White River in Indiana, including Gelelemend’s son.² Weslager, The Delaware Indians, 333-334. While the soil was adequate for agriculture, the Delaware resisted the pressures of adopting European-style agriculture and impeding white settlers.³ Weslager, The Delaware Indians, 336-337.

 In 1793, a group called the Absentee Delaware split off and settled in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which was Spanish territory. The Cape Girardeau Delaware eventually left for Texas, where they and the Shawnee fought the Comanche with the white Texans.⁴Weslager, The Delaware Indians, 430. However, the US then forced them onto a reservation in Oklahoma. This became the Delaware Nation.

In 1818, St. Mary’s Treaty (also known as the Treaty with the Delawares) gave the Delaware three years to leave Indiana. They then had to relocate to Missouri, where white settlers were looking to farm their lands.⁵Weslager, The Delaware Indians, 361; 364. After conflicts with the Miami in Missouri, the Delaware went to Kansas in 1829.⁶Weslager, The Delaware Indians, 369. During the Civil War, the Delaware fought on behalf of the North, although the conflict also destroyed Indigenous communities, especially in Kansas.⁷Hixson, American Settler Colonialism, 111. In 1866, the US government forced the Delaware into Cherokee lands in Oklahoma.⁸Weslager, The Delaware Indians, 399.

“We have got in a country where we do not find all as stated to us…we do not get as much as was promised us at the treaty of St. Mary’s neither…We have found a poor hilly stony country and the worst of all no game to be found on it to live on.”

Chief Anderson, Black Beaver, and Natcoming in a letter to General Clark, February 1824. (from page 363 of Weslager, The Delaware Indians: a History.)

The Delaware Today

Today, there are two Delaware groups: The Delaware Nation (federally recognized in 1958) and the Delaware Tribe of Indians (federally recognized in 2009). Today, both groups work to preserve their cultures. The Delaware Nation hosts language revitalization programs to preserve their traditional lifeways. The Delaware Tribe of Indians also continues their tradition of helping fellow tribal members by running their own food pantry. The Delaware Tribe of Indians also operates their own fabric and clothing company, Teton Trade Cloth by Lenape.⁹ Delaware Tribe of Indians, 2022.

Below are some words from Carissa Speck, the Historic Preservation Office Director for the Delaware Nation on how she works to preserve Delaware culture and history:

The mission of the Delaware Nation Historic Preservation Office is to preserve the culture, history, ancestral lands, and sacred sites, objects of cultural patrimony, materials, and objects possessing ongoing cultural significance to the Delaware Nation. Our department conducts meaningful government to government consultation with local, state, federal agencies, and organizations in the Delaware Nation’s 17 state area of interest to achieve this goal. 

The Historic Preservation Office of the Delaware Nation is committed to the preservation and protection of our history. Through Section 106 reviews, consultation, and monitoring, we can protect our lands of tribal interest from physical destruction and or damage, our sacred sites such as cemeteries and ceremonial locations, and the flora and fauna of historic importance to our tribe. Our office focuses on the historic oversight of 17 states, 6 of which our oversight encompasses the entire state while we oversee specific counties in the remaining 11 states. Our purpose is to protect archaeological sites which might contain burials and associated funerary objects. 

It is the mission of the Delaware Nation’s Historic Preservation Office to protect, preserve, and perpetuate our story so future generations may continue to pass on the rich history and culture of the Delaware people. The programs under the guidance of the Department are: Section 106 reviews of all federal projects, our Archives, Library, Museum & Gift Shop. 

Carissa Speck, Historic Preservation Director, Delaware Nation, 2023.

To learn more about Delaware history and culture, see their official websites:

Back to Removal and Beyond