1. Delaware Indians
This presentation was created using information from the website of Laura Redish and Orrin Lewis. The title of the site is Native Languages of the Americas. The site was first created in 1998 and last updated in 2007.

2. Location
The Delaware Indians, also called the Lenape, originally lived along the Delaware River in New Jersey. They speak a form of the Algonquian language and are thus related to the Miami Indians, Ottawa Indians, and Shawnee Indians. The Delawares are called "Grandfathers" by the other Algonquian tribes because of their belief that the Delawares were among the oldest groups in the Algonquian nation.
Most Lenape Indians were driven out of their homeland by the British. The Americans eventually relocated them to Oklahoma, where the modern Delaware Indian tribes are located today.

3. Can you find their location on the map?

4. Shelter
The Lenni Lenapes didn't live in tepees. They lived in villages of round houses called wigwams. Some Lenape Indians preferred Iroquoian-style longhouses to wigwams, because more family members could live in a longhouse. Each Lenni Lenape village usually included a rectangular council house and a sweat lodge, and some villages were palisaded (surrounded with log walls for protection).

5. Food Supply
The Delaware Indians were farming people. Lenape women did most of the farming, harvesting corn, squash and beans. Lenape men went hunting for deer, elk, turkeys, and small game, and caught fish in the rivers and inlets. Delaware Indian foods included soup, cornbread, dumplings and salads.

6. 1910, Lenape Mother and Daughter in traditional clothing
Women’s Jobs
Lenape women were farmers and also did most of the child care and cooking. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine. In the past, Lenape chiefs were always men, but today a Delaware Indian woman could be chief too.
1910, Lenape Mother and Daughter in traditional clothing

7. Men’s Jobs
Lenape men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine. In the past, Lenape chiefs were always men, but today a Delaware Indian woman could be chief too.

8. Children
                                  
In the past, Indian kids had more chores and less time to play, just like early colonial children. But Lenape kids did have dolls and toys such as miniature bows and arrows. Lenape games for teenagers and adults included lacrosse, which was played only by boys and men, and a kicking football game, which both genders played together. Leni Lenape mothers traditionally carried their babies in cradleboards on their backs--a custom which many American parents have adopted now.

9. Clothing
Lenape women wore knee-length skirts. Lenape men wore breechcloths and leggings. Shirts were not necessary in the Lenape culture, but the Lenapes did wear deerskin mantles when the weather was cool. Both genders wore earrings and deerskin moccasins on their feet. In colonial times, the Lenapes adapted European costume such as cloth blouses and jackets, decorating them with fancy beadwork.
Usually they wore a beaded headband with a feather or two in it. Sometimes a chief or other important Lenape Indian would wear a headdress made of feathers pointing straight up from a headband. The Lenni Lenapes painted their faces with different colors and designs for different occasions, and Lenape men often wore tattoos in animal designs. Lenape women wore their hair in long braids. Lenape men, especially warriors, often wore a Mohawk hairstyle or shaved their heads completely except for a scalplock in the middle.

10. Transportation
Lenni Lenape tribe used bark and dugout canoes to travel on the Delaware River and the East Coast. Since they moved to Oklahoma, however, Lenape traditions of canoe-building have mostly been lost. Over land, the Lenapes used dogs as pack animals. (There were no horses in North America until Europeans brought them here.) Lenape Indians used sleds and snowshoes to help them travel in the winter.

11. Tools and Weapons
Lenape hunters used bows and arrows. Lenape warriors wielded heavy wooden war clubs, and also carried body-length shields of moose hide and wood.

12. Arts and Crafts
The Lenape tribe is known for their beadwork and basketry products. Like other eastern American Indians, the Leni Lenape also crafted wampum out of white and purple shell beads. Wampum beads were traded as a kind of currency, but they were more culturally important as an art material. The designs and pictures on wampum belts often told a story or represented a person's family.