The Lenni Lenape People

My current work in progress, a historical romance set during the Revolutionary War, has a Lenni Lenape hero. That's pretty cool! Except I knew nothing - literally - about the Lenni Lenape people. So this past month I've been devouring everything I can find on this Native America tribe that had almost disappeared.

Better known today as the Delaware Indians, the Lenni Lenape is considered one of the oldest tribes on the east coast. Even other Algonquian tribes referred to them as the Grandfather Tribe, Grandmother Tribe, or the Ancient Ones. 

The tribe was so large and so widespread before the arrival of the Europeans - its territory included parts of present-day New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware - that it spoke three major dialects.

They were the tribe who signed treaties with William Penn and the Quakers in Pennsylvania. They were the tribe who fought alongside the Patriots and helped defeat the British. They were also the tribe best known for capturing white children and taking them captive. Indeed, there is much to learn about this ancient tribe. I'll be writing a series of posts on them in the coming months.

Pegg Thomas writes "History with a Touch of Humor."