HRDLICKA] PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE LENAPE 13 
On the arrival of white settlers, the entire region afterward known 
as New Jersey belonged to the Lenape or Delawares,’ whose settle- 
ments extended ‘‘from the Mohicannituck [Hudson River] to beyond 
the Potomac,” and “from the heads of the great rivers ‘Susque- 
hannah’ 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 lin- 
euistically. 
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).2. These 
subtribes, it seems, were subdivided into numerous smaller groups 
with distinctive names.2 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,* 
1 Captain John Smith’s Works, 1608-1631, Arber ed., Birmingham, 1884; William Penn’s Letters, 16833 
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, m1, 
Phila., 1834; T. Acrelius, History of New Sweden, Stockholm, 1759, transl. in Memoirs of the Historical 
Socicty of Pennsylvania, x1, 1874; Samuel Smith, History of the Colony of Nova Cesarea or New Jersey, Bur- 
lington, 1765; Peter Kalm, Travels into North America, London, 1770-71; G. H. Loskiel, History of the 
Mission ofthe United Brethren among the Indians in North America, London, 1794; Geo. Chalmers, Political 
Annals of the Present United Colonies, ete., 1780, New York Historical Society Collections, 1868; John G. EK. 
Heckewelder, History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania 
and the Neighboring States, Phila., 1819, Mem. Hist. Soc. Penn., xm, 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., tv, 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. 
2 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 
“neople of the stony country”’ or ‘mountaineers’; Unami (from nahen, down-stream) means ‘people 
down theriver”’; 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.) 
3 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.) 
4 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, 1, p. 225) place the Minsi even farther east, ‘from Long Island to and beyond Min- 
nisink.” According to Ruttenber (History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson’s River, p. 50) the Munsee terri- 
tory ‘‘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. 
