History of the Delaware (Lenni-Lenape)
Pre-Ohio History
The Delaware (also known as the Lenni-Lenape or Lenape) originally lived on the East Coast, especially in what is now eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. The Lenape traditionally relied on the rivers and rich soil of the East Coast for food. The Lenape tended to live in multi-family dwellings called wigwams. Women in Lenape culture planted crops, and family lines were matrilineal, or traced through the mother. The Lenape eventually organized into three clans: Wolf, Turkey, and Turtle. Lenape people married outside of their clan, and one’s clan was determined by their mother.1 Booth, The Tuscarawas Valley in Indian Days, 1750-1797, xxiv. Other Algonquian-speaking tribes consider the Lenape to be their “grandfathers,” or the oldest tribe according to kinship ties.
The Lenape first came into contact with the Swedish and Dutch in the 1600s. In 1709, a group of Delaware people moved to the Susquehanna valley, where the Iroquois were in control.2Weslager, The Delaware Indian Westward Migration, 15. Treaties with Europeans took the Delaware’s right to live on their lands away.3 Weslager, The Delaware Indian Westward Migration, 9. Misleading contracts such as the Walking Purchase of 1737 reduced their lands. In the 1730s and 1740s, they began to move west into Western Pennsylvania and eventually into Ohio.4 McConnell, A Country Between, 21-22. During the French and Indian War, colonists destroyed one of their major towns, Kittanning, in Pennsylvania. This, along with increasing white encroachment, pushed them into Ohio.5 Weslager, Delaware Indian Migration, 21-24 In the mid-1700s, groups of the Delaware came to Ohio, while others (the Munsee Delaware) left for Canada.6 Hurt, The Ohio Frontier, 10; “History of the Delaware Nation,” Delaware Nation, 2022 Many of the settlements created with Christian missionaries in Ohio were established in the 1770s.7Weslager, The Delaware Indian Westward Migration, 31
As the Delaware moved west from their original homelands, they carried the sadness of losing their lands and the anger of being undermined by white settlers and the Iroquois, who made contracts with white settlers to give more Lenape land away. 8Weslager, The Delaware Indian Westward Migration, 20
The Delaware in Ohio
In Ohio, the Delaware started a new life along the rivers and streams, including the Tuscarawas River, east of Wooster. They farmed their new lands and traded for goods with European traders.9 Weslager, The Delaware Indian Westward Migration, 26; 29.
Important Delaware settlements include:
- Newcomer’s Town: founded by regional leader Killbuck’s grandfather Netawatwees10Hurt, 17.
- Coshocton: where council meetings took place11Weslager, The Delaware Indian Westward Migration, 40.
- Gnaddenhutten: a Moravian Christian settlement, where American forces massacred Delaware settlers in 1782.12Weslager, The Delaware Indian Migration, 28; 31.
In Wayne County, Papellond was a local Delaware leader.13 Wilger Williams, Old Paths in the New Purchase, 9. He had a settlement in the area called “Beaver Hat Town.” During the Revolutionary War, Delaware leaders clashed over who to side with. Some, like Gelelemend (Killbuck) sided with the Americans, while others like Captain Pipe sided with the British. In 1778, the Delaware, including Killbuck and Captain Pipe, signed the first treaty between an Indigenous Nation and the U.S. and were promised to be included in the U.S. as a 14th state. However, this promise was never upheld.14Weslager, The Delaware Indian Westward Migration, 303-306.
The Delaware hoped that Ohio would be a new home for them. However, the pressures of colonial conflict and white settlement made their lives precarious. Individual members of the Delaware used different methods to resist American expansion. However, in the 1800s, further treaties would force the Delaware into Indiana, Canada, and eventually Oklahoma, where the Delaware Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians are located today.