Editing Lenape (section)

=== 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>