The Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians — John Shaqi
The Lenni Lenape, or Delaware IndiansWalker, Edwin Robert
History
The Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians
Walker, Edwin Robert
Delaware Indians
From these humble lodgings no one was ever turned away and the generous
hospitality of the Indians was noticed with admiration by travelers.
The Indian’s dinner generally consisted of meat and vegetables, cooked
in the same vessel, which was rarely, if ever, cleansed. His breakfast
generally consisted of maize, that is, Indian corn, pounded in a mortar
till crushed and then boiled. This was his ach-poan, whence comes the
name “corn-pone,” which we all know, and, I may say, all like. Their
thirst was quenched by drinking the broth of boiled meat, or by drafts
of pure water. They had no intoxicating liquors until the advent of
the white man. Their only stimulant was tobacco, which they smoked in
pipes manufactured by themselves. They had no cigars, and the festive
cigarette was entirely unknown to them, in fact was then unknown to
everybody.
The Lenape did not depend solely on the trophies of the chase for their
subsistence. They were, to a comparatively large extent, engaged in
agriculture and raised a variety of edible plants, corn, beans, sweet
potatoes and squashes, among them. A hardy variety of tobacco was also
cultivated.
The art of the potter was not unknown to the Delawares, and their
skill in bead work and feather mantles, and dressing animal skins,
excited admiration. Their weapons were mostly of stone, but there was
considerable native copper used for arrow heads, and also for pipes and
ornaments. They had paints and dyes made from vegetables and minerals
found in their neighborhood.
In making a canoe they would fell a tree by means of their stone axes
or by burning into the trunk at the base and would hollow out the trunk
by fire, or in later times, would make a framework and cover it with
bark and thus make a vessel large enough to carry a dozen or more men
and to bear a thousand pounds or more of freight, and yet it would be
so light that two or three men could carry it.
Although they were usually clad only in the skins of animals they had
learned to make a coarse cloth from the fiber of nettles and other
plants which they twisted and wove with their fingers. They made rope,
purses and bags in the same way, and had needles made of small bones
and wooden splints, with which they were quite dexterous. Like all
primitive people the Indians were very fond of ornaments and adorned
themselves with shells and beads and other articles skillfully and
decoratively fashioned by themselves. The white beads made by the
Indians were called “wampum” and the blue, purple or violet ones
“suckanhoch.” They were made of shells and other suitable materials.
Used first merely for ornamentation, this wampum came to be so much in
demand that it assumed the character of currency, and it was so used by
the white settlers as well as the Indians as neither had any other kind
of money. Some white men tried to make wampum but their crude product
was promptly rejected as counterfeit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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