A map showing the extent of Lenni Lenape [a.k.a. Leni Lenape] territory, including dialects, superimposed on current geographical boundaries. Note that the map does not include areas of the Susquehanna River valleys that presently are considered parts of the greater Lykens Valley.
The text below is from George H. Morgan‘s Centennial of the Settlement, Formation and Progress of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, from 1785 to 1876, published in 1877 by the Telegraph Steam Book and Job Printing House. The book is available as a free download from the Internet Archive.
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OUR INDIAN PREDECESSORS
The Indian tribes who dwelt among the primitive forests of Pennsylvania on the first settlement of Europeans, called themselves the Leni Lenape, or original people. This general name comprehended numerous distinct tribes, all speaking dialects of a common language and uniting around the same great council fire. Their grand council house, to use their own expressive figure, extended from the Hudson River on the northeast, to the Potomac River on the southwest. Many of the tribes were directly descended from the common stock; others having sought their sympathy and protection had been allotted a section of their territory. The surrounding tribes, not of their confederacy, nor acknowledging allegiance to it, agreed in awarding them the honor of being grandfathers – that is the oldest residents in the region.
The Leni Lenape were divided into three principal divisions: (1) the Unamis, or Turtle tribes; (2) the Unalachtigos, or Turkeys; and (3) the Monseys or Wolf tribes. The two former occupied the country along the coast between the sea and the Kittatinny or Blue Mountains, their settlements extending as far east as the Hudson and as far west as the Potomac. These were generally known among the whites as the Delaware Indians. The Monseys, or Wolf tribes, the most active and warlike of the whole, occupied the mountainous country between the Kittatinny Moountain and the sources of the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers, kindling their council fire on the Minnisink flats on the Delaware above the Water Gap. A part of the tribe also dwelt on the Susquehanna “in the Kittatinny and Cumberland Valleys,” under the more immediate protection of the Susquehanna Indians, and were called by them nephews, in common with Mohicans.
But by whatever tribal appellation our Indian predecessors were known, it is certain they found but few spots in the interior of the county which invited their fixed abode. Their settlements were chiefly confined to the alluvial flats along the Susquehanna, below or to some of the larger islands in that river. There were Indian villages on Duncan’s Island, one on the present site of Millersburg, one at the mouth of Paxton Creek, and another a short distance north of it. On the Cumberland County side of the river there was one at the mouth of the Conedogwinet, another on the high limestone bluff opposite Harrisburg, and a third at the mouth of the Yellow Breeches Creek. This latter was a Shawanese town. It was for many years the fixed landing place of Peter Chartier, an Indian agent, and an individual of some notoriety. He owned at one time six hundred acres of land bounded by Yellow Breeches Creek and the Susquehanna River, embracing the present site of New Cumberland. Chartier subsequently removed to the Allegheny River, about 40 miles above Pittsburgh, at what was called Old Town, or Chartier’s Old Town. He subsequently proved treacherous to the English and joined the French. The village at Peixtan was visited as early as 1707 by John Evans, Lieutenant Governor of the Province, accompanied by Mr. Gray, Messrs. John French, William Tonge, Michael Bezaillon, and four servants. Their object, as we learn from the Colonial Records, was the arrest of Jean Nicole, a French trader, “against whom great complaints had been made to the Governor.” It was a dangerous enterprise – for Nicole was a favorite with the young men of the village – and it was only by strategy that the Governor and his party succeeded in making the arrest.
The Indian village on Duncan’s Island was visited by the missionary David Brainard as late as 1745, an interesting account of which is given in his published biography.
Twenty years ago remains of these villages, in the shape of stone arrow heads, hatchets, and broken pieces of pottery were frequently turned up by the plough-share on Duncan’s Island, and on the flat ground near the mouth of Paxton Creek. There are other remains preserved in the archives of the State in the shape of quit-claim deeds, of the Indians’ titles to their lands. These are signed with uncouth marks, and names unspeakable, and executed with all the solemnity of legal form.
This brings us to the purchase, from the Indians, of the land now comprising the county of Dauphin.
Prior to Penn’s arrival, he had instructed William Markham, his deputy Governor, then in Pennsylvania, to hold treaties with the Indians to procure their lands peaceably. Markham, a short time previously held such a treaty July 15, 1682, for some lands on the Delaware River. Penn held similar treaties; and before his return to England in 1684 he adopted measures to “purchase the lands on the Susquehanna from the Five Nations, who pretended a right to them, having conquered the people finally settled there.” The Five Nations resided on the head waters of the Susquehanna.
The three divisions of the Leni Lenape already noticed, were gain divided into various subordinate clans, who assumed names suited to their character or situation. Thus the tribe who occupied the territory along a greater portion of the valley of the Susquehanna styled themselves the “Susquehannas.” The next nearest distinctive tribe mentioned is that of the “Conestogas,” who occupied the valley south of the Conewago Hills. The early settlers and provincial authorities, however, styled those who dwelt here simply the “Indians at Paxtang,” or “Paxtang Indians.”
These in part consisted of the Shawanese, a restless and ferocious tribe who having been threatened with extermination by a more powerful tribe at the South, sought protection among the friendly nations of the North, whose language was observed to bear a remarkable affinity to their own. The greater part of them settled on the Ohio, and the rest on the Susquehanna. Those from Georgia and Carolina came into the province of Pennsylvania about the year 1689, and settled first by the consent of the Susquehanna Indians and William Penn, on the flats of Conestoga; but afterwards consented to leave Conestoga and settled principally in New York; and Penn’s time being too much engrossed to visit them personally, he engaged Thomas Dungan, Governor of New York, to make the purchase of “all that tract of land lying on both sides of the River Susquehanna and the lakes adjacent, in or near the Province of Pennsylvania.” Dungan effected the purchase and conveyed the same to William Penn, January 13, 1696, in consideration of one hundred pounds sterling.
The above purchase was from Indians who only “pretended” a right to the ground, and to show how careful Penn was to do justice in the premises, he made the following treaty with the Indians who occupied the soil:
September 13, 1700: Widagh and Andaggy-junguah, kings or sachems of the Susquehanna Indians, and of the river under that name, and lands lying on both sides thereof, deed to William Penn for all the lands situate, lying and being on both sides of the said river, and next adjoining the same to the utmost confines of the lands which are or formerly were, the right of the people or nation called the Susquehanna Indians, or by what name soever they were called, as fully and amply as we or any of our ancestors have, could, might or ought to have had, held or enjoyed, and also confirm the bargain and sale of said lands made unto Col. Thomas Dungan, now Earl of Limerick and formerly Governor of New York, whose deed of sale to said Gov. Penn we have seen,.
The Conestoga Indians, however, would not recognize the validity of this sale, believing that the Five Nations had no proper authority to transfer their possessions. To secure the lands conveyed to him by Dungan, Penn subsequently entered into articles of agreement with the Conestoga, Susquehanna and Potomac Indians, and the Dungan, Widagh and Andaggy-junguah deeds were confirmed.
Notwithstanding all these sales and transfers, the lands on the west side of the Susquehanna were still claimed by the Indians, for the words in the deed of 1700 were considered inconsistent with an extensive Western purchase; besides the Indians of the Five Nations still continued to claim a right to the river and the adjoining lands. Finally, the sachems or chiefs with all the others of the Five Nations met in the summer of 1736 at a great council in the country of the Onondagoes in New York, and appointed a deputation of sachems or chiefs, with plenary powers to repair to Philadelphia and there among other things, settle and adjust all demands and claims connected with the Susquehanna and adjoining lands. On their arrival in Philadelphia they renewed old treaties of friendship, and on the 11th of October 1736 made a deed to John Penn, Thomas Penn, and Richard Penn, their heirs, successors and assigns. The deed was signed by twenty-three Indian chiefs of the Onondago, Seneca, Oneida and Tuscarora nations, granting the Penns “all the said River Susquehanna, with the lands lying on both sides thereof to extend eastward as far as the heads of the branches or springs which run into said Susquehanna, and all the lands lying on the west side of the said river to the settling of the sun, and to extend from the mouth of the said river northward, up the same to the hills or mountains called in the language of said nations Tayamentasachta, and by the Delaware Indians the Kekachtannin Hills.” Thus were the claims of the Indians relinquished to the proprietaries of all the land that lies in the present limits of Dauphin County, except that portion north of the Kittatinny or Blue Mountains, five miles above Harrisburg. That portion above the Kittatinny Mountainwas purchased, including a large tract of country, in 1749.
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