6 h 53 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a people's legends reveal—and what happens when the record itself comes into question?
In The Lenâpé and Their Legends, Daniel G. Brinton explores the history, language and beliefs of the people Europeans called the Delaware. His account follows encounters with Dutch, Swedish and English settlers, then traces removal westward from a homeland along the Delaware River. Customs and stories stand beside a history of lost ground.
At the heart of the book lies the Walam Olum, a poem presented as a record of origins and wanderings through picture signs and Lenâpé verse. Brinton places it alongside accounts of a Creator and many spirits. Later scholars question the record, making this also a revealing encounter with nineteenth-century scholarship and its limits.
What you’ll discover
- A homeland along the Delaware Explore the river landscape at the center of Brinton's account of Lenâpé history.
- Encounters and forced movement Follow the account from settler contact to removal through Ohio, Indiana and farther west.
- A world of spirits Discover Brinton's account of Lenâpé traditions concerning a Creator and spirits in nature.
- The disputed Walam Olum Meet the poem whose picture signs and verses claim to preserve a nation's past.
- Evidence under scrutiny Consider a nineteenth-century scholar's approach to a record that later readers fiercely debate.
Who will love it
For readers who love Native American history, folklore and the early study of anthropology, and anyone curious about Pennsylvania and the Delaware valley.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The Lenâpé were an old and respected nation
- Settlers, missionaries and treaties changed everything
- Removal scattered a nation across a continent
- Beliefs centered on a Creator and many spirits
- The Walam Olum claims to record the people's past
- Later scholars doubt the old record
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The Lenâpé and Their Legends
by Daniel G. Brinton · 1885
Along the Delaware River, meet the Lenâpé through their history, spirits and the disputed verses of the Walam Olum.
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In short
The Lenâpé and Their Legends was published in 1885 by Daniel G. Brinton, an American physician who became one of the leading students of Native American languages and lore.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The Lenâpé were an old and respected nation
Brinton begins with the name. Lenâpé, he explains, is the people's own word for themselves, and it is often rendered as the common or ordinary people. Europeans called them Delaware after the river, which took its name from an English colonial governor. Brinton wants the reader to use the native name and to see the nation on its own terms.
The Lenâpé spoke a language of the Algonquian family, the same large family as the tongues of many peoples of the Northeast and the Great Lakes. Brinton, who was a trained linguist, pays close attention to words and to how they are built. He notes the dialects spoken in different parts of the homeland. The best known are Munsee in the north and Unami in the south, and he treats them as clues to how the people lived and spread.
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What is The Lenâpé and Their Legends about?
It is a study of the Lenâpé, also called the Delaware, covering their history, language, customs and beliefs. It also prints and translates the Walam Olum, a long poem said to record their origin and migrations.
What is the Walam Olum?
The Walam Olum, meaning red score or painted tally, is a poem with picture signs said to tell of creation, a flood and a long migration. It reached scholars through Constantine Rafinesque and is now widely doubted.
Is the Walam Olum real or a hoax?
Brinton believed it was authentic. Since the late twentieth century, many scholars have judged it most likely a nineteenth-century creation by Rafinesque. The original tablets are lost, so the question cannot be fully settled.
The author
Daniel G. Brinton
1837–1899 · American archaeologist and ethnologist
Daniel G. Brinton (1837–1899) was an American archaeologist, ethnologist, and physician. He was born in Pennsylvania and later lived in Philadelphia. He wrote The Myths of the New World (1868), The Lenâpé and Their Legends (1885), and The American Race (1891). He taught at the University of Pennsylvania.
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