At an early date, the Lenape had crossed the Mississippi River from the west, entering the territory of the Iroquois. By the early 1600s, the Lenape were residing along the Delaware River in the present area of the states of New Jersey, Delaware, and New York. They soon became known as the Delaware Indians. However, they later were pushed against their wills to Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Texas and Kansas. By the 1860s, the Delaware reached Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, where they settled with the Cherokee.

The Delawares lived in one-room bark huts, called wigwams, with a single doorway and a smoke hole in the roof. When first contacted by Europeans, they had no metal tools, and their principal weapon was the bow and arrow. They grew corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, and tobacco, and supplemented their diet by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Their clothing was made of animal skins, feathers, and plant fibers, and both men and women often painted and tattooed their bodies.

More information about the Delawre Indians can be found at Delaware (Lenape) Tribe of Indians: Homepage.

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