Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney
104. The eastern tribes (p. 378): Delaware--The Delawares derive
1165 words | Chapter 257
their popular name from the river upon which, in the earliest
colonial period, they had their principal settlements. They call
themselves Lena'pe or Leni-lena'pe, a term apparently signifying
"real, or original men," or "men of our kind." To the cognate tribes
of the Ohio valley and the lakes they were known as Wapanaq'ki,
"easterners," the name being extended to include the closely related
tribes, the Mahican, Wappinger (i. e. Wapanaq'ki), Nanticoke, and
Conoy. By all the widespread tribes of kindred Algonquian stock, as
well as by the Winnebago, Wyandot, and Cherokee, they were addressed
under the respectful title of "grandfather," the domineering Iroquois
alone refusing to them any higher designation than "nephew."
Their various bands and subtribes seem originally to have occupied
the whole basin of Delaware river, together with all of New
Jersey, extending north to the watershed of the Hudson and west
and southwest to the ridge separating the waters of the Delaware
and Susquehanna. Immediately north of them, along the lower Hudson
and extending into Massachusetts and Connecticut, were the closely
affiliated Mahican and Wappinger, while to the south were their
friends and kindred, the Nanticoke and Conoy, the former in Delaware
and on the eastern shore of Maryland, the latter between Chesapeake
bay and the lower Potomac. All of these, although speaking different
languages of the common Algonquian stock, asserted their traditional
origin from the Delawares, with whom, in their declining days, most of
them were again merged. The Delawares proper were organized into three
divisions, which, according to Brinton, were subtribes and not clans,
although each of the three had a totemic animal by whose name it was
commonly known. These three subtribes were: (1) The Minsi or Munsee
(people of the "stony country"?), otherwise known as the Wolf tribe,
occupying the hill country about the head of the Delaware; (2) the
Unami (people "downstream"), or Turtle tribe, on the middle Delaware,
and (3) the Unalachtgo (people "near the ocean"?), or Turkey tribe,
in the southern part of the common territory. Of these the Turtle
tribe assumed precedence in the council, while to the Wolf tribe
belonged the leadership in war. Each of these three was divided into
twelve families, or embryonic clans, bearing female names. In this
connection it may be mentioned that the Delawares now residing with
the Wichita, in Oklahoma, still use the figure of a turtle as their
distinctive cattle brand.
Of the history of the Delawares it is only possible to say a very few
words here. Their earliest European relations were with the Dutch and
Swedes. In 1682 they made the famous treaty with William Penn, which
was faithfully observed on both sides for sixty years. Gradually forced
backward by the whites, they retired first to the Susquehanna, then to
the upper Ohio, where, on the breaking out of the French and Indian
war in 1754, they ranged themselves on the side of the French. They
fought against the Americans in the Revolution, and in the war of
1812, having by that time been driven as far west as Indiana. In
1818 they ceded all their lands in that State and were assigned to a
reservation in Kansas, where they were joined by a considerable body
that had emigrated to Missouri, in company with a band of Shawano,
some years before, by permission of the Spanish government. About the
close of the Revolution another portion of the tribe, including most
of those who had been Christianized by Moravian missionaries, had fled
from Ohio and taken up a permanent abode on Canadian soil. In 1867 the
main body of those in Kansas removed to Indian Territory and became
incorporated with the Cherokee Nation. A smaller band settled on the
Wichita reservation in Oklahoma. The present number of Delawares is,
approximately, 1,600, viz: "Moravians and Munsees of the Thames,"
Ontario, 475; incorporated in Cherokee Nation, 870 (in 1898); on
Wichita reservation, 95; Munsee in Kansas and incorporated with
Stockbridges in Wisconsin, perhaps 100; Delawares, etc., with Six
Nations, in New York, 50.
Of their former allies, the Wappinger and Conoy have long since
disappeared through absorption into other tribes; the Mahican are
represented by a band of about 530 Stockbridge Indians, including
a number of Munsee, in Wisconsin, while about 70 mixed bloods still
keep up the Nanticoke name in southern Delaware.
Tuscarora--The Tuscarora, a southern tribe of the Iroquoian stock,
formerly occupied an extensive territory upon Neuse river and its
branches, in eastern North Carolina, and, like their northern cousins,
seem to have assumed and exercised a certain degree of authority
over all the smaller tribes about them. As early as 1670 Lederer
described the Tuscarora "emperor" as the haughtiest Indian he had
ever met. About the year 1700 Lawson estimated them at 1,200 warriors
(6,000 souls?) in 15 towns. In 1711 they rose against the whites,
one of their first acts of hostility being the killing of Lawson
himself, who was engaged in surveying lands which they claimed as
their own. In a struggle extending over about two years they were so
terribly decimated that the greater portion fled from Carolina and
took refuge with their kinsmen and friends, the Iroquois of New York,
who were henceforth known as the Six Nations. The so-called "friendly"
party, under Chief Blount, was settled upon a small reservation north
of Roanoke river in what is now Bertie county, North Carolina. Here
they gradually decreased by disease and emigration to the north, until
the few who were left sold their last remaining lands in 1804. The
history of the tribe after the removal to the north is a part of the
history of the Iroquois or Six Nations. They number now about 750,
of whom about 380 are on the Tuscarora reservation in New York,
the others upon the Grand River reservation in Ontario.
Xuala, Suwali, Sara or Cheraw--For the identification and earliest
notices of the Sara see historical note 8, "De Soto's Route." Their
later history is one of almost constant hostility to the whites
until their final incorporation with the Catawba, with whom they were
probably cognate, about the year 1720. In 1743 they still preserved
their distinct language, and appear to be last mentioned in 1768, when
they numbered about 50 souls living among the Catawba. See Mooney,
Siouan Tribes of the East, bulletin of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1894.
Catawba--The origin and meaning of this name, which dates back at
least two centuries, are unknown. It may possibly come from the Choctaw
through the Mobilian trade jargon. They call themselves Nieye, which
means simply "people" or "Indians." The Iroquois call them and other
cognate tribes in their vicinity Toderigh-rono, whence Tutelo. In
the seventeenth century they were often known as Esaw or Ushery,
apparently from iswa', river, in their own language. The Cherokee name
Ata'gwa, plural Ani'ta'gwa, is a corruption of the popular form. Their
linguistic affinity with the Siouan stock was established by Gatschet
in 1881. See Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East.
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