THE LENAPE TRIBE

The indigenous people of the Lenape tribe were the first known inhabitants of the island of Mannahatta.   When Europeans first arrived, the Lenapes had inhabited their homeland for over 12,000 years.  The Lenapes stood along the shore and greeted Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to explore the coast of North America, in the year 1524.  Da Verrazzano described the Lenapes as follows:

"These people are the most beautiful.  They are taller than we are, they are a bronze color, their face is clear-cut . . . their eyes are black and alert, and their manner is sweet and gentle."

In 1609, English explorer, Henry Hudson, would also be welcomed by the Lenapes as he sailed into New York harbor on his ship, the Half Moon.  

Lenapes were nomadic people who set up campsites and communities throughout Manhattan.  They moved from place to place depending on seasonal changes.  They did not own land but were skilled farmers and hunters.  The Lenapes called themselves "Lenni-Lenape" or "Men of Men," which means "Original People."  Their homeland was known as "Lenapehoking" or "where the Lenape dwell."  Lenapehoking was a wide territory of northeastern America which included not only what is now New York City but Western Connecticut, Eastern Pennsylvania, the Hudson Valley, Delaware, and New Jersey.  

The Lenapes spoke the "Munsee" language, a dialect of "the Eastern Algonquian family of languages, that was spoken by all coastal Indians between Canada and the Carolinas four hundred years ago."  They lived in round-shaped wigwams and circular longhouses.  Wigwams stood eight to ten feet tall and were constructed of wood which were covered in bark, grass, and woven mats.  The longhouses were 60 feet long and 25 feet tall, rounded on top, built to accommodate 25 to 30 families, made of wooden frames from tree saplings, held together by cords, vines, or animal furns.  Each family had its own fire pit for cooking and for providing heat.  Lenape campsites in Mannahatta were in locations ranging from Battery Park, Governors Island, Greenwich Village, Park Avenue, and sites along the East River and 119th Street.  

Their society was matriarchal.  Bloodlines were traced through the women's family and the descent of her family.  The tribe's women (squaw sachems) were the leaders and had a significant role in the community.  They worked in the fields, grew the crops in a "three sister" pattern consisting of corn, beans, and squash, and cooked.  Tall growing corn stalks created a place where the beans could climb, grow, and enrich the soil.  Squash planted below and along the ground prevented weeds from growing.   The men (sachems) were warriors, hunters, and fishermen who fished in dugout canoes built from tulip trees.  In the winter, they hunted with bows and arrows made from hickory and stone knives used to kill deer and other wildlife.  The tribe traded animal pelts in exchange for firearms, sugar, coffee, and fabric.    

Members of the tribe wore ornaments and often had nose rings.  The women dressed in colorful wrap-around knee or calf-length skirts so exquisitely decorated that they reminded the Dutch settlers of fine lace.  The men wore breechclouts (loincloths) made from deer skins with leggings and robes during colder weather, beaded headbands made from wampun, and moccasins.  Both men and women decorated their bodies, faces and arms with bear grease in designs of various colors.  

By 1700, diseases such as smallpox and measles brought by the Europeans, had devastated the Lenape tribe from around 20,000 people to only 3,000.  As the European population took over more and more of their land, the Lenapes were forced to migrate westward from New York to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas (where they set up a reservation in 1830), Ohio, and then to Oklahoma.  Their population was devastated by war and disease as well as alcohol.  Today most of the tribe live in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, or Ontario, Canada.

Names of some of the Lenape clans, such as Canarsee, had been used to name New York City neighborhoods.  The legacy of the Lenapes in New York City have almost completely disappeared. 

There are only two monuments dedicated to the Lenape tribe in New York City.  One is in Battery Park and the other in Inwood Hill Park in Washington Heights.  Sadly, both monuments commemorate the selling of Manhattan by the tribe to the Dutch.  As far back as 1911, Congress passed a bill approving the construction of a 165-foot statue honoring the Lenapes.  It was to be constructed at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, but never happened.  Today the Lenape tribes mostly live in Oklahoma.  

Additional information can be found at Manhattan's Lenape Center.  Their mission to continue "Lenapehoking the Lenape homeland through community, culture, and the arts."  There's even a Lenape Talking Dictionary online.