Delaware Indians

[James]

Does anyone know of a study of Delaware Indian dna? I'm not sure how well their genetic history has been documented, but I understand that they were in Pennsylvania with the early settlers and I would be interested in knowing if and how that effected the dna mixture of settlers who later moved west.

[dpyates]

Believe it or not, despite their importance, the Delaware Indians have not been studied much. At the end of the removal period, Delawares were forcibly joined together with the Cherokee in northeast Indian Territory. They were formerly blood enemies. They were denied any reservation in the East or Midwest. Even their names were taken away from them (Lenni Lenape, Shanticoke, etc.) A Russian pioneer family in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey even appropriated the tribal government, claiming the Delawares came from Russia (which is oddly true as they originated in the area around Lake Baikal, perhaps 3,000 years ago). The Algonquian tribes in Canada fared better. If you want reliable information you'll have to look in that direction. The grand chief used to be William Commenda, and he was the keeper of the wampum belts containing their history (Wallam Olum). That too has been denied and destroyed by the Americans. It is usually regarded as fairy tales by anthropologists.

Here's what I wrote about the Lenapes, following Constantine Rafinesque, in my chapter "America's Middle Ages" in Old World Roots of the Cherokee:

Nearly two thousand years ago [200 B.C.E.], great revolutions happened in the north of Asia; the Oghuzian empire was severed, and a swarm of barbarous nations emigrating from Tatary [Mongolia] and Siberia, spread desolation from Europe to America. In Europe they nearly destroyed the powerful Roman empire, and in North America they subverted many civilized states.
Several of those Oghuzian nations, driven by necessity or their foes to the north-east corner of Asia, came in sight of America, and crossing Berhing [sic] Strait on the ice, at various times, they reached North America. Two of them, the Lenap [Delaware] and Menguy [Iroquoian tribes], seeking milder climates, spread themselves towards the south; while another, the Karitit [Eskimo], which came after them, spread on the sea shores from Alaska to Greenland, and some others settled on the north-west coast of America [Haida, Tlingit et al.] (31).
These events correspond to the first period of the Algonquian people’s history as presented in the restored Wallam Olum of David McCutcheon. There we read of a multitude “ten thousand strong” crossing “the frozen sea at low tide in the narrows of the icy ocean” (III, 17). Twenty-four chiefs’ reigns pass as they settle for several generations in Turtle Island (North America), migrate to the Snake (Enemy) River (present day Washington and Oregon (where there are still at least two Algonquian-speaking tribes, the Yurok and Wiyots of California, that were apparently left behind) and make their way across the interior to emerge in the Mississippi River valley, defeat the Talegans and settle with them on the Wabash River in Indiana. McCutcheon calculates this span of time as one of 500 years on the basis of 13 2/3 years per chief. If we take Rafinesque’s starting point for the invasion to be around 200 B.C.E, this brings us to around 300 C.E. for the Algonquian army’s progression to the eastern shore of the Mississippi. Here the Algonquian armies conquer the Natchez (Iztacans) and Talegans (Atlans mixed with Iztacans). Let us see how McCutcheon's chronology compares with Rafinesque’s:
The Lenaps [Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, principal Algonquian tribe in the U.S.] after settling some time on the Oregon and Multnomah rivers, crossed the Oregon mountains, and following the Missouri, fighting their way through the Ottomies [Sioux], &c. they reached the Mississippi, nearly at the same time with the Menguys [Iroquois], who had come north of the Missouri. They found the powerful Talegans in possession of Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, who opposed their progress and cut off the first party that ventured to cross the Mississippi. A long war ensued [hence the name Kentucky meaning “Dark and Bloody Ground”], in which the two Oghuzian nations [Algonquians and Iroquois] joined in a confederacy against the Talegans, and succeeded after a long struggle to drive them away to the south.
When the Lenaps had defeated the Talegans, they had to contend with the Natchez of West Kentucky, the Huasiotos [Northern Sioux] of East Kentucky, the Sciotos [Siouan] of Ohio, besides many remaining branches of the Atalans, Cutans [of Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern origin], &c. scattered in North America, which they vanquished, destroyed or drove away, occupying all the country from the Missouri to the Allegheny mountains; while the Menguys [Iroquois] settled north of them on the lakes.
The Lenaps were hunters, but lived in towns, and became partly civilized by the prisoners and slaves that they made. — They began to cultivate corn, beans, squashes, tobacco, &c. Their hunters having ventured across the Allegheny mountains, discovered a fine country, not occupied by any nations, in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Many were induced to remove to that country, where they should be more distant from their southern foes.
A settlement was made east of the mountains, and the great Lenapian nation became thus divided into many distant tribes, independent of each other; but connected by a similarity of language, religion, manners, and acknowledged origin.
The principal of these tribes, which thus became independent nations, were the Chinus [Chinook] on the Oregon, the Anilcos and Quiguas on the Missouri, the Utawas [Ottowa] and Miamis north of the Ohio, the Shawanees or Massawomees in Kentucky, the Mohigans and Abnakis in New England, the Sankikans in New Jersey, the Unamis and Minsis [Munsee] in Pennsylvania, the Powhatans in Virginia, the Nanticoes [Nanticoke Indians] in Maryland, the Chipeways [Chippewa, Anishnabe, Ojibwe] and Clistenos [Sauk or Fox?] on the upper Mississippi, &c.

[James]

Thank you. Very interesting information