CHAPTER IX
Summary 192 Religion 192 Ceremonies 196 Minor Ceremonies 198
Notes 201
Index 206
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
PAGE
Conclusion of Lenape Annual Ceremony in Oklahoma. Native Painting by Ernest Spybuck, a Shawnee _Frontispiece_
I. Lenape Man and Woman of Oklahoma in Ceremonial Costume 22
II. Costume worn by Impersonator of Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn 34
III. Masks of the Minsi (After Peter Jones) 38
IV. Stone Head or Mĭsiʹngʷ‛, from Staten Island, N. Y. 42
V. Lenape Ceremonial House near Dewey, Oklahoma 82
VI. Lenape Annual Ceremony in Progress. Native Painting by Ernest Spybuck, a Shawnee 86
VII. Plan of Lenape Ceremonial House and Grounds 94
VIII. “Nahneetis, the Guardian of Health.” 168
IX. The Peyote Rite among the Lenape. Native Painting by Ernest Spybuck, a Shawnee 186
FIGURES
1. Mask of the Oklahoma Lenape 32
2. Rattle of Turtleshell used by Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ 33
3. Charm representing Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn 37
4. Mask from the Canadian Lenape 39
5. Stone Head or Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ 40
6. Central Post of Ceremonial House showing Carved Face 83
7. Side Posts of Ceremonial House showing Carved Faces 84
8. Ceremonial Fire-drill used at the Annual Ceremony 86
9. Rattle of Land-tortoise Shell, used by Celebrants at the Annual Ceremony 93
10. Drum made of Dried Deerskin, used at the Annual Ceremony 94
11. Sacred Drumsticks, used at the Annual Ceremony 102
12. _a_, Plain Drumstick used at the Annual Ceremony. _b_, Prayerstick 102
13. Paint-dish of Bark, used at the Annual Ceremony 105
14. Drum of Dried Deerskin. Minsi type 129
15. _a_, Drumstick, Minsi type. _b_, Prayerstick 130
16. _a_, Regalia of Otter-skin used in the Otter Rite. _b_, Regalia as worn 178
17. Flint and Steel used in the Otter Rite 180
18. Rattle or Land-tortoise Shell used in the Otter Rite 181
19. Peyote “Button” 185
PREFACE
The following paper is intended to be the first of a series concerning different phases of the culture of the Lenape or Delaware Indians, once a numerous people forming a confederacy of three closely related tribes, the Unami, the Minsi or Muncey, and the Unala‛ʹtko or Unalachtigo, first encountered by the whites in what is now New Jersey, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, and southeastern New York, but at last accounts[1] reduced to some 1900 souls scattered in Oklahoma and the Province of Ontario, Canada, with a few in Wisconsin and Kansas. Of these the Lenape of Oklahoma seem to be mainly of Unami extraction, the rest largely Minsi, while the Unala‛ʹtko appear to have merged with the others and to have lost their identity.
The writer has gathered most of his data for the whole series from the Oklahoma bands, with such informants as Chief Charley Elkhair (Kokŭlŭpoʹw‛ʹe), Julius Fox, or Fouts (Petaʹnĭhink), Minnie Fox (Wemĕĕleʹxkwĕ) his wife, and William Brown; but much valuable information came from Canada where his principal informants were Chief James Wolf (‛Tayenoʹxwan), Chief Nellis F. Timothy, (Tomapemihiʹlat), Isaac Monture (Kaʹpyŭ‛hŭm), Chief Nellis Monture, Michael Anthony (Na‛nkŭmaʹoxa), and Monroe Pheasant. Of these especial credit is due to Julius Fox and Chief Timothy, both of whom manifested great interest in the work and exerted every effort to make it complete, and to Ernest Spybuck, a Shawnee, whose paintings, carefully made of Delaware ceremonies at the writer’s request, form a valuable adjunct to the text.
The works of previous writers have been utilized where available, and much has been learned from archeological discoveries in the ancient territory of the Lenape, not so much, of course, with regard to the subject matter of the present paper, as of others in preparation.
Most of the information was gathered while the writer was collecting ethnological specimens for the Heye Museum of New York, now the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, during the years 1907 to 1910; but some of the Canadian data were procured earlier while in the field for Mr E. T. Tefft of New York, whose collection is now in the American Museum of Natural History.
Without knowledge of the Delaware language in its divergent dialects, and without any pretension of being a philologist, the writer has endeavored to record the Lenape words as he heard them, depending for translation on his interpreter _pro tem._ Hence some inaccuracies at least are inevitable. The alphabet used is as follows:
VOWELS CONSONANTS
_a_ as in arch. _c_ like English sh. _ä_ as in cat. ‛ a slight aspirate. _â_ as in fall. _ⁿ_ gives the preceding vowel a nasal sound. _ai_ as in aisle. _e_ like a in fate. _ʷ_ faintly whispered. _ĕ_ as in met. L a surd l. _i_ as in machine. _x_ like German ch. _ĭ_ as in hit. Other consonants approximately as in English. _o_ as in note. _u_ as in flute. _ŭ_ as in but. _û_ as in full.
It was intended at first to publish the mass of material thus obtained in the form of a monograph on the ethnology of the Lenape; but later it was seen that while some phases of their culture could be described in considerable detail, there were others not so well represented in our notes. It was therefore finally decided to publish at once such parts as were ready, in the form of separate papers, and to leave the others until more detailed information could be obtained.
No extended comparisons of the religion and ceremonies of the Lenape with those of other tribes will be attempted in this paper, these being reserved for a projected article to embody the results of a comparative study of Lenape culture.
M. R. HARRINGTON
RELIGION AND CEREMONIES OF THE LENAPE
BY M. R. HARRINGTON
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