Editing Lenape (section)

==Society==
{{see also|Lenape mythology}}

=== Clans and kinship systems===
[[File:Susie Elkhair-Deleware Tribe of Indians-(Lenape).jpg|thumb|upright|Susie Elkhair ([[Delaware Tribe of Indians]], 1845–1925), wearing a [[ribbonwork]] shawl and Delaware dress with medallions in [[Oklahoma]]]]
At the time of European settlement in [[North America]], a Lenape would have identified primarily with their immediate family and clan, friends, and village unit and, after that, with surrounding and familiar village units followed by more distant neighbors who spoke the same dialect, and finally, with those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually comprehensible languages, including the [[Nanticoke people]] who lived to their south and west in present western [[Delaware]] and [[Eastern Shore of Maryland|eastern Maryland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Northeast Indian Social Organization |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Northeast-Indian/Social-organization |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>

Among many [[Algonquian peoples]] along the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]], the Lenape were considered the grandfathers from whom other [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]]-speaking peoples originated.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

The Lenape had three clans at the end of the 17th century, each of which historically had twelve sub-clans.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carman |first1=Alan E. |title=Footprints in Time: A History and Ethnology of The Lenape-Delaware Indian Culture |date=September 16, 2013 |publisher=Trafford |isbn=978-1-4669-0742-3 |pages=88–90}}</ref> The three primary Lenape clans are: Wolf (Tùkwsit),<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.talk-lenape.org/results?query=wolf+clan |title = The Lenape Talking Dictionary {{pipe}} Search Results of "wolf clan" English to Lenape}}</ref> Turtle (Pùkuwànku),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://talk-lenape.org/detail?id=8924 |title = The Lenape Talking Dictionary {{pipe}} Detailed Entry View: Turtle clan}}</ref> and Turkey (Pële).<ref>{{cite web | url=http://talk-lenape.org/detail?id=8399 |title = The Lenape Talking Dictionary {{pipe}} Detailed Entry View – Fowl (Turkey) clan of the Lenape}}</ref> The Lenape clan system is [[matrilineality|matrilineal]], and historically they were a [[matrilocal residence|matrilocal]] society, that is, husbands moved into their wife's homes.<ref name="michael">{{cite web |last1=Michael |first1=Nicky Kay |title=Lenape Women in a Transitional Culture |url=https://openresearch.okstate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/88634e21-a596-4e98-aaea-662824393f5e/content |website=Open Research Oklahoma |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=4 December 2024 |pages=35–36 |date=1999}}</ref> Children belong to their mother's clan, from which they gain social status and identity.<ref name="michael"/>  Within a marriage itself, men and women had relatively separate and equal rights, each controlling their own property and debts, showing further signs of a woman's power in the hierarchical structure.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Caffrey|first=Margaret M.|date=2000|title=Complementary Power: Men and Women of the Lenni Lenape|journal=American Indian Quarterly|volume=24|issue=1|pages=44–63|jstor=1185990|issn=0095-182X}}</ref>

=== Hunting, fishing, and farming ===
Lenape practiced [[companion planting]], in which women cultivated many varieties of the [[Three Sisters (agriculture)|Three Sisters]]: maize, beans, and squash. Men hunted, fished, and otherwise harvested [[seafood]]. In the 17th century, the Lenape practiced [[slash and burn]] agriculture. They used fire to manage land.<ref>Stevenson W. Fletcher, ''Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life 1640–1840'' (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1950), 2, 35–37, 63–65, 124.</ref><ref>Day, Gordon M. "The Indian as an Ecological Factor in the Northeastern Forests." ''Ecology'', Vol. 34, #2 (April 1953): 329–346. ''New England and New York Areas 1580–1800''.</ref><ref>Emily W.B. Russell, [https://www.proquest.com/openview/b4c71929d95a63cf36ee7fb0cc215c85/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y ''Vegetational Change in Northern New Jersey Since 1500 A.D.: A Palynological, Vegetational and Historical Synthesis''], Ph.D. dissertation (New Brunswick, PA: Rutgers University, 1979).</ref><ref>Russell, Emily W.B. "Indian Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States." ''Ecology'', Vol. 64, no. 1 (Feb. 1983): 78, 88.</ref><ref>''A Brief Description of New York, Formerly Called New Netherlands with the Places Thereunto Adjoining, Likewise a Brief Relation of the Customs of the Indians There,'' New York, NY: William Gowans. 1670. Reprinted in 1937 by the Facsimile Text Society, Columbia University Press, New York.</ref><ref>Smithsonian Institution—Handbook of North American Indians series: ''Handbook of North American Indians,'' Volume 15—Northeast. Bruce G. Trigger (volume editor). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 1978 References to Indian burning for the Eastern Algonquians, Virginia Algonquians, Northern Iroquois, Huron, Mahican, and Delaware Tribes and peoples.</ref> Controlled use of fire extended farmlands' productivity. According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape planted their primary crop, [[maize]], in March.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Munsee-Speaking Lenape Indians |url=https://blogs.shu.edu/mvdh/people/the-munsee-speaking-lenape-indians/ |website=The Watering Place}}</ref> Over time, the Lenape adapted to European methods of hunting and farming with metal tools.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Krykew |first=Sarah |date=July 15, 2016 |title=Lenni Lenape Methods of Gardening and Food Preparation |url=https://chaddsfordhistorical.wordpress.com/2016/07/15/lenni-lenape-methods-of-gardening-and-food-preparation/ |website=Chadds Ford Historical Society}}</ref>

The men limited their agricultural labor to clearing the field and breaking the soil. They primarily hunted and fished during the rest of the year: from September to January and from June to July, they mainly hunted deer, but from the month of January to the spring planting in May, they hunted anything from bears and beavers to raccoons and foxes.<ref name=":0" /> Dutch settler [[David Pietersz. de Vries|David de Vries]], who stayed in the area from 1634 to 1644, described a Lenape hunt in the valley of the ''Achinigeu-hach'' (or Ackingsah-sack, the [[Hackensack River]]), in which 100 or more men stood in a line many paces from each other, beating thigh bones on their palms to drive animals to the river, where they could be killed easily.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lenni Lenape Indian Tribe |url=https://www.comanchelodge.com/nations/delaware-tribe.html |website=Comanche Lodge}}</ref> Other methods of hunting included [[lasso]]ing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting the brush on fire. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area,<ref>Mark Kurlansky, 2006 {{page needed|date=December 2013}}</ref> and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round.<ref>Dreibelbis, 1978 , page 33</ref> One technique used while fishing was to add ground [[chestnuts]] to stream water to make fish dizzy and easier to catch.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Keoke |first1=Emory Dean |title=Food, Farming and Hunting |page=103}}</ref>

The success of these methods allowed the tribe to maintain a larger population than other, [[nomadic]] [[hunter-gatherer]] peoples in North America at the time, could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, around much of the current [[New York City]] area alone, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape in approximately 80 settlement sites.<ref>Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, 1999, p.5</ref> In 1524, Lenape in canoes met [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]], the first European explorer to enter [[New York Harbor]].

European settlers and traders from the 17th-century colonies of [[New Netherland]] and [[New Sweden]] traded with the Lenape for agricultural products, mainly maize, in exchange for iron tools. The Lenape also arranged contacts between the ''Minquas'' or ''Susquehannocks'' and the [[Dutch West India Company]] and [[Swedish South Company]] to promote the [[North American fur trade|fur trade]]. The Lenape were major producers of labor-intensive ''[[wampum]]'', or shell beads, which they traditionally used for ritual purposes and as ornaments. After the Dutch arrival, they began to exchange wampum for beaver furs provided by [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]]-speaking [[Susquehannock]] and other Minquas. They exchanged these furs for Dutch and, from the late 1630s, also Swedish imports. Relations between some Lenape and Minqua polities briefly turned sour in the late 1620s and early 1630s, but were relatively peaceful most of the time.<ref>{{Cite thesis |degree=Ph.D. |title=Cultural exchange, imperialist violence, and pious missions: Local perspectives from Tanjavur and Lenape country, 1720–1760 |last=Utz |first=Axel |year=2011 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University |pages=140–147|id={{ProQuest|902171220}} }}</ref>

=== Clothing and adornment ===
The early European settlers, especially the Dutch and Swedes, were surprised at the Lenape's skill in fashioning clothing from natural materials. In hot weather men and women wore only loin cloth and skirt respectively, while they used beaver pelts or bear skins to serve as winter mantles. Additionally, both sexes might wear [[Buckskin (leather)|buckskin]] leggings and moccasins in cold weather.<ref name=":1">Weslager, '' The Delaware Indians: A History'', 54</ref> Women would wear their hair long, usually below the hip, while men kept only a small "round crest, of about 2 inches in diameter". Deer hair, dyed a deep scarlet, as well as plumes of feathers, were favorite components of headdresses and breast ornaments for males.<ref>Kraft, ''The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage,'' 237–240</ref><ref name=":0" /> The Lenape also adorned themselves with various ornaments made of stone, shell, animal teeth, and claws. The women often wore headbands of dyed deer hair or wampum. They painted their skin skirts or decorated them with porcupine quills. These skirts were so elaborately appointed that, when seen from a distance, they reminded Dutch settlers of fine European lace.<ref>Kraft, ''The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage,'' 239</ref> The winter cloaks of the women were striking, fashioned from the iridescent body feathers of wild turkeys.<ref name=":1" />

=== Leisure  ===
One of the more common activities of leisure for the Lenni Lenape would be the game of ''pahsaheman'': a football-like hybrid, split on gender lines. Over a hundred players were grouped into gendered teams (male and female) to try getting a ball through the other team's goal posts. Men could not carry and pass the ball, only use their feet, while the women could carry, pass, or kick.<ref name=":0" /> If the ball was picked up by a woman, she could not be tackled by the men, although men could attempt to dislodge the ball. Women were free to tackle the men.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://delawaretribe.org/blog/2013/06/27/pahsahman-the-lenape-indian-football-game/|title=Official Site of the Delaware Tribe of Indians » Pahsahëman — The Lenape Indian Football Game|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-24}}</ref>

Another common activity was that of dance, and yet again, gender differences appear: men would dance and leap loudly, often with bear claw accessories, while women, wearing little thimbles or bells, would dance more modestly, stepping "one foot after the other slightly forwards then backwards, yet so as to advance gradually".<ref name=":0" />

=== Units of measure  ===
A number of linear measures were used. Small units of measure were the distance from the thumb and first finger, and the distance from first finger to pit of elbow. Travel distance was measured in the distance one could comfortably travel from sun-up to sun-down.<ref>Lenni Lenape Original Settlers, Matawan Journal, June 27, 1957, Page 12</ref>

===Ethnobotany===
Lenape [[herbal medicine|herbalists]], who have been primarily women, use their extensive knowledge of plant life to help heal their community's ailments, sometimes through ceremony. The Lenape found uses in trees like [[Juglans nigra|black walnut]] which were used to cure ringworm and with [[persimmon]]s which were used to cure ear problems.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hill|first=George|date=2015|title=DELAWARE ETHNOBOTANY|url=http://delawaretribe.org/wp-content/uploads/DEL-ETHNOBOTANY-Hill.pdf|website=Delawaretribe.org}}</ref>

The Lenape carry the nuts of ''[[Aesculus glabra]]'' in the pocket for [[rheumatism]], and an infusion of ground nuts mixed with sweet oil or mutton tallow for earaches. They also grind the nuts and use them to poison fish in streams.<ref>Tantaquidgeon, Gladys, 1972, Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians, Harrisburg. Pennsylvania Historical Commission Anthropological Papers #3, page 30</ref> They also apply a poultice of pulverized nuts with sweet oil for earache.<ref>Tantaquidgeon, Gladys, 1942, A Study of Delaware Indian Medicine Practice and Folk Beliefs, Harrisburg. Pennsylvania Historical Commission, page 25, 74</ref>