Delaware Nation

Delaware Nation is a sovereign federally recognized Nation of Lenape people. The Lenape are the Indigenous peoples whose ancestral homelands encompassed eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of New York, Connecticut, and Maryland since time immemorial. But the Lenape people also traveled, hunted, traded, and interacted with other Nations well beyond these artificial boundaries. “Lenape” is the correct term by which we refer to ourselves, and it means “the people.” Lenape is also the name of our language, which is part of the broader Algonquian language family. The name “Delaware” is now used interchangeably with Lenape, but “Delaware” is a European term. The Lenape became collectively referred to as the Delaware by European colonists because of their proximity to the Delaware River, which Europeans had named after their first governor of the Province of Virginia: Thomas West, third Baron De La Warr. The Lenape people have over 15,000 years of history in the homelands before the arrival of Europeans to Lenape homelands. Historically, there were many related Lenape communities living throughout our homeland region. Among these communities, there were at least two different dialects of the Lenape language spoken (Munsee in the north and Unami in the south), and at least three different family clans (Wolf, Turkey, and Turtle). Membership to a clan is determined by the mother’s family line, which is why the Lenape are a matrilineal culture. The Lenape are also matriarchal, which means that female leadership is significant to Lenape society. Lenape communities would typically have their own chiefs or sakima, selected democratically by elders and matriarchs. There was not necessarily one singular or centralized “Lenape Nation” in the way that Europeans conceptualized nationhood. Lenape society was more dispersed and egalitarian, and leadership would often convene together to discuss shared issues and negotiate treaties affecting all Lenape people. The Lenape were a significant sovereign force politically, socially, and economically in their homeland region both before and after contact with Europeans, and renowned as skilled diplomats in negotiations with other Tribal and European Nations. As a result of fragmentation from a century of forced removals from their homelands, there is still not one singular Nation of Lenape people today. Rather, there are multiple federally recognized Tribal Nations or First Nations of Lenape people in the United States and Canada. In addition to Delaware Nation, they are Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville Oklahoma), Stockbridge Munsee Community (Bowler Wisconsin), and Munsee Delaware Nation and Eelūnaapèewii Lahkèewiit (Delaware Nation at Moraviantown) both in Ontario Canada. The tribal governments and largest populations of Lenape people today reside in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Canada, with some families and Citizens living across North America. There are countless examples of settler colonial violence, unjust or fraudulent dispossessions, and broken treaties which contributed to the many forced removals of the Lenape people from their homelands. A few of the major ones are: Peter Minuit’s dubious “purchase” of Manahatta (Manhattan Island, New York); William Penn’s sons seizing much of eastern Pennsylvania through the fraudulent Walking Purchase of 1737; or the United States’ first made and first broken treaty with a Tribal Nation, the 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt. The enduring Nations of Lenape people fought fiercely through settler colonial oppression to uphold their sovereignty and still be here today. Delaware Nation is proud to preserve and protect Lenape culture and sovereignty in perpetuity for future generations. The Lenape creation story tells us that one day the rain came and the People prayed to our Creator as the waters rose. The Creator directed the People to a large hill and told them to camp upon it. As the rain continued to fall the water began to pool and rise ar