WEST MILFORD Thousand of cars whiz along Echo Lake, Clinton, Gould and Canistear roads. How many drivers know they are passing close to some of the favorite camp sites of the Lenni Lenape Indians? While it appears there were no tribal villages in West Milford, the streams, lakes and forested topography brought the Indians to the area in the spring and fall seasons. During the spring months families of Lenni Lenape Indians would wander from their villages to what is now West Milford, allowing the women to plant their gardens of corn, beans and squash to be harvested in the fall. Male hunting and fishing parties hoped to fill their larders with deer, elk, bear and small game, as well as fish from the local lakes and streams. Their temporary lodgings were rock shelters (several of which were in the West Milford area) or wikki-ups’ structures made of bent wood frames covered with bark. The men were clad in breech cloths and leggings and the women in knee-length skirts with their hair worn in long braids. All wore deerskin moccasins, earrings and headbands, sometimes with a few feathers. Droughts in the area have unearthed an enormous number of artifacts that bear witness to the Lenape presence in the township. During the 1963 drought an excavation site in the Canistear Reservoir revealed an Indian workshop,’ which yielded thousands of projectile points. Along the shores of local lakes and reservoirs, in the woods and even in backyards, axe heads, scrapers, hoes, arrow heads, pot shards and other Indian relics have been uncovered. A display case in the West Milford Museum contains many examples of these items everyday tools that allowed the Lenape to live and provide for their families. It is believed the Lenni Lenape, also called the Original People,’ lived in this area for many years. These peaceful, Algonquin-speaking natives are considered one of the most civilized and advanced societies in the east. They held the belief that all nature was sacred. They were known to explain their need and apologize to a tree before cutting it down or to an animal before killing it for meat and hide. The Lenape believed that the land belonged to no man, but to the creator. Selling and buying land was a foreign concept and they didn’t understand that by accepting trinkets in return for the use of the land they were selling it off. The Dutch were the first known Europeans to come onto Lenni Lenape land in the early 1600’s. According to the log of Henry Hudson’s ship, the Half Moon’, the Lenape greeted them as they sailed up the river that would later be named for Hudson. The Dutch were anxious to begin a fur trade with the Lenapes but they were also inquisitive as to the red face paint the Lenapes wore, recognizing it as iron oxide, an indicator of a possible valuable mineral find. The Indians told them of their source, calling it the long pond’, now known as Greenwood Lake, an area that later gave rise to the iron ore industry in West Milford. When the Dutch returned, around 1610, they asked the Lenapes to give them some land to grow their greens. Only about the area that could be covered by a steer’s hide, was the request. When the Lenapes agreed to this, the Dutch went on to cut the hide into minuscule strips and spread them out in a wide circle, gaining a good deal more land than the Indians had expected to give. And so began the loss of their land. Though the Lenapes were not a war-like people, even referred to as women’ by other tribes, the continual loss of their hunting grounds and reported maltreatment of their people led to some hostilities. Settlers lost their lives and Indian raids were said to have occurred as late as 1763. One particular piece of family folk lore describes a near-miss for an Upper Greenwood Lake family. The tale is of a man named Thomas who lived on Bearfort Mountain, a trusting man who did not fear the Indians. Thomas was warned by his friends and his wife to lock his doors and keep his guns at the ready. Against his better judgement, Thomas bolted the door and went to bed. But, disturbed by his decision, he got up in the middle of the night and pulled back the bolt. That night a band of warriors approached the house and argued Thomas’s virtues, as he had been known as a good man. They decided if the door was unlatched (showing his trust) they would leave him unharmed. Thomas and his wife lived to see the next sunrise but the warrior band had gone on to annihilate other homesteads. As the Lenapes were pushed farther and farther from their lands some bands moved into Pennsylvania and it is by the hand of William Penn that there exists a physical description of the Lenni Lenape people. Penn wrote, “...generally tall, straight, well-built and of singular Proportions; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty Chin. They grease themselves with Bears-fat clarified, and using no defence against Sun or Weather, their skins must needs be swarthy...” By 1700 diseases brought in by the Europeans, smallpox, measles and tuberculosis, had taken their toll and the Lenni Lenape population was down to about 500. These tall, proud people eventually migrated to Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Kansas and Ontario. Finally, they were relocated to Indian Territory,’ present day Oklahoma. It is said that some Lenape remained in West Milford into the early 1800s, notably in present-day Crescent Park and Sun Down Farms. While not officially recognized as a tribe, descendants of these native people can still be found in New Jersey. Some teach the culture, language, music, dance and crafts of their forefathers, keeping alive the spirit of the Lenni Lenape the Original People’ of West Milford. Sources: The Earth Shook and the Sky was Red, Otten and Weskerna simonsays.com fof.web.com delawaretribeof indians.nsn.us usgennet.org jersey.net/standingbear Dateline Trivia 1617 Pocahontas, also known as Lady Rebecca, dies in England 1620 Mayflower arrives at Plymouth, Massachusetts 1625 Dutch establish New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island 1636 Puritans found Harvard College 1664 New Jersey founded by Lord Berkely and Sir George Carteret 1668 Yellow Fever epidemic strikes New York 1758 New Jersey Assembly establishes permanent home for Lenni Lenape in Burlington County. Tribe relinquishes all rights to New Jersey except for hunting and fishing privileges 1802 New Jersey Assembly sells reservation giving proceeds to remaining 85 Lenni Lenape tribe members who then leave the state