Delaware

Member of an American Indian people who lived along the Delaware Valley and northeast Atlantic coast (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia) until pushed westwards from the 18th century. One of the Algonquian-speaking peoples, others called them ‘grandfather’ as they were believed to have inhabited the original territory of their group. Primarily farmers, they lived in permanent longhouses, and were skilled artisans, creating woodcarvings, pottery, ornamented deerskin clothing, and pictographs (picture writing). The Delaware now live primarily in Oklahoma, with smaller groups in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Idaho, and Wisconsin, and in Ontario, Canada. Their total US population numbers about 8,300 (2000).

Traditionally the Delaware raised maize (corn), squash (pumpkins), beans, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, and supplemented their food supply with fish and game. They decorated their deerskin clothes with beads, feathers, and copper ornaments. Tattooing was common to both sexes and mineral and vegetable dyes were used for body decoration and for picture writing, which they used as a means of record-keeping. They also played a traditional form of football, using a soft deerskin ball and mixed teams of men and women. The Delaware lived in longhouses (bark lodges) and used dugout canoes and wigwams when travelling. They used nicknames, believing that telling their real name brought bad luck.

There was no unifying central political authority but a set of independent villages and bands. The Delaware were divided into three subgroups based on dialect and location: the Munsee, Unami, and Unalactigo. They were also divided into three matrilineal clans (membership passing through the mother) which cut across village and band divisions; these were Turtle, Wolf, and Turkey. The Turtle clan ranked first among the Unami and Unalactigo, but was not represented among the Munsee. A member from each of the matrilineal clans formed the tribal council, which was nearly always headed by a Turtle. The Delaware were often called upon as peacemakers, as their traditional position of ‘grandfather’ gave them the necessary authority to settle disputes.

While there were perhaps as many as 20,000 Delaware in 1600, wars and epidemics had reduced their population to about 4,000 by 1700, and by 1845 it had fallen to about 2,000. According to legend, the Delaware sold Manhattan to the Dutch in 1626 for $24. By 1750 some Delaware had already moved from their traditional territory to Ohio, where they lived with the Huron.

On 17 September 1778 the Delaware became the first indigenous group to sign a treaty with the USA; this granted them representation in Congress, though by 1794 the two parties were at war. Other treaties followed as the expansion of white settlements pushed the Delaware westward. The migration took them first to Ohio and then, after this was ceded to the USA in 1829, to a reservation in Kansas. In 1863 the Kansas legislature ordered the removal of all American Indians from the state, and in April 1867 the Delaware paid the Cherokee US$280,000 (acquired from the sale of land in Kansas) for land in Oklahoma, where they moved in 1868 to become part of the Cherokee Nation. In 1979 the Bureau of Indian Affairs terminated the tribal status of the Delaware living among the Cherokee. However, in September 1996 they regained federal recognition as a separate ethnic group. There has been a recent revival of their language and culture.