Indigenous of South New Jersey

Remarkable and amazing is the only way we can describe our community. As you learn about the community you will be truly amazed!

We have discovered how to salvage who we are from what has been exploited and pillaged by those who are proclaiming to be our people and/or authorities on South Jersey Indigenous. The main fact is that “now is the time”. If we think about it, the promises we made to our elders many years ago have not been kept.

Originally, we were forced to stay together for fear of being removed, killed or humiliated. Entire families were forced away because of these situations. In fact, unfortunately, some situations are not indifferent.

We are fortunate to be surrounded by those who have our tribe in their heart. Expert’s express the remarkable fact to us that we are the only people that have not left our homeland in 10,000 years. Research discloses the mere fact that the only thing that is really missing is the people who remained and were left behind. We are still here, we have kept our land! “Wow, 10,000 years”, think about it!

We are in the midst of other organizational tribes, not indigenous to our homeland, and yet they have seized each and every opportunity to establish their existence in our backyard. We must now reassert our establishment in our birthright of 10,000 years.

Meditate and think about this; this is how we know our tribal family. We identify through fears, faults, desires, when to help, when to watch, accomplishments, rivalries, when to interfere and by all means when not to. We have remained together by families, spiritually, culturally, packs, codes and tribal laws written and unwritten.

Our families have celebrated and survived for 10,000 years, truly amazing! NOW is the time that we proactively insure the next 10,000 years.

”Our Lenape ancestors were those who inhabited New Jersey, Delaware, southern New York and eastern Pennsylvania at the time the Europeans came. We called ourselves "Lenni-Lenape," which literally means "Men of Men", but is translated to mean "Original People." From the early 1600's, the European settlers called the Lenape people "Delaware Indians." Three main dialect clans, each made up of smaller independent but interrelated communities, extended from the northern part of our ancient homeland at the headwaters of the Delaware River down to the Delaware Bay. The Munsee (People of the Stony Country) lived in the north. The Unami (People Down River) and the Unalachtigo (People Who Live Near the Ocean) inhabited the central and southern areas of the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape. The peace loving Lenni-Lenape are called the "grandfathers" or "ancient ones" by many other tribes and are considered to be among the most ancient of the Northeastern Nations, spawning many of the tribes along the northeastern seaboard. We were known as warriors and diplomats, often keeping the peace and mediating disputes between our neighboring Native Nations and were admired by European colonist for our hospitality and mediation skills.

Our Nanticoke ancestors, called the "Tidewater People," dwelled along the Indian River in Southeastern Delaware, having migrated from the Nanticoke River of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Our Nanticoke ancestors were among the first of the Northeastern Indian Nations to resist European colonial intrusion into our homeland as early as the 1650's. A little known fact is that as early as 1704, our ancestors living in the Delmarva Peninsula, who had lived there for thousands of years, were restricted to the Chicone (Chiconi), Broad Creek and Indian River Reservations by the British colonial governments. Also, the first and only Indian Reservation in New Jersey, the Brotherton Reservation in Burlington County (1758-1802), which was intended to be a safe haven for some of our ancestors."1

_________________________________
1 http://www.nanticoke-lenape.info/history.htm