: The Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians by Walker Edwin Robert - Delaware Indians

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THE LENNI LENAPE OR DELAWARE INDIANS

BY EDWIN ROBERT WALKER CHANCELLOR OF NEW JERSEY

SOMERVILLE, NEW JERSEY THE UNIONIST-GAZETTE ASSOCIATION, PRINTERS 1917

One hundred copies reprinted from the October, 1917, number of the "Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society"

The Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians

AN ADDRESS BY EDWIN ROBERT WALKER BEFORE THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AT NEWARK, OCTOBER 31ST, 1917.

In commencing this address I shall take the liberty of paraphrasing the opening of Sir Walter Scott's charming novel "Ivanhoe," and say:

In that pleasant district of North America formerly known as Nova Caesarea or New Jersey, and latterly as New Jersey, there extended in ancient times a large forest covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and plains which lie between the Atlantic Ocean and the river Delaware. The remains of this extensive wood are to be seen at this day in the deciduous trees of the northern and the ever verdant pines of the southern section of our state. Here haunted of yore the stag and the doe, here were fought several of the most desperate battles of the War of the Revolution, and here also flourished in ancient times those bands of roving savages whose deeds have been rendered so popular in American story.

These aborigines are familiarly known to us as the Delaware Indians. They were known to themselves as the Lenni Lenape. I shall call them indifferently "Lenape" and "Delawares."

The name bestowed upon New Jersey by the Indians was "Sh?jachbi," They claimed the whole area comprising New Jersey. Their great chief Teedyescung stated at the conference at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1757, that their lands reached eastward from river to sea.

When I was a boy I presumed that the word "Delaware" was an Indian name, evolved by the savages themselves and by them bestowed upon the river and bay. I was well grown up before I learned that the word was originally three words "De La Warr," and that it was the name of an ancient English family ennobled in the time of Edward II, who reigned from 1307 to 1327. The particular scion of that ancient house for whom the Delaware River and Bay and the State of Delaware were named, was Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, born July 9, 1557. He succeeded his father in the peerage in 1602 and interested himself in the plans for the colonization of Virginia; became a member of the Council of Virginia in 1609, and the next year was appointed governor and captain general for life. He sailed for Virginia in March, 1610, arriving at Jamestown in June following with additional emigrants and supplies, just in time to forestall the abandonment of the colony. He returned to England in 1611 and sailed again for Virginia in 1618, but died on the voyage.

It was from the lordly title of this distinguished nobleman and adventurer that we get our present name "Delaware." It is undoubtedly of Norman origin, that is, "De La Warr" is.

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