The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes

Mark Raymond Harrington

Jan 1963 · Rutgers University Press

About this ebook

Here is a story of the Lenape Indians who lived in what is now New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. It describes their culture, crafts, and language as no other book has done. Hunters, fishers, artisans of flint and skins and basketry, tellers of traditional tales, dwellers in a region of hills and barrens, of rivers and forests, they had developed a way of life adjusted to the world around them.

In presenting the lore and heritage of the Lenapes, Dr. M.R. Harrington does so through the eyes of a shipwrecked English boy who became a captive of the Indians, and was eventually adopted into the tribe. The narrative is lively reading, and the facts on which it is based are accurate. With the accompanying Clarence Ellsworth line drawings, the reader can understand and even reproduce many of the objects the author describes: the Lenape bows and arrows, muccasins and mats, baskets and bowls.

This new edition is a reissue of an often asked for an unavailable New Jersey classic, first published in 1938.

Ratings and reviews

Had this book as a kid. It was a very good primary source historical fiction book in the same vein as the Little House Series. The descriptions of Lenape life and daily culture are very interesting, detailed and I remember trying to make a lot of the items from the book. The backdrop of the fictional shipwrecked protagonist (Dickon) keeps you flipping the pages despite the amount of anthropology/history and "boring" stuff presented (History was my most despised subject at that age...). A fun story and you learn a lot.

I really like the way the native american lifestyle is laid out in an entertaining story. It is not a heavy handed textbook of native american life.

Amazing