In a message dated 10/22/01 9:29:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > > > >> Subj: Re: Lenape Then and Now >> Date: 10/22/01 9:29:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time >> From: [email protected] (Ned Heite) >> To: [email protected] >> >> >> Hey, wish they had been there; your folks from up in Wayne and Monroe >> were called the River Indians in one talk, and clearly were Lenape. >> Please do forward it to them and give them my address. >> >> At 8:54 AM -0400 10/22/01, [email protected] wrote: >> >Excellent piece for your talk, Ned, understandable to the novice, >> > enough detail and reference for the always present >> >documentarian--and pointed as to the problems. >> > >> >Thanks for letting all read it. With your concurrence, I'll post it >> >to the Wayne Co., PA list, they encompass Wayne, Pike, Monroe, many >> >of whose early families came out of NJ, the name of Dean appears, as >> >does Sisco, Cumbo, etc. >> > >> >You may have inadvertantly solved my Mary Sanders/Saunders >> >problem--she b. c 1770-1755. Lyman Draper states in his papers >> >the group ensconced on the Delaware, some 222 persons, were Shawnee >> >and Cherokee, pushed backwards--and there in the early 1770s. Not >> >impossible, certainly--and Draper never said he was an >> >oracle---his work was without peer, or an axe to grind that anyone >> >has ever known of. So. >> >> >> Sanders and Dean are two of the names we find in both Cheswold and >> farther to the north. Also Songo and Bass. >> -- >> *************************** Ned Heite ([email protected]) ********* >> > > > > The Invisible Indians of New Jesey and Delaware > > A talk presented at the "Lenape Then and Now" symposium > Vineland, New Jersey, October 20, 2001 > > Edward F. Heite > > During nearly twenty years, we have been privileged to study historic > Native American remnant groups in Delaware, usually as part of the > Delaware Department of Transportation cultural resource management > program. Most of our work has been concentrated in Duck Creek, Little > Creek, Kenton, and West Dover hundreds, the north half of Kent County. > > The people of this area, now called Lenape, belong to the same stock > as the people of southern Sussex County now called Nanticoke, and the > people in Cumberland County, New Jersey, who are now called > Nanticoke-Lenape. Historical documents indicate that Northern Kent > County was called Mitsawokett during the settlement period, and > the people here were part of the Cohansey who lived on the east side > of Delaware Bay. Historical documents indicate the area now > known as central Delaware was the south limit of Lenape territorial > claims. > > Whatever their descendanats call themselves today, the tribes who > met the first European settlers have experienced many changes during > four centuries. In any Native American community on Delmarva or in > New Jersey today, no individual can claim descent exclusively from > one seventeenth-century tribe or another. This is why the sponsors of > this meeting call themselves Nanticoke-Lenape. > > After the middle of the eighteenth century, Delaware did not > recognize the existence of any Native American people within its > boundaries. The legislature even made an official statement to the > effect that there were no Indians in the colony. Throughout the > coastal plain, at the beginning of our federal period, there were a > few scattered remnant communities of Native American people. And of > that scattered population, only a small proportion were recognized by > their neighbors as Indian tribes. In the minds of the general > population, all the Indians were out west. > > So began the period of invisibility, when the Native population > disappeared from the historical record. > > For purposes of the census and enforcement of discriminatory laws, > race in America has been defined, throughout the nineteenth century > and much of the twentieth, by the subjective opinion of white record > keepers. These officials frequently were ignorant of the nuanced > meanings of race terminology and often were uninterested in ethnic > origins. To some record-keepers, every nonwhite was "negro." > Sometimes Indian people would be identified as "mulatto," an > ambiguous term applied to all light-skinned nonwhites and probably to > a few Mediterranean whites as well. > > Citizens of Indian origin were enumerated in the federal census > together with African Americans under the classification of "free > persons of color." Some Indians were classified as white, especially > if they were financially well off. The 1800 census of Delaware did > not identify any person as an Indian, but did identify several Indian > families as white. > > In some years the tax assessors identified Indian-descended families > as "mulattoes" and reserved the term "negro" for persons of African > descent, regardless of mixture. In other years, every nonwhite was > classed as "negro." Race classification depended entirely upon the > tax collector's perception. > > Official silence concerning ethnicity during the seventeenth and > eighteenth centuries has complicated the task of making historical > racial or cultural identifications. After the Civil War, when free > public education was gradually extended to nonwhites, a group of > citizens protested against being included in the "negro" school > system. Instead, they eventually persuaded the state to create > "moor" or "Indian" schools at both Indian River and Cheswold. This > was the beginning of the struggle for modern Indian recognition in > Delaware. > > It is important to remember that the historical experience of East > Coast Indian populations is very different from the history of their > western cousins. In the west, where the Army was tasked with > controlling Native American populations, there was no question as to > who was Indian. Mere presence in a population conferred ethnic and > tribal identity, even though many of the people in the tribes were of > mixed origin. In the west, in Indian country, you knew who was an > Indian because the Army and later the Bureau of Indian Affairs kept a > list. > > Here in the east, there were no official lists of Indians, because > the Indians did not officially exist. In the west, historians and > genealogists can determine who was an Indian simply by presence on a > government inventory. > > In the east, the identification process is exactly the reverse. We > must first identify the community, and then identify individuals > within that community who can be documented as Indians. It's easy > to walk into a group of Delaware or New Jersey Indians and say that > these people look like Indians, but it's another matter entirely to > prove that they are a coherent group of related Native people who > have always been a separate community. If we can show that over the > years, certain individuals were identified as Indians by impartial > outside observers, we can logically assert that their relatives > constituted an Indian community, or band. By then defining the band > of which these obviously Indian people were members, we can with some > confidence demonstrate that the communty was an Indian band. > > Throughout three centuries Native American families knew who they > were. They stuck together. They intermarried. The three bands of > people in Indian River, Cheswold, and Cumberland County, composed a > single population within which people routinely circulated. They also > maintained regular contact with other Native American communities. In > the 1820s, for example, a young man from Cheswold went out to Peru, > Indiana, to live a while with the Lenape emigrants out there. I'm > told that a Lenape community still exists in that part of Indiana. > > In order to document the Native American nature of the community, we > have employed genealogy, with the able assistance of a corps of > volunteers organized by Betty and Ray Terry, proprietors of the > Mitsawokett web site. Thanks to the efforts of Betty and Ray, we now > have a database that can be used to demonstrate the continuity of > Native American identity within these related families. > > Now let's examine some of the documentation through time. > > When the Indian John Puckham was baptised in 1682, he became a > "mulatto" and married Jone Johnson, also a "mulatto". > > A George Puckham was among the "Indians" named in the prosecutions of > the Winnesoccum "conspiracy" of 1742, which was the beginning of the > end of organized Indian tribes on Delmarva. Soon after Winnesoccum, > the traditional people moved away, while others blended into the > general population. > > Members of the Puckham family moved to Kent County, and in 1815, a > later George Puckham was named in an estate settlement of the Durham > family. > > So our eastern searches for documentation must begin with > genealogical reserch, family by family, until we have a picture of > community ethnicity. The necessary records are, surprisingly, > abundant. > > The name Francisco or Sisco appears in many Native American > communities. One Abraham Sisco was among the Nanticoke who addressed > the Pennsylvania governor in 1760, while the Nanticoke were living in > the Susquehannah valley . Descendants of documented Francisco or > Sisco people are living today in all three communities. > > In 1748, as the traditional Native tribal people were leaving > Delmarva, some stayed behind. One of these, apparently, was William > Cambridge, who patented part of the Askibinakansen Indian town in > Worcester County, Maryland. It appears Cambridge was a Native > American, and perhaps was getting a Maryland title to the place where > he already lived; only archaeology can tell us more. > > The Coursey family are some of the few who can demonstrate direct > descent from the seventeenth-century Nanticokes. They descend from > Tom Coursey, historic chief of the Nanticoke Indians. > > Daniel and Nathan Norwood enlisted in a Delaware military company in > 1758. Nathan was described in the muster roll as "brown" and Daniel > was described as "brown Indian." Their comrade, James Westcote, was > also described as "brown" but his occupation was given as "Indian". > This may have been the last official document to recognize the > existence of Indians in Delaware. > > Gradually, an awareness of Indian origins began to creep back into > the public records and the public consciousness. > > In 1827, Nathaniel Clark was identified in seamen's protective papers > as a "colored man of Indian race". He was born in 1799 in Lewes and > Rehoboth Hundred and died in Broadkill Hundred about 1875. With his > wife Eunice Ridgeway, he had 15 children, some of whom left > descendants in the community today. > > In 1853, the passport application of James Dean from Kent County > described him as being "of Indian descent". The Dean family were some > of the core members of the Cheswold community. > > William Handsor, progenitor of that family in Kent and Sussex > counties, is supposed to have been Indian or mixed-race, but the only > reference to him as being a "mulatto" dates from a period after his > death in 1767. His descendant, James Handsor, was described in an > 1831 passport application as having an "Indian complexion". > > During the thirty years leading up to the Civil War, increasingly > strict laws restricted the activities of all nonwhites, including > mulattoes. A few well-off Indians challenged the restrictions in > court, but failed. Others moved to Canada or to free states, > including New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Indiana. Some appear > to have joined other Indian nations on what was then the western > border of the United States. > > Some families who moved away reclaimed their Indian identity in > their new homes. While their cousins in Delaware and New Jersey were > still being called "mulattoes," the emigrants could identify > themselves as Indians. > > In the 1871 census of the province of Ontario, a farmer named > Benjamin Sammons, was identified as Indian, born in the United > States, probably Delaware. > > William LaCount, a bootmaker, died in Brooklyn in 1875. He was > described as an Indian in the death record. His parents were Joseph > and Mary LaCount, who had lived in Philadelphia, but were originally > from Kent County, Delaware. > > Sometimes we see in the documents a record of indecision about ethnic > identity during the period of Indian invisibility. In 1880, in > Michigan, John W. Norwood, listed as white, married Maggie Simons or > Sammons, who was listed as French and Indian, though she was born in > Ontario of Delaware-born parents. > > When Franklin Perkins, a descendant of the Dean family of Delaware, > was born in Romulus, Michigan, in 1872, his race was listed as > "Indian" on his birth certificate. The Perkins family were part of a > large colony of Delaware people who had moved to Michigan and nearby > parts of Canada. > > William Cambridge, his wife Mary Dean, and their daughter Josephine, > were identified in the 1880 census as "Indian" living in Camden, New > Jersey. Mary's father was Jesse Dean of Cheswold, Delaware. > > In that same 1880 census, there were no Indians listed in Cumberland > County, New Jersey. In Delaware, the same census listed only three > Indians, all in a single Wilmington household. > > The next year, the Delaware legislature allowed the community on > Indian River to establish a separate school system, but the > legislators carefully avoided identifying the people as anything but > "a certain class of colored people." There still were no official > local Indians in Delaware, but they had their own schools. > > In 1892, a reporter for the Philadelphia Times visited Cheswold and > interviewed John Sanders, or Saunders, who was then eighty years of > age, born in 1811. His father was from Sussex. Sanders declared that > his people were Indians, descendants of the Lenape or Delaware > nation. During his youth, he had lived a time among the Lenape on the > Wabash River near Peru, Indiana. His wife was a Dean At least a few > of the Native American people were ready to reclaim their identity, > publicly and proudly, on their home turf. > > Noke Norwood, brother of Lydia Clark, was described in 1895 by Judge > Fisher as being a "copper-colored" person with features that were > decidedly Indian. His sister, supposedly a full-blooded Indian, > testified that the Indian River people were descended from mixed > white and African people who had married into the local Native > population. Judge Fisher's article on the history of the Moors, and > his account of the Levin Sockum case, was published in a newspaper in > 1895 and later published as a pamphlet by the Public Archives > Commission. > > When Fred Morris and Reba Miller were married in Sussex County, > Delaware, in 1900. the marriage return emphatically declared that > both were Indians. The people had returned to the official record > with their true identity. Two years later, the Delaware legislature > passed a law allowing persons of Native descent, in all three > counties, to obtain official state credentials as Indians. > > The age of the legally invisible Indian was over, but the struggle > for acceptance had just begun. > -- > *************************** Ned Heite ([email protected]) ********* > > > > "What you accept, you teach----the choices you make dictate the life you --those you impact----lead" http://www.rit.edu/~rbbetc/index.htm This is a subscribed/requested mailing by the participants, not Spam mail under AOL TOS. If you wish to be added/removed, please notify [email protected], you'll be deleted/added immediately. I'm not responsible for the forwarding of email I send to others who aren't subscribers/requesters. This letter isn't Spam as long as a Remove Link is included.