Media Monday: Land of the Lenape: A Violent Tale of Conquest and Betrayal

Map of Lenape languages, Wikimedia Commons.

November is Native American Heritage Month, and although we've been interpreting Indigenous history through guest speakers Harv Hilowitz and Justin Wexler aboard Solaris this summer, we thought we would take this Media Monday to highlight some of the Lenape history in New York City and the Hudson Valley. 

The Bowery Boys have been interpreting New York City history for the general public via podcast since 2007. In this episode, "Land of the Lenape: A Violent Tale of Conquest and Betrayal," they examine the history of the Lenape in New York City and environs.

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. 

Although some 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 through the work of the Lenape Center, located in Manhattan. 

Learn More:

• ​If you missed this summer's video with historian Harv Hilowitz on Lenapehoking, you can check it out here. 
• "The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland" Smithsonian Magazine
• A Tour of Native New York from Barnard College
• "How New York Was Named" the New Yorker​
• Visit the "Native New York" exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

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