Delaware Nation Documentary

The Hudson River Valley is part of Lenapehoking - or the Lenape homeland. As residents of the southern Hudson Valley and the New Jersey coastline, they were some of the first Indigenous people in the Northeast to make contact with Europeans, and therefore among the first to bear the brunt of disease, violence, and forced removal. In the Hudson Valley, Manhattan, Tappan, Ramapo, Neversink, Wappingers, and Esopus are all place names derived from Lenape tribal names or words. ​

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Editor's Note: This introduction to the Delaware Nation and more information can be found here: https://www.delawarenation-nsn.gov/history/

"The long history of the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware people as we are now known, reaches far back before the arrival of the Europeans.  Since much has been lost over time, it is perhaps best to begin in the forested waterways of the Hudson River Valley.  Ranging from “. . . the states of New Jersey and Delaware, that part of southeastern Pennsylvania lying between the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, and the southeastern part of New York state west of the Hudson” (Weslager 1972: 33), the Delaware people today can be found in small enclaves across the U.S. and Canada. The largest populations reside mainly in Oklahoma and Ontario, Canada, with families and individual tribal members scattered across North America. Perhaps as frontier artist George Catlin noted in First Artists of the West, George Catlin Paintings and Watercolors (Troccoli 1993: 52), in describing the Delaware character and reaction to the continuous push into unknown lands; “No other tribe on the continent has been so much moved and jostled about by civilized invasions; and none have retreated so far, or fought their way so desperately, as they have honourably and bravely contended for every foot of the ground they have passed over.” The Absentee Delaware, “absentee” being a description we were given early on, broke away from the main body of the tribe shortly after the American Revolution. European promises of the inclusion of a 14th state, an Indian state, were made as enticement to sign the first treaty in 1778 between the fledgling United States and the Indians. Of course no Indian state was ever declared and by 1782 continued expansion of the frontier and the violence often erupting from that expansion, compelled the Absentee Delaware to move beyond the borders of the newly formed United States into Spanish territory west of the Mississippi River (Hale 1987:1)." 

Editor's Note: This video reflects the terminology used when it was produced in 2009. ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWFeMGmJne4&t=10s

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Although Lenape people still live in the Northeast, most were forcibly removed multiple times to several different locations, including Wisconsin, Ontario, and Oklahoma. You can learn more about the Lenape by visiting these websites:

- Delaware Nation -  delawarenation-nsn.gov 
- Delaware Tribe - delawaretribe.org
- Stockbridge Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians - mohican.com
- The Lenape Center -  thelenapecenter.com

Canadian First Nations:
- Munsee-Delaware Nation, Canadian reserve near St. Thomas, Ontario.
- Moravian of the Thames First Nation, Canadian reserve near Chatham-Kent. http://delawarenation.on.ca/. 
- Delaware of Six Nations (at Six Nations of the Grand River), two Canadian reserves near Brantford, Ontario.