The Indians When the first Europeans arrived, the Delaware (or Lenni Lenape) Indians lived in northern and central Delaware and also along the river shore in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Their language was a version of the Algonquian tongue. Politically decentralized (each village ran its own affairs), they were a peaceful people, supporting themselves by farming, hunting, and fishing. The more warlike Minqua, or Susquehannock, living to the west, frequently attacked the Lenape. Several Algonquian-language tribes, such as the Nanticoke, Assateague, and Choptank, lived in southern Delaware. (See Delaware.) Bright Star