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The Lenape of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, And Ontario
The Lenape lived in harmony with nature in different parts of the northeastern United States for many years. As European settlers established colonies in the 16s, the Lenape were introduced to new ideas and new ways of life—while facing the pressure of having to leave their homelands. Many Lenape were forced out of their native lands into the western United States and Canada. Known today as the Delaware and Munsee tribes, the Lenape who survive today work to keep their rich cultural traditions alive.
64 pages, Library Binding
First published August 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 25, 2011
From a series known as "The Library of Native Americans," The Lenape is an informational book in text-book style. The book discusses the origin of the Lenape, Lenape life and customs (food, hunting, appearance, family structure, religion), and the history of the Lenape since Europeans arrived in America. There is a glossary, a timeline, and an index. However, the index contains inaccuracies-- the Walking Purchase is mentioned on several pages, most prominently on page 41, but the index only lists page 42, where it is only briefly mentioned. And when talking about Lenapehoking, the land of the Lenape, Dalton says it covered parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma, and Ontario. However, Oklahoma and Ontario were not original parts of Lenapehoking-- the Lenape moved their after being forced out of the Middle Atlantic states. I looked for information about this series online, but found no reviews to confirm my assessment.
August 2, 2015
An extremely simplified YA book on the Mid-Atlantic Lenape; however, may be an acceptable introduction to the Indians for an adolescent or child. The story of the Indians living in harmony with nature is recounted, with some interesting information on their language and customs, as well as their crafts and cycle of annual activities. The reader learns about the variety of foods they either raised (corn, squash, beans) or hunted or fished, as well as gathered. They fashioned tools of stone, used porcupine quills to decorate their bags and clothing, and made tortoise shells into rattles. Customs and clothing are discussed, as well as technique used to construct wigwams, produce canoes from logs and use fire to hunt. Various foods the Lenape ate such as sapan - cornmeal mush - are described. It is emphasized that the hand-made tools the Lenape crafted were both useful and beautiful one-of-a-kind items. Their social structure was matrilineal and they organized themselves into clans; marriage within a clan was forbidden. The clans provided support for the clan members, including adoption if parents were lost, and places to stay if a clan member traveled to another area.
There is a discussion of the beliefs of the Lenape including stories of how the world was created and that the Lenape thought the world was filled with various spirits. The Lenape paid attention to dreams and thought the spirits might speak with them through their dreams. The Lenape had a cycle of annual ceremonies, which would serve to unite the Lenape people, prevent sickness and disaster. At the ceremonies, there would be recitations of dreams and offerings of meat, leaves, and tobacco to spirits to appease them.
The Lenape had myths that were handed down from generation to generation, including a myth describing how the world was created. The Lenape conveyed information about surviving, craft techniques, and everything needed to be a Lenape by means of talk and discussion, and in this way, their culture was transmitted from generation to generation.
Unfortunately, their system of subsistence agriculture, hunting, fishing, and gathering, without the accumulation of wealth, which had successfully sustained their society for millenniums, was utterly destroyed with the advent or invasion of the Europeans in the 16th Century. By 1710 approximately 90% of the Lenape had died from disease and warfare and inter-tribal warfare.
The biggest catastrophe was the Lenape's addiction to alcohol and European manufactured goods, as well as beads, for which they traded at first pelts. Once the fur trade collapsed with the extinction of various fur-bearing animals as they were over-hunted, the Indians didn't have much more to trade for liquor and manufactured goods and fell into poverty. Land was sold at cheap prices to the English imperial and American federal government, which was then resold to raise money for the respective governments to whites, or awarded to whites in payment for war service.
The whites greed for land continually drove the Lenape westward. There were massacres of the Lenape, and wars, especially with the Dutch in Niew Amsterdam. The long war with the Lenape weakened the Dutch, setting the stage for their surrender to the English. The English were careful to buy land from the Indians although the Indians may not have realized what land sales represented. The Indians didn't realize that they could no longer use the land to hunt or fish from then on - that is, use it as they had used it previously - they may have thought they were agreeing to share the use of the land with the buyers. A description is given of the Walking Purchase of 1737, wherein the sons of William Penn cheated the Lenape out of a great deal of what is now Pennsylvania.
Land sales, pressure from settlers, wars, the aftermath of the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars served to scatter the Lenape throughout North America, although some survived in isolated areas of their original homeland, including in NJ, NY, PA, and Kansas. The southern Lenape became known as the Delawares whereas the northern Lenape are known as the Munsee. They continually retreated further west. Some adopted Christian pacifism but were massacred by whites in a town called Gnadenhutten, Ohio, in 1782, as they were signing hymns and praying for mercy. As news of the massacre spread among the Delaware and Munsee, many fled to Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada, where many still live today.
In the 19th Century, the Mexican government invited a group of Lenape known as the Absentee Delaware to live in Texas among other tribes such as the Cherokee and Creeks. Unfortunately, Mexico lost Texas in 1845, and the Delaware then left Texas to live among other tribes such as the Kiowa, the Wichita, and the Comanche.
They were promised an area in Kansas but were also driven out of their area in the Kansas territory in the 1860s, finally winding up in Oklahoma.
The allotment period is described in the book, wherein millions of acres of reservation land was lost.
In the US and Canada, Indian children were often sent to boarding schools far from their villages and families, forbidden to speak their own languages, and forced to follow Christianity. The Indians intermarried with whites, took up Christianity, and little by little their language and traditions vanished. They struggled in poverty. However, late in the 19th Century, some Lenape still remembered their old ways and made an effort to preserve the languages and beliefs.
The Lenape descendants are in reserves in Ontario, Canada, including living with the Iroquois on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. In the US, they live at a reservation in Wisconsin and on two reservations in Oklahoma.
In the 20th Century, Delaware leaders such as Walks with Daylight, Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Nora Thompson Dean, Lucy Parks Blalock, and James Rementer (Lenape Language Project) worked to keep their traditions alive. Speakers of various Lenape dialects helped John O'Meara late in the 20th Century create a Delaware-English dictionary.
Since 1992, the Delaware gather annually in Eastern Oklahoma and Ontario to dance, sing, offer prayers and light fires, so as to honor their traditions.
Late in the 20th Century, Lenape skeletal remains were uncovered at Ellis Island by construction workers. In 2003, Lenape gathered at Ellis Island to rebury the bones in a special ceremony invoking the spirit world. Despite the vast distances of their diaspora and the near extinction of their population, the Lenape today still celebrate their ancient heritage and work together to keep their culture alive, despite "...countless efforts to end their traditions and their tribe."
There is a discussion of the beliefs of the Lenape including stories of how the world was created and that the Lenape thought the world was filled with various spirits. The Lenape paid attention to dreams and thought the spirits might speak with them through their dreams. The Lenape had a cycle of annual ceremonies, which would serve to unite the Lenape people, prevent sickness and disaster. At the ceremonies, there would be recitations of dreams and offerings of meat, leaves, and tobacco to spirits to appease them.
The Lenape had myths that were handed down from generation to generation, including a myth describing how the world was created. The Lenape conveyed information about surviving, craft techniques, and everything needed to be a Lenape by means of talk and discussion, and in this way, their culture was transmitted from generation to generation.
Unfortunately, their system of subsistence agriculture, hunting, fishing, and gathering, without the accumulation of wealth, which had successfully sustained their society for millenniums, was utterly destroyed with the advent or invasion of the Europeans in the 16th Century. By 1710 approximately 90% of the Lenape had died from disease and warfare and inter-tribal warfare.
The biggest catastrophe was the Lenape's addiction to alcohol and European manufactured goods, as well as beads, for which they traded at first pelts. Once the fur trade collapsed with the extinction of various fur-bearing animals as they were over-hunted, the Indians didn't have much more to trade for liquor and manufactured goods and fell into poverty. Land was sold at cheap prices to the English imperial and American federal government, which was then resold to raise money for the respective governments to whites, or awarded to whites in payment for war service.
The whites greed for land continually drove the Lenape westward. There were massacres of the Lenape, and wars, especially with the Dutch in Niew Amsterdam. The long war with the Lenape weakened the Dutch, setting the stage for their surrender to the English. The English were careful to buy land from the Indians although the Indians may not have realized what land sales represented. The Indians didn't realize that they could no longer use the land to hunt or fish from then on - that is, use it as they had used it previously - they may have thought they were agreeing to share the use of the land with the buyers. A description is given of the Walking Purchase of 1737, wherein the sons of William Penn cheated the Lenape out of a great deal of what is now Pennsylvania.
Land sales, pressure from settlers, wars, the aftermath of the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars served to scatter the Lenape throughout North America, although some survived in isolated areas of their original homeland, including in NJ, NY, PA, and Kansas. The southern Lenape became known as the Delawares whereas the northern Lenape are known as the Munsee. They continually retreated further west. Some adopted Christian pacifism but were massacred by whites in a town called Gnadenhutten, Ohio, in 1782, as they were signing hymns and praying for mercy. As news of the massacre spread among the Delaware and Munsee, many fled to Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada, where many still live today.
In the 19th Century, the Mexican government invited a group of Lenape known as the Absentee Delaware to live in Texas among other tribes such as the Cherokee and Creeks. Unfortunately, Mexico lost Texas in 1845, and the Delaware then left Texas to live among other tribes such as the Kiowa, the Wichita, and the Comanche.
They were promised an area in Kansas but were also driven out of their area in the Kansas territory in the 1860s, finally winding up in Oklahoma.
The allotment period is described in the book, wherein millions of acres of reservation land was lost.
In the US and Canada, Indian children were often sent to boarding schools far from their villages and families, forbidden to speak their own languages, and forced to follow Christianity. The Indians intermarried with whites, took up Christianity, and little by little their language and traditions vanished. They struggled in poverty. However, late in the 19th Century, some Lenape still remembered their old ways and made an effort to preserve the languages and beliefs.
The Lenape descendants are in reserves in Ontario, Canada, including living with the Iroquois on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. In the US, they live at a reservation in Wisconsin and on two reservations in Oklahoma.
In the 20th Century, Delaware leaders such as Walks with Daylight, Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Nora Thompson Dean, Lucy Parks Blalock, and James Rementer (Lenape Language Project) worked to keep their traditions alive. Speakers of various Lenape dialects helped John O'Meara late in the 20th Century create a Delaware-English dictionary.
Since 1992, the Delaware gather annually in Eastern Oklahoma and Ontario to dance, sing, offer prayers and light fires, so as to honor their traditions.
Late in the 20th Century, Lenape skeletal remains were uncovered at Ellis Island by construction workers. In 2003, Lenape gathered at Ellis Island to rebury the bones in a special ceremony invoking the spirit world. Despite the vast distances of their diaspora and the near extinction of their population, the Lenape today still celebrate their ancient heritage and work together to keep their culture alive, despite "...countless efforts to end their traditions and their tribe."
September 4, 2012
Good introduction to the Lenape. My fifth graders could easily read this text. Provides good background information for further study.
October 8, 2015
i want to read this book
Read
February 8, 2016Ksjs
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews