The Lenâpé and Their Legends: With the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticityBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
History
The Lenâpé and Their Legends: With the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticity
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Delaware Indians; Delaware language -- Texts; Picture-writing, Indian
No explanation of these designations will be found in Heckewelder or
the older writers. From investigations among living Delawares, carried
out at my request by Mr. Horatio Hale, it is evident that they are
wholly geographical, and refer to the locations of these sub-tribes on
the Delaware river.
_Minsi_, properly _Minsiu_, and formerly _Minassiniu_, means "people of
the stony country," or briefly, "mountaineers." It is a synthesis of
_minthiu_, to be scattered, and _achsin_, stone, according to the best
living native authorities.[54]
_Unami_, or _W'nãmiu_, means "people down the river," from _naheu_,
down-stream.
_Unalachtigo_, properly _W'nalãchtko_, means "people who live near the
ocean," from _wunalawat_, to go towards, and _t'kow_ or _t'kou_, wave.
Historically, such were the positions of these sub-tribes when they
first came to the knowledge of Europeans.
The Minsi lived in the mountainous region at the head waters of the
Delaware, above the Forks, or junction of the Lehigh river. One of
their principal fires was on the Minisink plains, above the Water Gap,
and another on the East Branch of the Delaware, which they called
_Namaes Sipu_, Fish River. Their hunting grounds embraced lands now
in the three colonies of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The
last mentioned extinguished their title in 1758, by the payment of one
thousand pounds.
That, at any time, as Heckewelder asserts, their territory extended
up the Hudson as far as tide-water, and westward "far beyond the
Susquehannah," is surely incorrect. Only after the beginning of the
eighteenth century, when they had been long subject to the Iroquois,
have we any historic evidence that they had a settlement on the last
named river.
The Unamis' territory on the right bank of the Delaware river extended
from the Lehigh valley southward. It was with them and their southern
neighbors, the Unalachtigos, that Penn dealt for the land ceded him
in the Indian Deed of 1682. The Minsis did not take part in the
transaction, and it was not until 1737 that the Colonial authorities
treated directly with the latter for the cession of their territory.[55]
The Unalachtigo or Turkey totem had its principal seat on the affluents
of the Delaware near where Wilmington now stands. About this point,
Captain John Smith, on his map (1609,) locates the _Chikahokin_. In
later writers this name is spelled _Chihohockies_, _Chiholacki_ and
_Chikolacki_, and is stated by the historians Proud and Smith to be
synonymous with Delawares.[56] The correct form is _Chikelaki_, from
_chik'eno_, turkey, the modern form as given by Whipple,[57] and _aki_
land. The _n_, _l_ and _r_ were alternating letters in this dialect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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