Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/80

44 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. were placed. It is proved by the concurring accounts of the French and English writers, that, subsequently to the peace of 1674, they were repeatedly, indeed uniformly, employed as auxiliaries in the wars of the Five Nations and the British against the French. At the treaty of Albany of 1746, which has already been quoted, they were positively invited and requested to join heartily with both for that purpose ; and they acted accordingly. It may be that the Dutch or English had obtained from the Five Nations a general release of any claim they might have on the lands of the subdued tribes. But if the right was reserved, it is proved by the records of Long Island, that it was not rigidly enforced ; and there is reason to believe that the same observation applies equally to the ancient settlements in other parts of the State. The whole western district has of course been purchased from the Five, or as since called, the Six Nations. The Delawares call themselves Lenno-Lenape, which means " Original, or Unmixed Men " ; perhaps originally " manly men," if Lenape is derived from Lenno, " man, homo" and nape, " male." They say that they at first consisted of three tribes, the Unami, or " Turtle " tribe, which claimed precedence over the others, the Minsi, or "Wolf" tribe, who, though still intimately connected, separated themselves from the Delawares proper, and speak a different dialect, and the Unalachtgo, or " Turkey " tribe, who remain mixed with the Unami. They were called Loups (wolves) by the French. But it was because they confounded them with the Mohicans and New England Indians, whom they designated by the general appellation of Mahingan, which means "Wolf" in the Algonkin and Chip- peway dialects. DELAWARE AND MINSI. The Delaware and Minsi occupied the country bounded eastwardly and southwardly by Hudson River and the Atlantic. On the west they appear to have been divided from the Nanti- cokes and the Susquehannocks, by the height of land which separates the waters falling into the Delaware from those that empty into the Susquehanna and Chesapeake. They proba- bly extended southwardly along the Delaware as far as Sandy