The First and Forgotten

Gina Lauricella
The First and Forgotten
Molly College










The First and Forgotten



Who were the first people to live in Manhattan? Seems to be a simple question
however many New Yorkers rushing through the cities busy streets may not realize the
answer to this question. The Leni-Lenape Indians also known as the Delaware River
Indians where the first to live in what was known then as Manhatta. The Natives had
their own way of hunting and gathering, medicine, traveling and beliefs that helped them
adapt to the environment and climate changes the Northeast faced. As early as the 1500-
1600s there were Europeans that came over and explored the land of the Indians and
would soon take over the world of trade. The Lenape are no longer found in New York
and have migrated to western states such as Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Ontario.
Leni-Lenape means real people and they resided along the Northeastern
coastline in Eastern Pennsylvania, Southeastern New York, Western Long Island, New
Jersey and Northern Delaware, which is where they got their name Delaware River
Indians. The Lenape called the Hudson River Shatemuc meaning the river that flows
both ways. This was an important water route for the Lenape who traded with other
Native people living in villages along its banks (NMAI, p.3). These estuaries were
essential for survival and important to the Indian culture. The street we now call
Broadway, the Lenape used this trail that ran from what is now Battery Park in Southern
Manhattan northward, as far as what is now Boston, MA as a trade route (NMAI, p.8).
When it came to hunting and fishing the Lenape used dugout canoes. Originally people
thought the Indians used birch trees for this, but thats false. They used tulip trees
because they were the largest in diameter and they would wrap them in a wet animal skin.
Then they would burn the tree from the top down hallowing out the inside creating a
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space to sit. This whole process would take a week to 10days and the canoes would hold
10-20 people. They used this for fishing considering The Lenape relied on the oysters,
clams and other shellfish that were plentiful in the waters surrounding Manhatta (NMAI,
p.5).
Primarily the men did the hunting and developed many different techniques based
on what animal was being killed. Women were not fit for this because it was unsafe
especially if they had a baby on their backs to carry around. During the colder months
the Lenape would use the skins from the animals found dead completely utilizing all of
the natural resources. Many times they found dead animals such as wolves and would
use the skins to place on them while they were hunting so they could get closer to the
animals. Bow and arrows were used to kill deer, birds and other animals and certain
arrows were used depending on the animal. So if they were hunting deer the arrow tip
was very sharp, a blunt tip arrow was used to hit a bird in the sky and bring it down. A
snare trap was used for larger animals such as bear or animals that were difficult to get
close to like turkeys, which have very good eyesight. The Indians would set up a deadfall
trap using a large tree trunk that was balanced up above the food and it would fall if the
animal went for the bait. They learned that turkeys sleep in the same tree every night and
all they had to do was follow the animal and figure out what tree it used. These hunting
techniques were crucial for the Lenape Indians existence. European settlers noticed the
potential profits and over abundance of beavers in the area that would eventually lead to
them taking over the land and settling there.
The Lenape were very spiritual people and used Shamans that could be men or
women that used medical remedies to help their people. They studied different ways to
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cure headaches, stomachaches and cuts. Small ivory charms, traditionally worn as
necklaces or sewn into clothing, helped dispel negative influences. Many were made
with the intention of releasing a benign animal spirit considered trapped within the
confines of a piece of ivory or bone (Hunt, p30-31). They used the plants in the
surrounding areas and studied them by testing them each day. A weeping willow has a
sap inside the bark that has the same ingredient as Asprin and when it was scraped it
could be collected and used to treat headaches. They created sweat lodges out of tightly
woven skins and tree bark to hold the heat in. Then they would get rocks and place them
over the fire until they were red-hot, bring them inside the sweat lodge and pour water
over them so steam would rise up heating up the lodge completely. This was similar to a
sauna providing heat during the winter or helping someone to breath. They believed that
they could speak to the plants and that would bring them positive spirits and cures. After
speaking to a plant, a hole was made on the east side of the leaf and a piece of tobacco
was placed there. This was a gesture of thanks and hoping that the plant would speak to
other plants in helping cure people. Although they were herbalists they believed that
disease was caused by evil spirits and would need to be warded off differently. The
Shamans would make fires around the sick to scare the illness out of the body. Another
technique was taking a bone tube and placing a feather inside, then the shaman would
bite his/her lip so it would bleed and cover the feather. Then shoot it through the tube to
make the sick believe that whatever evil was inside has come out of the body and help
them heal. Much of Lenape communication is nonverbal. Facial expressions, gestures
and body language are deliberate parts of Lenape communication, and range from
obvious and simple to highly elaborate and complex. These visual cues are considered a
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great art form and are part of the vanishing heritage of the Munsee nation (Pritchard,
p.191). These random facts are pointed out to show what kind of people the Lenape
were, how they took care of each other and how they survived using their own beliefs.
Lenapes believed in a great spirit (Manitou) as well as the presence of other spirits in
all living things. Chiefs often served as religious as well as political leaders of the
village. The chief had no coercive powers, instead acting as a mediator, advisor and hunt
leader (Lenape, p.1). These beliefs were completely opposite of the settlers who were
coming to this land. Its easy to understand how the two cultures; the Dutch and Indians
did not mesh and why they were unable to coexist together.
As early as the 1500s Europeans started to migrate over, Giovanni da
Verrazzano in 1524 and Henry Hudson in 1609 sailed to the Manhatta harbor. Hudson
went back to Europe and spoke of the large numbers of beaver in what is now the
Northeast coast of the United States (NMAI, p. 6). In the 1600s beavers in Europe
became extinct, making the beavers in Manhatta very valuable to the trade industry. The
Dutch settled in Lower Manhattan in 1624 and began to start trading beaver, forcing the
Lenape to travel to the tri-state areas if they needed to hunt them. Eventually this trade
ended due to the beavers almost becoming extinct in New York as well as Europe. On
Wall Street in the mid 1600s, the Dutch built a wall to keep Native Americans and
British out of the area. The wall on Wall St was eventually moved (MNAI, p.10). It
was in 1624 that Peter Minuit made a deal with the Lenape for 60 guilders or $24 dollars
and renamed it New Amsterdam. However the Lenape did not really believe that they
were selling the land forever. To them no one owned land; it belonged to all people
(Waldman, p.120). Around the early 1680s the Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania were
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having meetings and signing treaties with William Penn. It is believed that William Penn
was the most fair and had a good relationship with the native people in the area by
helping them protect their land. A famous Lenape chief at the meetings was Tamanend.
Because he was so effective in his dealings with non-Indians, in 1786 his name was
taken, in the form of Tammany, as the name of a political club important in New York
history (Waldman, p.120). While the Dutch and British were taking over the new
lands they discovered on the Northeastern coast, the Indians were being asked to sell
their land and leave. As the number of Europeans grew so did the spread of diseases such
as the measles and smallpox, decreasing the number of Lenape. These diseases spread
throughout the River Indian communities like wild fire making it very difficult to attend
the treaty signings and fight for their freedoms. It was during such times, that colonists
felt strong enough to force the River Indians to sign away their rights to particular pieces
of territory, give up long valued rights and privileges, and submit to colonial authority
(Grumet, p.57). By 1630-1780 almost all of the Munsee land was completely turned over
to colonial property. The Lenape population went from 24,000 to 3000. In the 1830s
the battle for land were still going on and whenever the negotiations failed, President
Andrew Jackson used the military to remove the Indians. The tribes, promised food and
transportation during their removal to the West, were instead forced to walk the Trail of
Tears. More than 4,000 men, women, and children died during this forced march. The
removal policy was successful in opening land to the homesteaders, but it created
enormous amount of hardships for the Indians (Grumet, p.10). This was basically a
quiet genocide, by giving the Natives no other choice but to die and no one really knew
what was happening to them just that new land opportunities were opening. Its sad to
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look back into our history and to hear that this how these native people were treated.
This was a culture that didnt believe in killing for unjust reasons, they believed in
coexistence and were willing to share with the Europeans.
Many times we reside in places and are unfamiliar to the Natives that once lived
there, the prehistoric survival methods used, and the battles lost. The Lenape Indians
were the natives of what today is known as Manhattan. Unfortunately, they were forced
to leave their native lands by the Dutch and British throughout the Northeastern coastline.
Its important to recognize these people, their culture and beliefs and how they are apart
of New York Citys large book of history just as much if not more than all of the other
big names listed.













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REFRENCES


Grumet, R. S., & Porter, F. W. (1989). The Lenapes. New York: Chelsea
House.

Grumet, R. S., & Grumet, R. S. (2011). First Manhattans: a brief history of
the Munsee Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Hunt, N. (1992). North American Indians. Philadelphia, Pa.: Courage Books.

Lenape. (2014). In American History. Retrived July 19, 2014.
http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com.

Manhatta to Manhattan. The National Museum of the American Indian
(NMAI), Smithsonian institution, pg: 3, 5, 6, 8, 10.

Pritchard, E. T. (2002). Native New Yorkers: the legacy of the Algonquin
people of New York. San Francisco: Council Oak Books.

Waldman, C., & Braun, M. (1999). Encyclopedia of Native American tribes
(Rev. ed.). New York: Facts on File.