"The Lenni-Lenape Indians were the first known settlers of the area that is Philadelphia. Chet Brooks of Oklahoma is a member of the tribe, and he has devoted the past 36 years to studying and preserving Lenape history and tradition.

Brooks told NPR's Robert Smith that the Lenape Indians occupied the Philadelphia area almost 10,000 years before Europeans came to the region. Those settlers renamed the tribe, calling them the Delaware Indians, because they had trouble pronouncing Lenape (Leh-NAH-pay). Before the "Delawares" were forced off the land, they inhabited the region that is now New Jersey, as well as the area along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania and the Hudson Valley and New York Harbor, in New York.

The Lenape signed their first treaty with William Penn in 1683, a document that Brooks says is often referred to as "the treaty that was never ratified, but never broken." Although Penn treated the tribe fairly, his son, Thomas, took a different approach. He tricked the Lenape into giving away their land, and the tribe moved West in what became known as the Delaware Westward Trek. Most tribe members now live in Oklahoma. Brooks says only about 985 Lenape survived the trip to Indian Territory — a number far reduced from the estimated 15,000-20,000 Lenape who lived on the East Coast before white settlers arrived. "

Get the Story:
Lenape Indians, The Original Philadelphians (National Public Radio 7/27)

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