Delaware Tribe example essay topic

The Delaware Complaint One of the main issues among the Iroquois tribes and the Pennsylvanians was that of the "Walking Purchase" and the Delaware Complaint against the contract. Between 1630 and 1767 the Lenni Lenape Indians of New Jersey and Pennsylvania signed many deeds of land to colonists that numbered around 800. Little did the Indian people know, the Europeans would use the land to eventually push the Native Americans out of their homeland. One man named William Penn claimed to have discovered a document in 1734 that would give him land based upon the idea that Delaware chiefs agreed to give away land to his father and his heirs. The constituents of the document referred to the idea of giving the amount of land that a man could walk in a day and a half.

The chiefs agreed unwillingly to the idea and Penn took many miles when the Indians gave a few inches. The Delaware would not have given the land away, but felt obligated to fulfill what Penn had said about their ancestors giving land to the Pennsylvanians. The Pennsylvanians took more than was offered by clearing a path and hiring three runners who were supposed to "walk" the distance. The runners ran 65 miles and gave Penn the rights to approximately 41,600 acres of land. The "walk" had turned into a "run" and the Indians were upset with how wrongly they had been treated. The Delaware felt that the runners should have "walked along by the River Delaware or the Indian path next to it -- - should have sat down and smoked a pipe, and now and then have shot a squirrel, and not have kept up the run".

Disputes arose, but the Indians had lost the battle. The "Walking Purchase" was the last step in the process of losing their land. The last of their lands in the upper Delaware and Lehigh valleys in Pennsylvania had been taken by the white man. Delaware chiefs petitioned on November 21, 1740 saying they had sold certain tracts of land, but denied the idea of having sold land to William Penn or his sons. The governor of Pennsylvania gained the support of the Iroquois in opposing the Delawares during a council in 1742. The decision by the courts gave the Iroquois control over the Delawares and their lands and stated that the Delaware had to move to a place where the Six Nations could watch over them.

The Delaware tribe had to leave a land of wealth that encompassed the whole area of the headwaters of the Delaware River and the hunting grounds of eastern Pennsylvania, southeastern New York, and all of New Jersey. They had inhabited the lands since the eleventh or twelfth centuries and in 1758 lost all of their lands to the encroachment of the European settlers. The Lenni Lenape tribe was related to the Miami, Ottawa, and Shawnee Indians and was known by the western nations as Wapenachki, -- "People of the Rising Sun". The name "Delaware" was given to them as well as one of their rivers, after Lord de la Ware, which the tribe disliked, until they found that he was a great "Brave". Other tribes called the Lenni Lenape the "Grandfathers" mainly because of their longtime existence before European contact. The Delaware tribe's customs included the building of wigwams for separate families which were wattled huts with rounded tops, thatched with mats woven of corn leaves, sweet flag, or the bark of trees.

The homes were built in groups and were surrounded by palisades of tree trunks planted firmly in the ground. Within the homes the Delaware kept ornaments of shell and rude pottery could be found as well as weapons and utensils made of stone and copper. Wood was a principle resource, which was carved into bowls and tools, which could be used for food storage, and fishing hooks. The main foods included corn, beans, and squash as well as meats from beaver, muskrat, raccoon, deer, elk, bison, and black bear, which supported a formidable population. With all of the resources within their homeland, the Delaware became very skilled in fishing and hunting. Deerskin's became important in the making of clothing, because it was soft and pliable, and the Delaware could show their artistic ability by decorating them with wampum beads or dyed porcupine quills.

The Delaware came to take great pride in their clothing with the resources provided to them by their woodland wilderness. The religion of the Delaware tribe consisted of the worship of Light and its assembly which included the Sun, Fire, -- "a special messenger, to the Sun" the Four Winds - "Bringers Of rain and sunshine" and Totemic Animals. Their religion consisted of the interpretation of dreams and visions, which were supposed to foretell future events. They believed in reincarnation and that a pure heart could recall former lives.

Priests known as the "Powwow" taught their faith and instilled them with strong feelings about what should and should not be done on their lands. Just because their faith was strong did not mean it would save them from the onslaught of the white man. Peter Kalm said, "Smallpox had destroyed incredible numbers, but brandy had killed most of the Indians". The white man had pushed and pushed until the Algonquian tribe of the eastern woodlands was forced onto a reservation in Western Oklahoma where many of the tribe members reside today. The Delaware tribe jointly owns 487 acres of trust land in Caddo County, OK with the Wichita and Caddo tribes. Within this small plot of land, the tribe constructed headquarters where tribal government works to improve the well being of tribal members and restore the Delaware culture.

To keep their culture alive, the people have kept a tribal museum / archives and a tribal library. The government consists of a tribally elected Executive Committee that is made up of a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and two committee members. The members serve for a staggered four years and abide by a tribe adopted constitution and bylaws founded in 1973. The Delaware people have adopted their own ways of dealing with the economy through a program known as the Four Tribes Consortium of Oklahoma that is designed to help the Indian people learn the skills, work experience, and support necessary to become employable. Many of the Delaware people rely upon raising livestock and farming as a source of income. The per capita income is around $4,986 and the unemployment rate is around 17.4%, which is based upon the 326 tribe members that live on the reservation and the 1,079 tribal members enrolled.

The total number of Delaware present today throughout the US is almost 16,000, most of who live in Oklahoma. As far as the health care and education facilities are concerned, the Delaware have turned to the Indian Health Service Hospital in Anadarko, and the children attend public schools in Caddo County. Much of the reservation's medical supplies come from trucking companies and express package carriers within the surrounding area. The children attend school from little on through high school, which results in approximately 65.4% graduating. They have the opportunity to learn the basics of their rapidly fading language through CD's for use on computers and through Lenape Language cassette tapes with booklets. Around 9.8% of the people go on to obtain a bachelor's degree or higher which many do by attending a local Caddo-Kiowa Vocational Technical Center located in Fort Cobb, Oklahoma.

Through all of the major events like the "Walking Purchase", the Delaware continue to prosper as a people that struggle to survive on into the future. Works Sited Books: Calloway, Colin G., ed. The World Turned Upside Down. Boston & New York. Bedford Books. 1994.

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