The Delaware Indians: A History

Clinton Alfred Weslager

yan, 1972 · Rutgers University Press

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"One of the best tribal histories . . . the product of decades of study by a layman archeologist-historian. With a rich blend of archeology, anthropology, Indian oral traditions (he gives us one of the best accounts of the Walum Olum, the fascinating hieroglyphics depicting the tribal origins of the Delaware), and documentary research, Weslager writes for the general reader as well as the scholar."--American Historical Review

In the seventeenth century white explorers and settlers encountered a tribe of Indians calling themselves Lenni Lenape along the Delaware River and its tributaries in New Jersey, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, and southeastern New York. Today communities of their descendants, known as Delawares, are found in Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Ontario, and individuals of Delaware ancestry are mingled with the white populations in many other states. The Delaware Indians is the first comprehensive account of what happened to the main body of the Delaware Nation over the past three centuries.

C. A. Weslager puts into perspective the important events in United States history in which the Delawares participated and he adds new information about the Delawares. He bridges the gap between history and ethnology by analyzing the reasons why the Delawares were repeatedly victimized by the white man.

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C. A. Weslager, History Professor Emeritus of Brandywine College of Widener University, is the author of twenty-three books dealing with the Dutch, English, Swedish, and American Indian occupation of the Delaware River valley. Formerly president of the Eastern States Archaeological Federation and the Archaeological Society of Delaware, he is also a Fellow of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey and the Holland Society of New York.