Lenape or Lenni-Lenape (later named Delaware Indians by Europeans)

The Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government.

They are also called Delaware Indians and their historical territory is along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley.Most Lenape are pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the eighteenth century by expanding European colonies, exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts.

Lenape communities are weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans.

Iroquois people occasionally fight the Lenape.

Surviving Lenape move west into the upper Ohio River basin.

The American Revolutionary War and United States' independence pushes them further west.

In the 1860s, the United States government sends most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma and surrounding territory) under the Indian removal policy.

In the twenty-firstst century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with some communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario (Canada) and in their traditional homelands.Lenape kinship system has matrilineal clans, that is, children belong to their mother's clan, from which they gain social status and identity.

The mother's eldest brother is more significant as a mentor to the male children than is their father, who is of another clan.

Hereditary leadership passes through the maternal line, and women elders can remove leaders of whom they disapprove.

Agricultural land is managed by women and allotted according to the subsistence needs of their extended families.

Families are matrilocal; newlywed couples live with the bride's family, where her mother and sisters can also assist her with her growing family.

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