Early American History
Lenni Lenape-Part 2 of 2
The Original People
The Lenni-Lanape-or Original People,
followed narrow trails on top of mountains to hunt and fish. They camped along the meadows and springs, and followed the migration of deer and other wild game. Many of our streams, mountains and villages, still retain their Indian names: Ontelaunee-little maiden
-or Maidencreek, Kau-ta-tin-chunk-endless
or Blue Mountain, Navesink-place of fishing
- or Neversink,, and Olink - hole or hollow encompassed by hills
-or Oley.
The first white men to explore Berks County were Dutch trappers, who fished along the Schuylkill River around 1630. A few years later the Swedes, led by Peter Minuet, a former Dutch governor of New York, bought all the land between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers, including Berks County.
Ta minent Allumapes also called Sassoonan and Teedyuscung were successively the chief sachems of the Wolf tribe from the time of Penn's treaty until the Indians disappeared from this part of the country. They had their headquarters at Minisink and Shamokin. Manangy was the chief of the Schuylkill Indians and may have exercised authority over all the Indians of Berks County except the Ganawese because the name of no other is found.
Sources/Credits:
Google Books
The Indians of Berks County, PA. By David B. BrunnerHistory of Passaic and its environs, Volume 2 By William Winfield Scott
Indian Wars of New England. By Herbert Milton Sylvester
Lenape Lifeways
Wikipedia Image of Tribal territories of Delaware tribes by en:User:ish ishwar CreativeCommons SA 3.0