Pennsylvania, for the Delaware Indians, was a haven filled with game, fish, and rich soil to grow their crops. Then the white man came.
Before the arrival of Europeans in what would become Eastern Pennsylvania the land was the home of the Delaware tribe of Native Americans.
Advanced Delaware Culture
The Delaware Indians had a culture that was more advanced than many other Eastern Native American tribes.
The Delawares had an advanced culture. Music was very important in their tribal life; their 'bands' consisted of drums, rattles, gourds, and primitive forms of the flute and the horn.
The Delawares were highly knowledgeable in agriculture. They grew the common crops of the eastern Indians such as maize, beans, and melons but also cultivated orchards. Their peach orchards were the envy of the colonists.
During the time of European occupation, the Shawnees entered the lands of the Delawares however the two tribes got along very well. Perhaps it might be said that the Shawnees had one foot upward on the ladder to equality for women in that they were one of the few North American tribes to grant women a position on the tribal council.
Western Pennsylvania was the domain of Iroquoian Indians, the famed Six Nations, of the Northeast. When the first English settlement were established, the Iroquois, Delawares, Shawnees, and minor Algonkian linguistic groups, which included the Delawares and Shawnees, that occupied this area numbered about 15,000. By 1790, their combined population had been reduced to about 1,000. Most of the survivors moved to Ohio and Indiana in the late 1700's and early 1800's.
William Penn and the Indians
"The Great God, who is the power that made you and me, incline your hearts to righteousness, love and peace" was the beginning of a letter that Penn sent to the Indians of Pennsylvania. He went on to add that he had "already taken care that none of my people sell rum to make your people drunk." This letter, written in 1682, exemplifies Penn's attitude toward the original inhabitants of the new lands.
As long as
target="_blank">William Penn
was in charge of
target="_blank">Colonial Pennsylvania
peace treaties and written agreements were made and kept by both sides. After Penn's death, his sons obtained additional Indian lands by fraudulent means which was one of the causes of the French and Indian War.
Colonial America Series continues with:
Colonial Delaware on July 23, 2006.
Previous:
Religious Freedom in Pennsylvania
Recommended Reading:
Source:
Heinecke, Rhoda L. Pennsylvania: Know Your America Program. Nelson Doubleday, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1966.
