In 1902, in pursuance of a study of the antiquity of certain skeletal
remains found in the vicinity of Trenton, New Jersey, the writer
collected and described all the crania of the Lenape or Delaware
Indians which at that time were preserved in our museums.[1] From that
time until 1914 no further anthropological discoveries of consequence
were made in the region over which the tribe once extended; but during
the spring of the latter year careful archeological exploration was
conducted in the upper Delaware River valley in behalf of the Museum
of the American Indian in New York, by Mr. George G. Heye, with the
assistance of Mr. George H. Pepper, in the course of which were found
the remains of no fewer than 57 Indian skeletons.[2] The bones were
not in the best state of preservation, but they were collected with
scrupulous care, and shortly after the field work was completed they
were presented by Mr. Heye to the United States National Museum. This
skeletal material forms an important addition to the previously limited
collections representing the Lenape Indians, whose physical identity it
is highly desirable to establish.
[1] Hrdlička, The Crania of Trenton, New Jersey, and their Bearing upon
the Antiquity of Man in that Region, _Bull. Amer. Museum of Natural
History_, XVI, art. 311, New York, 1902, pp. 23-62, 22 pl., 4 fig.
[2] For details and archeological results, see George G. Heye and
George H. Pepper, Exploration of a Munsee Cemetery near Montague, New
Jersey, _Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian (Heye
Foundation)_, II, pt. 1, New York, 1915. The Heye Expedition reports
some additional burials, but the skeletal remains therefrom were in a
very defective condition.
The remains came from a cemetery in the form of a low mound on the
New Jersey side of the Delaware River, opposite Minisink Island, 3
miles below Montague, in the northwestern corner of Sussex County, New
Jersey. The accompanying map (fig. 1) shows the site of the cemetery,
which lay in the heart of the region once occupied by the Munsee branch
of the Lenape Indians.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 62 PLATE 1