Lenni Lenape and Their Wars

Like so many Native American tribes, the Lenni Lenape were severely and negatively impacted by the arrival of the Europeans, but in the beginning, not in the way many people expect.

Living along the waterways of the east coast, the Lenni Lenape's villages were in a prime location for trading with the Dutch settlers who arrived in the early 1600s. Trade with the Dutch was highly valued by other tribes like the Susquehannock to the west and the Mohawk and Mahican to the north, tribes who had been at war with the Lenni Lenape for generations. Tribes who wanted free access to the new Europeans trade.

From 1630 to 1635, the Susquehannock forced the Lenni Lenape to the east of the Delaware River into southern New Jersey and Delaware, which gave the Susquehannock full control of the trade route with the Dutch settlers. During that same period, there was a smallpox outbreak, a disease the Europeans introduced to the new shores. Between these two events, the 5-year war and smallpox, half the population of the Lenni Lenape were wiped out. They became a conquered people, subjected to the Susquehannocks and forced to fight in their wars.

In the 1660s, the Iroquois attacked the Susquehannock and their Lenni Lenape subordinates as yet another smallpox outbreak ravaged the east coast. By 1675, the Iroquois had beaten the Susquehannock and taken control of the Lenni Lenape.

By the time William Penn arrived in 1682, he "inherited the remnants of the wasted Lenni Lenape tribe."

But hang on … they make a comeback! More posts on this people group in the coming months.

In this series:

The Lenni Lenape People

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