Introduction
Muhlenberg College sits upon land once occupied by the Lenape, also known as the Delaware. The Lenape occupied their homeland, known as Lenapehoking, which included parts of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, for thousands of years before they were forcibly removed by Europeans. During their interactions with Europeans, the Lenape were subjected to fraudulent treaties that stripped them of their land and progressively pushed them westward into Oklahoma. One of these treaties, the Walking Purchase of 1737, led to the Lenape losing access to the land on which Muhlenberg College now sits. It is important for the members of the Muhlenberg community to understand the effects of colonization on the Lenape people and take steps toward engaging in meaningful efforts at repair. In an effort to educate the Muhlenberg community on the Lenape and their history of displacement, the following includes information directly related to Muhlenberg’s Land Acknowledgement as well as about major concepts and events associated with the removal of the Lenape.
The Research Group and the Committee
The following is derived from the work of a research group that included Aya Kanan ’23, Danielle Siteman ’23, Associate Professor of History Jacki Antonovich and Associate Professor of Anthropology Ben Carter.
In the summer of 2021, at the request of President Kathleen Harring, this group began to explore the history of the land upon which Muhlenberg sits. In the spring of 2023, a Land Acknowledgement Committee was created to continue the research and develop an institutional land acknowledgment. Participation was broadened to include Lexy Widi ’26, Kira Wiener ’24, Head of Special Collections and College Archives Susan Falciani Maldonado, Director of Strategic Content Meghan Kita and Assistant Professor of English and Writing Program Director Josh Barsczewski. The committee was chaired by Carter and Chief Diversity Officer Brooke Vick.
In January 2024, Vice President for Communications and Marketing Todd Lineburger assumed a role as co-chair. Throughout the process, the research group and committee have been in contact with the Delaware Nation through Katelyn Lucas, Delaware Nation Historic Preservation Officer. The Land Acknowledgement and the Learn More page have also been reviewed by Jeremy Johnson, Cultural Education Director, Delaware Tribe of Indians.
Land Acknowledgements
Land acknowledgements are formal statements that draw attention to the Indigenous histories of a location, including histories of colonialism and land seizures. Institutional land acknowledgements should explain the role of colonialism and anti-Indigenous violence in the origin and perpetuation of the institution. Strong land acknowledgements reflect local histories and are written in consultation with representatives of the Indigenous groups whose land was taken. They also should make clear that these communities still exist. Land acknowledgments are often read, in full or in part, before formal events, lectures and ceremonies and are usually posted on a public-facing website (Native Governance Center 2019, Spears 2020).
Why now?
With increasing recognition of the erasure of Indigenous peoples and histories, the College wants to do its part to halt and rectify this process. It is a matter of justice and accords with the College’s mission, its Statement on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging and its philosophical underpinnings, which are informed by its affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA).
The Lenape / Delaware
The Lenape are an Indigenous people of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and parts of New York and Maryland who were forcibly removed from their homelands by Europeans. The terms “Lenape” and “Delaware” refer to the same people, but the latter was imposed upon them by European settlers. Because this term has been employed in treaties, these groups continue to use “Delaware” in official contexts.
The Lenape Today
Today, approximately 16,000 Lenape citizens are split into five federally recognized tribal
nations across the United States and Canada: Delaware Nation is based in Anadarko, Oklahoma; the Delaware Tribe of Indians is located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma; the Stockbridge-Munsee Community is located in Shawano County, Wisconsin; and the Delaware
Nation at Moraviantown and Munsee-Delaware Nation are located in Ontario, Canada.
People often associate Indigenous peoples in the U.S. with reservations (large tracts of lands held by Indigenous nations), but this is not always accurate. Today, the Munsee-Delaware Nation and the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown live on small reserves (the name for reservations in Canada) in Ontario, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community has a 22,000-acre reservation in Wisconsin. The Delaware Nation does not have reservation lands but instead a tribal jurisdictional area where they have limited jurisdiction over some land and members in Caddo County, Oklahoma. They share this area with the Caddo Nation and Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (as well as county, state and federal authorities). The Delaware Tribe of Indians, headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, have no reservation lands nor tribal jurisdiction.
Federal and State Recognition
Muhlenberg is working with the Federally Recognized Tribal Nations listed above. Federal recognition has a fraught legacy, but remains an important status to many Tribal Nations today. The “recognition” comes not from a determination by the federal government but from historical and ongoing nation-to-nation relationships between Indigenous nations and the United States. Federally recognized groups are and have been treated as sovereign nations by the United States and, previously, by colonial governments. Federally Recognized Tribal Nations have fought hard to retain that status through years of attempted eradication. However, some Indigenous groups, especially in the western U.S., have had their federal recognition unjustly removed. There is an intensive process to gain federal recognition.
Recognition of Indigenous groups by states is highly variable. As Indigenous scholars have argued, some states have very rigorous standards and other states have very few. This makes state recognition unreliable and, at times, highly problematic. Also, some groups attempt to claim indigenous nationhood through 501(c)3 nonprofits. Various Federally Recognized Tribal Nations, including the Delaware Nation (resolution and letter) and the Delaware Tribe of Indians, have spoken out against state recognition and nonprofits. Pennsylvania state and local governments and institutions actively work with Federally Recognized Tribal Nations.
No sovereign indigenous governments remain in Pennsylvania. The Lenape were forced out of the Lehigh Valley through the Walking Purchase and subsequently forced out of the state. After settling in new communities, the Lenape were continually forced out of those locations through violence, threats of violence and coercion. This resulted in their eventual arrival in Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Ontario, which is why Pennsylvania has no resident Federally Recognized Tribal Nations.
The Walking Purchase of 1737
The Walking Purchase of 1737 was the “treaty” used to dispossess the Lenape of millions of acres of land, including around Muhlenberg College. Representatives of the Penn family fabricated a treaty from 1686 that granted them additional land north of Philadelphia. However, they could not produce the original treaty. The Lenape denied the existence of such a treaty, but in the end, agreed — under duress — to cede a few thousand acres in modern-day Bucks County. The agreed-upon measure was the land within a one-and-a-half day walk from a particular point. This metric was a well-understood distance frequently used by the Lenape and other Indigenous groups. In order to stick to the “letter” of the treaty, but certainly not the spirit, colonial representatives cut a long straight path through the landscape and their fastest runners “walked” approximately 70 miles in 18 hours rather than the fewer than 10 expected by the Lenape.
That was not the end of the deception. The colonial government drew the east line from the end of the run to the north east (perpendicular to the run) instead of due east as agreed, adding hundreds of thousands of acres. Instead of using the walk path as the western line, they simply extended the border of Bucks County to the west of the walk, adding hundreds of thousands more acres. This resulted in the acquisition of more than a million acres instead of a few thousand. The Lenape protested — during the run and after — but, largely because the Penns had convinced the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) to undermine Lenape claims to the land, to little avail.
Underlying the Walking Purchase was the fact that the Penns had forced their own hands. Prior to 1737, they already had sold a number of tracts of land totaling thousands of acres beyond the land they owned. Some of the largest tracts were sold to William Allen, the namesake of Allentown. To pay their debts, the Penns needed to acquire that land from the Lenape. After years of protesting, the Lenape signed the Treaty of Easton, which forced them west. (Harper 2006)
The Treaty of Easton of 1758
The Treaty was a result of a series of meetings in Easton in 1756-1758. In November of 1756, the Lenape, represented by Teedyuscung, met with Penn representatives in Easton. Violence as a result of the Walking Purchase had reached a peak; both Delaware and Europeans had killed and been killed. The meeting in Easton was an attempt to right wrongs and halt the killing. Teedyuscung laid out the Lenape complaint about the land taken through the Walking Purchase. Lieutenant Governor William Denny promised an investigation and that, if wrong was found, the Lenape would be compensated. A sham investigation controlled by the Penns found no fraud in the Walking Purchase. The proprietors (whose representatives included Benjamin Chew of Chew Street) were convinced that the complaints were derived from both the instigations of the French (whom the Lenape had sided with) and the meddlesome Quakers. Unexpectedly, Teedyuscung gave in and confirmed the Walking Purchase (Merritt 2003, 224-230). The end result was the removal of the Lenape from eastern to western Pennsylvania, where they had been guaranteed land in the Ohio Valley. (Harper 2008, Chapter 8; Schutt 2007, Chapter 4)
After the Walking Purchase / Treaty of Easton
Between 1737 and 1867,the main governing body of Lenape people was forced to move
across the country using a series of six treaties and numerous incidents of anti-Indigenous violence. Around 1790, this governing body split into what would become the Delaware Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians.
Meanwhile, most members of the Munsee-language branch of the Lenape left the United States after the British were defeated in the American Revolutionary War. In Gnadenhutten, Ohio, this pacifist group was cornered by Pennsylvania militiamen who murdered 96 unarmed Lenape, including 28 men, 29 women and 39 children. The descendants of the Munsee-language branch are the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown and the Munsee-Delaware Nation in Ontario, Canada.
Some Munsee-Lenape moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1822, after fighting for the American revolutionary forces, they were forcefully displaced by white colonists to northern Wisconsin, more than 900 miles away. This is where the Stockbridge-Munsee Community is located (Weslager 1978).
Cherokee-Delaware Agreement of 1867
In 1867, one group of Lenape (who would later become known as the Delaware Tribe of Indians) were forced to move from Kansas, where they had lived for 30+ years, to Cherokee lands in Oklahoma. The agreement was initiated, overseen and controlled by the U.S. government rather than the two Indigenous nations. In 1866, the Delaware and Cherokee agreed that the Delaware could have a tract of land and retain their sovereignty if the Cherokee were compensated. But, when the agreement was to be signed in Washington, D.C., the conditions had changed and the Delaware were forced to abandon their citizenship as Lenape and become members of the Cherokee. Although the Lenape representatives signed the documents, upon their return home, it was clear that the agreement was against the wishes of the majority of Lenape. They could do little except protest. They had already been removed from their land in Kansas (originally 2 million acres).
Among the Cherokee, the Lenape were not accepted as full participants and maintained themselves as a separate entity. Because of this, in 1975, the Delaware Tribe was recognized as an independent, sovereign nation. However, the federal government then revoked this recognition in 1979 largely because of the Cherokee-Delaware Agreement. In 1991, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reinstated their recognition, but because of resistance from the Cherokee Nation, the Delaware Tribe once again lost their federal recognition in 2004.
Through extensive negotiation with the Cherokee Nation, they were able, finally, to attain federal recognition in 2009. This group became the Delaware Tribe of Indians. The story of the Delaware Nation is slightly different. They (along with many other Indigenous nations) lost their sovereignty through the Curtis Act of 1898. Recognition was reinstated in 1958. (Haake 2002; Barker 2011, Chapter 2)
The Muhlenberg Family
There is no clear evidence that the namesake family of the College were involved in the removal of the Lenape. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch of the family and the man who brought Lutheranism to the American colonies, arrived in 1742, approximately five years after the Walking Purchase. The Muhlenbergs settled in Trappe, Pennsylvania (about one hour south of the College). Henry Melchior Muhlenberg’s father-in-law, Conrad Weiser, at the request of the Penns, convinced the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) to undermine the Lenape’s claim to the territory covered by the Walking Purchase, thereby enabling that theft. More broadly, Henry and his children played vital roles in the American Revolution and after it. As such, they were frequently in positions of power and may have had some influence over decisions that resulted in the removal of the Lenape from western Pennsylvania, where they attempted to settle after the Walking Purchase. (Merrell 1999; Merritt 2003)
The Lenape's Relationship to the Land
The Lenape did not just lose territory. Their homeland was central to their identity, religion, foodways, culture and society. The Lenape were deeply tied to the land; it provided food that they hunted, fished and gathered, such as mammals, shellfish and berries, as well as those they cultivated, such as maize, squash and beans. Local plants were used to create medicine, and the Lenape used the land’s resources to create pottery, clothing, weapons, tools and baskets. While day-to-day life depended on the land’s resources, the land also held spiritual and cultural significance. Native mollusks provided shells (wampum) used in rituals and clothing; locally-sourced furs provided trading opportunities; and burial sites provided resting spots for their ancestors. Community rituals and celebration, such as harvest festivals, ritual fires, dancing, worship circles and carving images of deities into houses linked Lenape communities to the land. As such, the Lenape viewed the land and its bountiful offerings not only as the location of resources required to satisfy needs but as a living entity. They certainly did not share colonial concepts of private property. When they were forced off their land, they lost resources to ensure the survival of their community and their relationship to their homeland was fragmented (for example, Schutt 2007).
The Manhattan Purchase
The Manhattan Purchase is an important American myth that suggests that Manhattan was purchased from the Lenape for a few “trinkets.” This misrepresents what happened. The Manhattan Purchase was an agreement wherein Peter Minuit, the governor of New Netherland, “purchased” Manna-hata (“island of many hills”) on behalf of the Dutch East India Company for 60 guilders, or approximately $1,000 today. It is unlikely that the Lenape thought they were selling the land, as private land ownership was not part of Lenape culture, but instead thought they were agreeing to share land with the few dozen Dutch families who had been sent over by the East India Company. In letters to English business associates, the Dutch represented the agreement between the EIC and the Lenape as an exclusive purchase of land rights. Later, the Dutch surrendered the land to the English and the English took control of it, using the fraudulent agreement as proof of their rights to the land when challenged by the Lenape. (Barker 2018; Bryce 2021; Stonefish Ryan 2007)
Carlisle Industrial School (Indigenous Boarding School)
Pennsylvania supported one of the most important “Indian” boarding schools, which sought to “civilize” Native Americans. The goal was to destroy cultures and identities, a process known as cultural erasure. Opened in 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (about 90 miles west of Allentown), the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first federal boarding school for Native American children in the United States. It set the pattern for the development of hundreds of boarding schools. Civil War veteran Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt led the initiative and believed that the only way for Native Americans to survive was to abandon their Indigenous culture and customs and to integrate fully into white American society. His infamous refrain “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” directly influenced the motto of the school: “To civilize the Indian, get him into civilization. To keep him civilized, let him stay.”
As part of this “civilization” process, students at Carlisle were forced to cut their hair, change their names, stop speaking their Native languages and convert to Christianity. To demonstrate this transformation, school officials took “before” and “after” photographs of the students, using these images to persuade the public of the boarding schools' ability to assimilate native children. If students broke the rules or resisted assimilation, they were subject to strict discipline, including corporal punishment, hard labor and solitary confinement. The severe conditions, compounded by disease, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of children, with 186 children still buried on the site today.
More than 10,000 children attended Carlisle between 1879 and 1918. They came from more than 142 Indian nations, including Cherokee, Sioux, Chippewa, Cheyenne and Lenape. The wide variety of tribes represented at Carlisle (and other schools) was intentional. The federal government believed that the language barriers between students would force them to adopt English. Furthermore, they believed students might eventually intermarry, further eroding tribal bonds.
Carlisle became the model for other federal and private schools across the nation. In 2022, the Department of Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative identified more than 1,000 other institutions that may have been involved in the assimilation project of native children. The punishment system at other federal schools mirrored those of Carlisle, including corporal punishment, solitary confinement, flogging, withholding food, whipping, slapping and cuffing. The government investigation has identified burial sites at approximately 53 schools across the country.
Although only a small number of Lenape students attended Carlisle, hundreds of Lenape children were scattered across boarding schools throughout the United States and Canada. These included the Brafferton Indian School in Virginia, the Haskell Institute in Kansas, Riverside Indian School in Oklahoma, Moor’s Indian Charity School in Connecticut and Mount Elgin Industrial School in Ontario, among others. This extensive dispersal of children highlights the assimilation policies’ objective to destroy tribal and family ties through the boarding school system. (Adams 1995; Fear-Segal 2006; Marr 2004; Newland 2022; Travzer 2006)
Delaware Nation v. Pennsylvania
In 2006, the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that the Walking Purchase had been an act of fraud; however, they dismissed the Lenape claim to 314 acres of land. The claim was deemed nonjusticiable (not able to be decided by a court) as it had technically occurred before the United States became an independent nation. (Barker 2011, Chapter 2; 2018)
