In 1504, my ancestors began encountering seemingly god-like people arriving from the East on great ships with sails (Verazanno and, 100 years later, Henry Hudson). They brought with them a world view, a value system and a religion that viewed my ancestors as savages who must be dominated and on land that must be conquered and plundered. 

The Dutch participated in their first land swindle in 1638 with the so-called Purchase of Manhattan. The Lenape did not understand the concept of selling land and conveying title for exclusive occupancy. An exchange of gifts by a small village of “foreigners” for ostensibly peaceful occupation on a small patch of land was an agreement in keeping with the egalitarian lifestyle of the Lenape. The land, the water, the sky was not a commodity to be bought, sold or transferred. It was a sacred gift from The Creator. 

Soon however the Dutch fort at New Amsterdam was built on the island of Manahatta (“The place where they gather wood to make bows”) and surrounded by a wall to keep the Indians out. Thus the path along the perimeter of the wall ultimately became today’s Wall Street. 

The Lenape began to realize it was too late; change was happening. Whites did not intend to assimilate and share occupancy. Under the Christian Doctrine of Discovery—also known as Manifest Destiny—they intended to rid the land of the savages and take control of it. There they would dwell on new abundant lands taken by conquest and extract resources for the enrichment of Europe’s kings, the Catholic Papacy—and themselves.

Dutch military governors and Christian missionaries wrote extensively about establishing colonies in New Amsterdam and along the coast and riverways of what is now New Jersey. Massacres during Governor Kieft’s war with the Lenape were described in horrific words of bloody murder. Embedded in the language was the foundation of the Christian Doctrine of Discovery as justification for such violent domination.

The spread of disease

Another major effect on the Lenape was the rapid spread of diseases brought by the Europeans. My ancestors had no natural immunity to diseases they had never encountered. Thus, my ancestors felt anxiety when natural plant medicines and healing ceremonies could not fight back the deadly effects of smallpox, diphtheria and measles, among others. They feared the swannock (white man) had brought an evil magic that was more powerful than them.

In 1664, the might of the English under King Charles II forced the Dutch out of Lenapehoking (home of the Lenape) and they became the primary European power. At first the Lenape thought they could engage in an equitable fur trade. But the English proved to be just as unfair when it came to land “ownership” claims and their powerful control over the market. 

The Delaware River Valley was named after colonial governor Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warr. The royal charter, a mere piece of paper waved before our ancestors, claimed Lenapehoking now belonged to their king. Men like William Penn sought commercial control over the lands and dominion over the savages. Penn, a Quaker, hoped to use Christian conversion of the Lenape rather than warfare to establish such control. The Lenape Sachem (sakima) Tamanend is credited as being the principal spokesman of a council of Lenape leaders that agreed in 1782 to provide land for the occupancy of Penn’s colony at a place now known as Philadelphia.

Now from the Muhheacanituk (Hudson River) to the Lenapewihittuk/Kithanne (Delaware River), the English controlled all trade and commerce. Their relations with the Lenape became more tenuous. The infamous Walking Purchase in 1737, an intentional land swindle by the progeny of William Penn, stole hundreds of thousands of acres in Pennsylvania. With a continuing wave of English immigrants seeking a fresh start in a new land, the Lenape were forced to relocate from their homeland.

Our ancestor’s centuries-long spiritual relationship with our Earth Mother… our Turtle Island… was denied to us. Our ceremonial grounds, our sacred sites, the buried bones of our ancestors all left behind by the forced relocation of The Original People. So the Lenape, now known as Delaware Indians, were no longer a nation; they no longer occupied their sacred homelands. Lenapehoking loomed behind them under dark clouds of war as they marched toward the setting sun.

Curtis Zunigha is the co-director of Lenape Center. Lenape Center is a nonprofit organization fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Its work has been the creation and development of exhibitions, public art, symposia, performance, music, opera, theater and education, including workshops, lectures and curricula. It is currently in its sixth season of a seed rematriation project.