DELAWARE INDIANS (INDIANS, ante), a tribe of American Indians once very important, dwelling in the region of the Delaware river, in Pennsylvania and New York. They were called Lenno Lenape, from " Lenappi," a term for men in general, applied by themselves to themselves. (Delaware is not an Indian word, as some think, but from the name of lord de la Warr, one of the early governors of the colony of Virginia.) The Delawares were among. the earliest to become friendly and to trade with the Dutch settlers of New York, and were generally on good terms with the whites. After destroying one Swedish settlement, they became friendly with that people also, and the Lutherans made some efforts to Christianize them. In 1741, the 3loravians established missions near Bethlehem and Nazareth, Pa. For a long period the Iroquois held the Delawares in great contempt, stigmatizing them as women; but they fought well enough on the side of the French at Braddock's defeat and elsewhere. Long after. wards, a number of the tribes, smarting under a sense of wrong in certain treaties with the whites, took part with Pontiac in the Indian war in the north-west, and were among those who besieged Detroit in 1763. They were defeated in the same year. and their chief was killed. Not long afterwards the whites destroyed the Delaware villages on the Susquehanna. Peace was made at fort Pitt in 1765, and the tribe began at once to emigrate to the west, so that in 1768 there were none of them east of the Alleghanies. The Moravian missionaries went with their flocks, and Christian Indians rapidly increased along the Ohio; but the hostile feeling prevailed until the battle of Pleasant Point in 1774, when they were utterly scattered. In the war of the revolution most of the Dela wares took the English side, although a part of the nation made a treaty with congress. The Christian Indians had settled on the Muskingum in 1772, forming three towns, one of which was of Delawares only. They took no part in the war, but attended to their
farming until the English captured them, 1781, and removed them to Sandusky. A part of those returned to save their crops, but were attacked by the Americans, who murdered 90 of them. The remainder fled to Canada. These, with others, subsequently formed the town of Fairfield on the Thames; only 'afew members of the tribe returning to the Muskingum country. There were still many hostile, and these bad a strong band of warriors in the defeat of.St. Clair in 1701. Peace was made after Wane's victory four years later, and thenceforward from time to time the tribe of their lands in Ohio, and nearly all remained in Canada. In the war of 1812, they refused to join Tectunseh, and remained friendly to the United States. Even after this the Americans destroyed their town in Canada. In 1818, the Delawares, numbering about 1800, ceded all their lands to the United States, and removed to Missouri territory. By treaty in 1820, the mass of the nation, only 1000, were settled on the Kansas and the Missouri. Here they suffered from the attacks of the Sioux and other wild tribes and the depreda tions of thieving white men. In the Kansas troubles they took no part. In the civil war they sent 170 men to the union army, out of a total of 200 able-bodied warriors. Being disturbed by the Pacific railroad, they sold their lands and moved to a location on the Verdigris and Cane rivers. In 1866, a special treaty permitted them to become citi zens of States, and they elected so to do, since which time they have not been regarded as a tribe. Their language was among the best known of aboriginal tongues, and a number of educational and other works have been published in it.