On the arrival of white settlers, the entire region afterward known as
New Jersey belonged to the Lenape or Delawares,[3] whose settlements
extended “from the Mohicannituck [Hudson River] to beyond the Potomac,”
and “from the heads of the great rivers ‘Susquehannah’ and ‘Delaware’
to the Atlantic Ocean” (Heckewelder). The neighboring tribes to the
north (Mohegan, Narraganset, Pequot, and others), as well as those
on the south (Nanticoke, the Powhatan confederacy, and others), all
acknowledged relationship with the Delawares, with whom, there is no
doubt, they were affiliated linguistically.
The Lenape were divided into three large groups, or, as Brinton calls
them, “sub-tribes,” namely, the Munsee or Minsi (the Wolf), the Unami
(the Turtle), and the Unalachtigo (the Turkey).[4] These sub-tribes, it
seems, were subdivided into numerous smaller groups with distinctive
names.[5] The three branches of the tribe occupied special regions,
but it has not been reported whether their boundaries were stable and
definite. The Minsi, according to Heckewelder,[6] had “chosen to live
back of the two other tribes and formed a kind of a bulwark for their
protection.... They extended their settlements from the Minisink, a
place named after them, where they had their council seat and fire,
quite up to the Hudson on the east, and to the west or southwest far
beyond the ‘Susquehannah’; their northern boundaries were supposed
originally to be the heads of the great rivers Susquehannah and
Delaware, and their southern boundaries that ridge of hills known in
New Jersey by the name of Muscanecun, and in Pennsylvania, by those of
Lehigh, Cohnewago, etc.”[7]
[3] _Captain John Smith’s Works_, 1608-1631, Arber ed., Birmingham,
1884; _William Penn’s Letters_, 1683; G. Thomas, _History of New
Jersey_, London, 1698; Thomas Campanius Holm, _Short Description of
New Sweden_, Stockholm, 1702, transl. by Duponceau in _Memoirs of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania_, III, Phila., 1834; T. Acrelius,
History of New Sweden, Stockholm, 1759, transl. in _Memoirs of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania_, XI, 1874; Samuel Smith, _History
of the Colony of Nova Cesarea or New Jersey_, Burlington, 1765; Peter
Kalm, _Travels into North America_, London, 1770-71; G. H. Loskiel,
_History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in
North America_, London, 1794; Geo. Chalmers, Political Annals of the
Present United Colonies, etc., 1780, _New York Historical Society
Collections_, 1868; John G. E. Heckewelder, History, Manners and
Customs of the Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the
Neighboring States, Phila., 1819, _Mem. Hist. Soc. Penn._, XII, 1876;
also MSS.; James Grahame, _History of the Rise and Progress of the
United States of North America_, London, 1827 (new ed., 1836, 1845);
Thos. F. Gordon, _History of New Jersey_, Trenton, 1834; J. Curtis
Clay, _Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware_, Phila., 1835; Yates and
Moulton, _New York_, N. Y., 1824; Isaac Mickle, _Reminiscences of Old
Gloucester_, Phila., 1845, Camden, 1877; A. Gifford, Aborigines of New
Jersey, _Proc. N. J. Hist. Soc._, IV, Newark, 1859, pp. 163-198; D.
G. Brinton, _The Lenape and their Legends_, Phila., 1885; Handbook of
American Indians, _Bull. 30, Bureau of American Ethnology_, Washington,
1907-1910.
[4] These designations are not translations of the terms given in
parentheses, but “refer to the location of these sub-tribes on the
Delaware River,” Minsi (from _minthin_, to be scattered, and _achsin_,
stone), meaning “people of the stony country” or “mountaineers”;
Unami (from _nahen_, down-stream) means “people down the river”; and
_Unalachtigo_ (from _wunalawat_, to go towards, and _t’kow_ or _t’kou_,
wave) means “people who live near the ocean.” Wolf, Turtle, and Turkey
are the totemic designations of the three sub-tribes. (Brinton, op.
cit., p. 34.)
[5] From the above tribes, in course of time, sprang many others “who,
having for their own conveniency, chosen distant spots to settle on,
and increasing in numbers, gave themselves names or received them from
others.” (Heckewelder, _Hist. Indian Nations_, p. 53; see also ibid.,
p. 51.)
[6] Heckewelder, _Hist. Ind. Nations_, p. 52. Brinton (op. cit., p. 37)
is of the opinion, but on what grounds is not stated, that the extent
of the territory of the Munsee as given here is too great. In his
words, “that at any time, as Heckewelder asserts, their the Munsee
territory extended up to 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.” It seems, however, that even if
the presence of the Munsee on or beyond the Susquehannah may be open
to contention, their presence along the Hudson is well established.
Gifford (_Aborigines of New Jersey_, p. 180) states that “the Minsi
tribe extended as far on the west banks of the Hudson as Tappan.” Yates
and Moulton (_History of New York_, I, p. 225) place the Minsi even
farther east, “from Long Island to and beyond Minisink.” According
to Ruttenber (_History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson’s River_, p.
50) the Munsee territory “extended from the Katskill mountains to the
headwaters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, and was bounded on
the east by the Hudson; their council-fire was lighted at Minisink
[about 10 miles south of Maghackemek, New Jersey.” The Unami joined
the Munsee on the south, somewhere about Stony Point. Going farther
than this, Ruttenber gives (p. 93 et seq.) the various subdivisions of
the Munsee along the Hudson and their location: the Waoroneck, about
Dans-kammer; the Warranawonkong, from Dans-kammer to Saugerties; the
Mamekoting west of Shawangunk mountains; the Wawarsink, in the district
which still bears their name; the Katskills, north of Saugerties.]
[7] Quoted from Hrdlička, _The Crania of Trenton_, op. cit., pp. 32-33.
This is evidently one of the rare instances in which it is possible
to make a clear tribal identification of older skeletal remains in
eastern North America, and it is also an instance in which the contents
of graves enable a fairly close estimate of the age of the site. The
artifacts found with the various burials include a number of objects
introduced by early settlers, a fact that shows the cemetery to be of
historic date. Furthermore, one of the skeletons is that of a tall
white man of Scandinavian or Nordic type, possibly one of the Dutch,
English, or Swedes who reached the upper valley after 1614. As the
remainder of the skeletons do not indicate any trace of admixture of
white blood, the cemetery may be regarded as dating from the period of
the earlier contact of the Indian and Caucasian races, or probably from
the latter part of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth
century. It was surely earlier than 1740, for in that year the main
body of the Munsee was forced to move from the Delaware, settling
first on the Susquehanna and soon after on the Allegheny River in
Pennsylvania, where some of them had gone as early as 1724.
An event of anthropological importance in connection with the Munsee
before their removal from the Delaware is noted by Ruttenber.[8]
In the latter part of the seventeenth century, at the outbreak of
hostilities between the Five Nations and the French, the advance of
the Iroquois in the south was being contested by the Shawnee, who at
that time were also engaged in war with the Cherokee. “In the latter
they [the Shawnee] suffered severely, and but for the timely aid of the
_Mohicans_ would have been destroyed. The _Lenapes_ (Delawares) invited
them to remove to their country; the invitation being accepted, the
_Minsis_ brought the matter to the attention of the government of New
York, in September, 1692, on an application to permit their settlement
in the Minisink country. The council gave its assent on condition that
they should first make peace with the Five Nations.[9] This was soon
effected, and the messengers departed, accompanied by Arnout Vielle,
an interpreter, and three Christians, to visit the country of the
_Shawanoes_ and consummate the transfer.... Captain Arent Schuyler
visited the _Minisinks_ in February, and there learned that the
Shawanoes were expected early in the ensuing summer. This expectation
was realized.”
[8] Ruttenber, _History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson’s River_, p. 178.
[9] “River Indians returned from a residence with the Shawanoes,
brought with them some Shawanoes who intended to settle with the
Minisinks, asking permission to that end. Council directed that the
Shawanoes must first make peace with the Five Nations.—_Council
Minutes_, Sept. 14, 1692.”
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 62 PLATE 2
GENERAL VIEW OF THE LOCALITY OF THE MUNSEE CEMETERY AT MINISINK, NEW
JERSEY]
From this it appears that between 40 and 50 years before their removal
from the Delaware, the Munsee were joined by some Shawnee, which fact
may explain certain peculiar conditions shown by the skeletal remains
that will be considered in the following pages.
The mound or cemetery explored by the Museum of the American Indian was
known for many years, and some human bones had been removed from it,
especially by Doctor Dalrymple, who exhumed at least 15 skeletons, but
unfortunately these have been lost to science.