Map of Lenapehoking and approximate boundaries of languages spoken, including all of present-day New Jersey, most of eastern Pennsylvania, and southern New York
Lenapehoking (Unami: Lënapehòkink) is widely translated as 'homelands of the Lenape', which in the 16th and 17th centuries, ranged along the Eastern seaboard from western Connecticut to Delaware, and encompassed the territory adjacent to the Delaware and lower Hudson river valleys, and the territory between them.
Beginning in the 17th century, European colonists started settling in Lenapehoking. Combined with the concurrent introduction of Eurasian infectious diseases and encroachment from the colonists, the Lenape were severely depopulated and lost control over large portions of their country. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the United States government forcibly removed the Lenape to the American Midwest and Oklahoma.
The name of the Lenape country, Lënapehòkink, can be broken down into three parts. The first is the name of the nation itself: Lënape, which means "real person" or "original person", a construction seen in the national endonym of their Anishinaabe relatives. The second element, hòki, originates from the Proto-Algonquian word *axskiy, meaning "land", relating it to the aski in Nitaskinan, the assi in Nitassinan, Ojibwemowin'saki, and the Istchee in Eeyou Istchee. Finally, the last element, -nk, is the locative suffix. Lënapehòkink thus translates to "in the land of the Lenape", a word popularized when Nora Thompson Dean shared the term with conservationist Theodore Cornu in 1970, and later with archaeologist Herbert C. Kraft. This term has since gained widespread acceptance and is found widely in recent literature on the Lenape and in New York institutions today as part of land acknowledgement.
Another historical Lenape term for much of the same region is Scheyischbi or Scheyichbi, although this is also often cited as referring specifically to New Jersey.
Territorial extent
At the time of the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Lenape homeland ranged along the Atlantic's coast from western Connecticut to Delaware, which generally encompassed the territory adjacent to the Delaware and lower Hudson river valleys, as well the hill-and-ridge dominated territory between them. Relatives of the Algonquian nations whose countries ranged along the entire coast from beyond the Saint Lawrence River in today's Canada, and the nations throughout all of New England, down into northern South Carolina, the Lenape Confederation stretched from the southern shores of modern-day Delaware along the Atlantic seaboard into western Long Island and Connecticut, then extended westwards across the Hudson water gap into the eastern Catskills part of the Appalachians range around the headwaters of the Delaware River and along both banks of its basin down to the mouth of the Lehigh River.
Inland, the nation had to deal with the fierce and territorial Susquehannocks; Lenapehoking was generally plotted with boundaries along mountain ridges topped by the drainage divides between the right bank tributaries of the Delaware River on the east—and on the west and south—the left bank tributaries of the Susquehanna and Lehigh Rivers; bounds which included the Catskills, parts of Northeastern Pennsylvania through the entire Pocono Mountains along the left bank of the Lehigh River. The Schuylkill River and its mouth in the present-day Philadelphia area or right bank of the Lehigh River were contested hunting grounds, generally shared with the Susquehannock and the occasional visit by a related Potomac tribe when there wasn't active warfare. The greater Philadelphia area was known to host European to Indigenous contacts from the Dutch traders contacts with the Susquehanna (1600), English traders (1602), and both tribes with New Netherland traders after 1610.
Along the left bank Delaware valley, the territory extended to all of present-day New Jersey, and the southern counties of New York State, including Rockland, Orange, Westchester, Dutchess and Putnam Counties, Nassau County, and the five boroughs of New York City.
Present day
Several indigenous peoples from diverse tribes, both from the region historically and from elsewhere, live in the Northeast megalopolis or Eastern Seaboard. Many people from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy moved into the area in the 1920s to 1960s and were employed as skyscraper construction workers (many belonged to the Mohawk Nation) and played an important role in building the skyline of Philadelphia and New York City. In the University City section of West Philadelphia, there has been some political activity by Urban Indian residents of the area, who adapted the namesake Lenapehoking to where they live.
Manhattan is derived from Manna-hata, a Dutch version of a Lenape place name, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Henry Hudson's yacht Halve Maen (Half Moon). A 1610 map depicts the name Manahata twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River (later named the North River, and now called the Hudson River). The word Manhattan has been translated as 'island of many hills' from the Lenape language. The Encyclopedia of New York City offers other derivations, including from the Munsee dialect of Lenape: manahachtanienk ('place of general inebriation'), manahatouh ('place where timber is procured for bows and arrows'), or menatay ('island'). Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman) defined it as: 'place that is an island', from Lenape Menating.
Gowanus Canal – originally named by early settlers as "Gowanes Creek" after Gouwane, sachem of the local Lenape tribe called the Canarsee, who lived and farmed along the shores of the creek. Also source of the neighborhood Gowanus and the Heights of Guan.
Quarropas – name for White Plains which is a direct translation meaning 'the white plains' or 'the white marshes', either referring to the white fog that hangs over the area, or the white balsam trees said to grow there.
Hackensack – 'stream flowing into another on a plain/ in a swamp/ in a lowland' / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'place of sharp ground', from Lenape Ahkinkeshaki.
Manahawkin – 'place where there is good land' / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'where the land slopes', from Lenape Menahoking.
Manalapan – municipality's name is said to have come from Lenape and is said to mean 'land of good bread'
Mantoloking – said to be either 'frog ground', 'sandy place' or 'land of sunsets'
Manasquan – "Man-A-Squaw-Han", meaning 'stream of the island of squaws' / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'place to gather grass', from Lenape Menaskung.
Mantua – said to have come from the "Munsees", North Jersey Lenapes, but the township is in South Jersey.
Minisink – 'from the rocky land', is the old name for the Munsee, and the name of an ancient Lenape trade route that ran along a good part of what is now US Highway 46 in Northern New Jersey
Raritan – original form was Naraticong; may have meant 'river behind the island' or 'forked river'.
Scheyichbi – Meaning of name varies. notes two possible meanings: the land that the Lenapes called their country, or 'land of the shell money' (wampum).
Conshohocken – original form Gueno-sheiki-hacking, meaning pleasant valley. / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'elegant land', from Lenape Kanshihaking.
Hokendauqua Creek – From Lenape words: Haki, or 'land', and undoech-wen, or 'to come for some purpose', Meaning: 'searching for land'
Lahaska – derived from Lahaskeke meaning 'the place of much writing',
Lackawanna – 'forks of a stream' / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'sandy creek'; 'sandy river', from Lenape Lekaohane. (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
Lehigh County – from Lenape word Lechauwekink meaning 'at the forks of a path or stream'
Lycoming – 'great stream' (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
Macungie – derived from Maguntsche, meaning 'bear swamp' or 'feeding place of the Bears'.
Mahoning Creek – from Lenape word Mahonink, meaning 'at the mineral lick', referring to a place frequented by deer, elk and other animals.
Manayunk – 'place where we go to drink' / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'place to drink', from Lenape Meneyung.
Mauch Chunk Creek – from Lenape word Machk-tschunk, 'at the bear mountain' *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'where the hills are clustered', from Lenape Menangahchung.
Maxatawny – from Lenape word Machksit-hanne, 'bear path stream'
Monocacy – from Lenape word Menagassi, 'stream with several large bends'
Moshannon Creek – derived from Moss-Hanne, 'moose stream' (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
Moyamensing – place of judgment, located in the south part of Philadelphia
Passyunk – a Philadelphia neighborhood and former township named for a Lenape village (compare to Passaic, New Jersey) / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'in the valley', from Lenape Pahsayung.
Paxtang – 'where the waters stand' (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
Punxsutawney – Punkwsutènay meaning 'town of the sandflies' (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
Saucon Creek – from Lenape word Sacunk, 'the mouth of a stream' (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
Skippack – from Lenape word Skappeu-hacki, 'wet land'
Susquehanna River – from Lenape Siskëwahane, 'mile wide, foot deep'[citation needed] (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
Tulpehocken – 'land of turtles', the name of a creek and a SEPTA train station and street in Philadelphia / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'turtle land', from Lenape Tulpehaking.
Unami Creek – From Lenape word Unami meaning 'person from down river'
Wallenpaupack - From Lenape name meaning the 'stream of swift and slow water.' Wallenpaupack Creek was dammed in 1928 to create Lake Wallenpaupack
Youghiogheny – 'four streams' or 'winding stream' (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
↑(/iːjoʊ̯ɪst͡ʃi/, Northern East Cree: ᐄᔨᔨᐤ ᐊᔅᒌIiyiyiu Aschii/ijɪjɪuəstʃi/, Southern East Cree: ᐄᔨᔫ ᐊᔅᒌIiyiyuu Aschii/ijɪjuəstʃi/ or ᐄᓅ ᐊᔅᒌIinuu Aschii/inuəstʃi/, all meaning 'The People's Land'; French:[ijuistʃi])
↑The Delaware peoples organized themselves into divisions. Traditional governance was through the appointment of sachems (chieftains) by the community's matriarchs. A sachem could also come about by merit, these were generally earned in acts of warfare.
↑Natural barriers to foot travel predominate defining the limits of cultures without written languages. In native North America, between rivals and deadly enemies, hunting ranges devoid of permanent settlements were the rule, but summer hunting or fishing camps with temporary shelters were also common—as were the peaceful visits and trading along people historians have incorrectly painted as eternally at war. Games and competitions, trade and social visits were far more common, even among supposed hated enemies than were periods of warfare.
↑Given the foot-and-birch-bark-canoe-travel technology of the era, anyone familiar with hunting in the Appalachian topographies, would find this eminently sensible. Topping any ridge away from a major stream would be a climb only be undertaken if crossing into another drainage catchment. Canoe navigable streams occur only after waters have had time to gather and possibly dam up in broader valleys carved by glaciers or spring floods and beaver dams, so are well away from the boundaries marked logically atop drainage divides and their characteristic small steep rock strewn streams that were difficult to walk, and impassible by valuable & fragile birch bark canoes. The implication is the drainage divide areas, were little visited and unpopulated areas between tribes since they were difficult to travel into, across, or out of—the reader is reminded the nature of the forests in North America ran to tree sizes we rarely see today in isolated specimens with trunks starting over two feet in diameter. Only where a mountain pass, such as the gaps of the Allegheny was part of the goal, were such remote areas commonly visited before the extensive trapping and hunting beginning with the Beaver Wars period.
↑Holloway, Marguerite (May 16, 2004). "Urban tactics; I'll Take Mannahatta". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2007. He could envision what Henry Hudson saw in 1609 as he sailed along Mannahatta, which in the Lenape dialect most likely meant 'island of many hills.'
↑"More on the names behind the roads we ride"Archived 2007-08-07 at the Wayback Machine, The Record (Bergen County), April 21, 2002. Accessed 2007-10-26. "The origin of Manhattan probably is from the language of the Munsee Indians, according to the Encyclopedia of New York City. It could have come from manahachtanienk, meaning 'place of general inebriation', or manahatouh, meaning 'place where timber is procured for bows and arrows', or menatay, meaning 'island'."
123456789101112131415Kraft, Herbert C.; Kraft, John T. (1985). The Indians of Lenapehoking (First ed.). South Orange, NJ: Seton Hall University Press. p. 45. ISBN0-935137-00-9
