Monthly Archives: May 2010

Immanuel Mission Church, Kent Co., DE

Indian Mission Church, Sussex Co., DE

St. John Church, Cumberland Co., NJ

By 1800, the majority of those in the tribal communities had been converted to Christianity, while still maintaining many traditional Nanticoke and Lenape spiritual values.  Each of our three interrelated Nanticoke and Lenape tribal communities sustained their internal governance through tribal congregations.  Through the 1800’s and 1900’s, tribal control over the congregations was fiercely guarded by each tribal community, sometimes putting them at odds with denominational leadership…

…We have our own church buildings and government… Others may come as often as they choose and are quite welcome and a good many do come, but no strangers are admitted to membership or can have any voice in the management. A number of years ago the Methodist Conference succeeded in taking one of our churches from us, down in Sussex, but our people immediately built another for themselves and connected themselves with the Methodist Protestants. That is why we want no strangers to join our church here; that occurrence was a lesson to us.”  (John Sanders, a  Kent County tribal elder, in an 1892 article published in The Times of Philadelphia)

Tribal churches in Cumberland County (New Jersey), Kent and Sussex Counties (Delaware) have all been documented and acknowledged as Historic American Indian Congregations.

Nanticoke and Lenape School Children c.1942

Nanticoke School Children c.1915

In Kent and Sussex Counties, Delaware, tribally controlled segregated schools were established by the communities in the mid to late 1800’s and continued as Native American public schools, with tribal school boards, into the mid 1900’s.  The issue of tribal education resulting in an 1881 Delaware statute  that listed tribal leaders in Sussex County, Delaware.  Public support for tribally controlled segregated schools in Kent and Sussex Counties is well documented in state statutes and reports.

Social organizations, exclusive to tribal people, rose within the tribal communities. 

In spite of the government effort to eradicate American Indian identity through racial persecution and intentional misidentification in New Jersey and Delaware, from the 1750’s on, public records continued to identify our ancestors and report on our communities.  Lists of our tribal families are compiled in government documents, statutes, research reports, and studies from the 1880’s through to the modern era.

Benjamin West Painting of the Shackamaxon Treaty of 1682

Our ancestors were variously referred to as the “Siconese,” Sewapois,” “Narraticons,” “Cohansies,”  “Bay Indians,” “Kuskarawoaks,” and several other regional names.  In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch, Swedes, and British all set up colonies in our homeland.

By 1740, masses of our relatives had begun to migrate away, being pushed west and north.  We are the Lenape and Nanticoke people who remained in our ancient homeland, intermarrying between three tribal communities since before the establishment of the United States.  We are those who kept watch over the land of our ancestors.

Lenape Forced Migration

Our families occupied reservations and “Indian Towns” during the colonial era.  As early as 1704, our people lived on the Broad Creek, Chicone and Indian River reservations on the Delmarva, with some of our families also coalescing in  an area that would be called “Cheswold” near Dover, Delaware.  The Brotherton Reservation was established in New Jersey in 1758, but few of colony’s tribal people chose to take up permanent residence there, many continued to live in small tribal communities that were in the midst of non-Native colonial towns like those in and around Bridgeton; by the time the Brotherton Reservation was disbanded in 1802, there were only seventy Indians still living there.

By the early 1800’s, our tribal families made up reclusive tribal communities in southern New Jersey and central and southern Delaware.  Generations of intermarriage resulted in a blend of Lenape and Nanticoke bloodlines in each of the communities.

Land of the Lenape

The Lenni-Lenape (variously translated to mean “men of men,” “original” or “common” people) are considered the “grandfathers” or “ancient ones” by many other tribes and are viewed as the “trunk” of the Algonkian family tree. The Lenape (pronounced Le-NAH-pay) homeland ranged from southeastern New York through to northeastern Delaware and included all of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Called the “Delaware Indians” by the British, our Lenape ancestors were the ancient diplomats who were called to settle disputes between tribes.

Nanticoke Territory

The Nanticoke (pronounced Nan-TEH-coke), called the “tidewater people,” lived in the central Delmarva Peninsula primarily along the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Our Nanticoke ancestors were known for their shell beads (called “roenoke,” similar to wampum), for constructing bridges across creeks, and for their knowledge of herbal medicines. The Nanticoke were called master traders by the British. In ancient times, the Nanticoke had emerged from the Lenape, with the territories of each tribe coming together in Delaware.

Our Lenape and Nanticoke ancestors were peace loving, and given to hospitality. We lived in harmony with the natural world around us in small communities and had wigwams and longhouses as homes. The men hunted and fished while the women grew crops.  Men were charged with protecting the village while women were charged with care for their homes. The village chief (called “sakima” in Lenape, but commonly referred to as “sachem”) led by example and personal sacrifice, and conferred with a council of respected “great ones” and elders.

Lenape "Fort" by Campanius of New Sweden

We wore clothes of animal skins, decorated with shell and bone beads and sometimes with natural pigments. We honored the Creator and his appointed guardian spirits by respecting all life and never taking more from nature than we could use. That respect for life meant that if an animal was taken for food, all of the animal should be used in some way in order to show gratitude for the sacrifice of its life to sustain ours.