Migrations

The Lenape were forced to cede their lands and migrate time and again on account of the increasing number of non-Indian settlers. At one time, different bands of these people held territory in what now is New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

The Dutch first entered Lenape homelands in the 1600s from the Hudson River. The Dutch were interested in fur trade with the Indians. To the south, traders from Sweden lived in Lenape country along Delaware Bay, starting in 1638. During this early period, many Lenape moved inland and settled along the Susquehanna River.

In 1664, England took control of the entire region. English settlers, hungry for more and more land, pushed farther and farther westward. By the mid-1700s, Lenape were beginning to settle along the Ohio River in Ohio, then in Indiana, believing the Europeans and their Euroamerican descendants would never settle as far west as Ohio.

But settlers kept coming: next the Americans, who pushed into the Old Northwest around the Great Lakes. In the late 1700s, some Lenape moved to Missouri for a time, then to Texas. By 1835, many from this group had resettled in Kansas in the northern part of the original Indian Territory. In 1867, when whites broke their promises and began to settle west of the Mississippi

Lenni Lenape centerpost for use in a longhouse

River in great numbers, most of the Lenape relocated to the southern part of the Indian Territory, which is now the state of Oklahoma. In the meantime, other Lenape had chosen to live in Canada.