Before the white race came to America, the locality now known as
Jersey City, was occupied by a branch of the Minsi division of the
Lenni Lenape Nation of the Red Men, and was called Sheyichbi. The
whole of the present state of New Jersey belonged to the Lenape, and
was occupied by bands bearing different names according to the special
features of the locality, but all recognizing their unity as one
people. Those who lived here, along the western shore of the New York
Bay, extending to the sea, were known as the Wapings, or Pomptons,
and were the first of the Lenape to meet the white man when Verrazano
visited this harbor in 1524. Their last home was along the Raritan
river. The name Lenni Lenape means "Men of our Nation," and they
claimed to be the oldest nation and root of the great Algonkin stock,
which, in its various divisions, with forty distinct dialects, occupied
this continent from Hudson's Bay to South Carolina, and from the
Atlantic to the Mississippi and the great plains, with the exception of
a portion east of the Lakes where the Huron Iroquois dwelt. The other
Algonkin nations were spoken of by them as "children," "Grandchildren,"
or "younger brothers," and to them was always accorded the respectful
title of "grandfathers." Their traditions taught them that they came
from Shinaki, the "Land of the Fir Trees," which was probably north of
Lake Superior, and in their migrations they came upon the Cherokees,
probably in the ninth or tenth century of our era, with whom they
fought one hundred years for possession of the Ohio Valley. Finally
the Cherokees went south and the Lenape eventually, in the eleventh or
twelfth century, made their home in the mountainous region of the head
waters of the Delaware river. Their hunting grounds included lands now
in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. In 1758, New Jersey paid them
$5,000 for their lands in this State.
They were called by the western nations Wapenachki,--"People of the
Rising of the Sun." The name Delaware was given to them and one of
their rivers, after Lord de la Ware, which they at first resented but
accepted it after being told that he was a great "Brave." In character
they were a noble spirited but gentle, kindly people, and all the early
writers concur in testimony to their hospitality. Each family lived in
its separate wigwam, a wattled hut with rounded top, thatched with mats
woven of corn leaves, sweet flag, or bark of trees. These were built
in groups and usually surrounded with palisades of small tree trunks
firmly planted in the ground, sometimes two or three rows, interlaced,
and from twenty to thirty feet in height. Their clothing was made of
deer skin, soft and pliable and beautifully embroidered with wampum
beads or dyed porcupine quills. In some of the arts they had attained
great skill, excelling in dressing deer skins and in feather work;
carved stone, made ornaments of shell and a rude pottery, some in the
shape of animals. They recognized the value of the Trenton clays and
Indian potters used them for centuries before the white men came. While
their weapons and utensils were principally of stone, they also used
copper, both native New Jersey ore and that brought from Lake Superior,
which they deftly hammered into shape. Old mining holes and Indian
tools have been found between Elizabethtown and New York. Bowls were
carved from wood and from soap-stone, kettles were made of the latter
which would hold from ten to twelve gallons. They used both vegetable
and mineral paints and dyes; were very expert fishermen and hunters.
They were accurate in computing time and had some astronomical
knowledge; women and children could give names to many of the stars,
and their year began with the first moon after the February moon. The
time for planting was calculated by the rising of Taurus in a certain
quarter. To this constellation they gave the name of a mythical great
horned beast. They had a word for year, and counted their ages and
sequence of events by yearly periods, but recognized only twelve moons
in the year. They kept a record of the years by adding a black bead
of wampum for each year in a belt kept for the purpose. Their picture
writing was scratched on stones or cut or painted on bark or wood. It
was a record of current events, the past history of the nation, and in
memory of famous men, events, and actions of note. They also recorded
abstract ideas, as, when an Indian gave William Penn a drawing of the
"Great Man" within a series of concentric circles as their idea of God.
These picture writings were understood and could be read by the various
branches of the Algonkin stock. Bunches of slender sticks notched or
painted were also used as records.
In religion, they worshipped Light and its representatives, the Sun,
Fire--"a special messenger to the Sun," the Four Winds--"Bringers
of rain and sunshine," and Totemic Animals. "Light was the body or
fountain of Deity," something "All Light, a Being in whom the earth and
all things in it may be seen; a Great Man clothed with the day, yea,
with the brightest day, a day of many years, yea, a day of everlasting
continuance. From Him proceeded, in Him were, to Him returned all
things, and the souls of all things." This was their faith taught by
their Priests, called "Powow," meaning dreamer. They interpreted dreams
and claimed to have visions which foretold future events. They believed
in reincarnation and that the pure in heart might recall former
lives. There were traces of the survival of Serpent worship among the
people of this locality. Cast-off serpent skins were believed to have
wonderful curative properties and supplications were offered to them.
In 1683 Penn said there were ten divisions of the Lenape, numbering
about six thousand souls, but they soon began to decrease from disease,
massacres and migrations. The New Jersey Indians rapidly died out,
Peter Kalm said,--"Smallpox had destroyed increditable numbers, but
brandy had killed most of the Indians."
[Illustration: HUDSON'S HALF MOON]