Lenape Indians real Native New Yorkers

If you have ever met a New Yorker, you are well aware of how proud they are of being New Yorkers. This is evident by their boasting and using the term ‘Native New Yorker’ along with the phrase ‘How you doin”. I have been guilty of this myself, but that has changed once I decided to do this paper for my American Studies 100 course. When I heard we had a paper to do on Native American Indians I took this opportunity, as any conceited New Yorker would do, and chose the first Native American Indians who settled in New York City.

So let me conclude this little introduction with this factual statement: Anyone who claims to be a native New Yorker isn’t really stating a fact or a truth unless of course, they are Lenni Lenape Indian the real Native New Yorkers. Over 500 years ago before New York existed or even New Amsterdam, the territory of the Lenape included but was not limited to Delaware, New Jersey parts of Pennsylvania and New York State, including western.

Long Island, which today is known as Brooklyn, and Queens New York and Staten Island, New York. The story of the Lenape is overlooked and obscured because it was seen through the eye s of European settlers who provided their history for us. If you were to look in history books you may not see the name Lenape but you will see the name the Delaware Indians. This is because the colonist named them after the Delaware River that ran from Delaware through NJ western border up through NY state.

Get quality help now

WriterBelle

Verified

Proficient in: Native American

4.7 (657)

“ Really polite, and a great writer! Task done as described and better, responded to all my questions promptly too! ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Some tribes did accept this name but it seems the name is problematic due to the fact that the Delaware River was named after Thomas West the 3rd Baron Delaware aka “Lord Delaware”. Lord Delaware was the first governor of the British colony of Virginia.

He was most famous for the slaughtering of Native Americans. The true name of Lenape held this meaning: “The name Lenni Lenape, also Leni Lenape and Lenni Lenape, comes from their autonym, Lenni, which may mean ‘genuine, pure, real, original,’ and Lenape, meaning ‘Indian’ or ‘man'(cf. Anishinaabe, in which-naabe, cognate with Lenape, means ‘man’ or ‘male’). Alternately, lënu may be translated as ‘man.’ The Lenape tribes who lived in what is now the five boroughs of New York spoke in a Munsee dialect. The Lenape had no written language, but many New York area names are derived phonetically from the original Lenape words such as Canarsie in Brooklyn, Rockaway in Queens, Hoboken in New Jersey, Tapanizee as in the Tapanizee bridge, Raritan Bay between Staten Island and New Jersey, and Manhattan meaning manna-hatta or ‘hilly island. “In addition to traveling through the waterways, the Lenape moved throughout the land through trails, many of which went on to become colonial roads and subsequently, modern streets.

Kings Highway, Flatbush Avenue, Jamaica Avenue, and Amboy Road all follow Lenape trails.” The Lenape hunted and fished, and gathered wild plants, as well as farmed maize, beans and squash. They fished in the harbor and rivers where they caught oyster and striped bass. The Lenape lived in small groups moving when the seasons changed from camp to camp. Because they moved with the seasons it kept the Lenape from creating elaborate dwellings or crating heavy tools. For homes, they built longhouses, which were made by bending the trunks from small trees to create a series of arches which created a frame then they covered it with bark. These longhouses could hold up to twelve families. So you can say not only were the Lenape the “Native New Yorkers” but they were also the first apartment dwellers of New York. The Lenape has no concept of private ownership of land. The land was like air and water it was there for them to live on and live off of. It was the Europeans who put emphasis on ownership of land. This brings us to one of the greatest myths ever told the purchase of Manhattan for twenty-four dollars.