On This Day: Lenape tribe land in PA swindled; no relief from 21st century courts - Sep. 20, 1737

[jgo]

(edited from Wikipedia)
"
The Walking Purchase was a 1737 treaty between the Penn family, the original proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania, later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Lenape native Indians. Encyclopædia Britannica refers to the treaty as a "land swindle".

A legal suit was filed almost 300 years later over the continuing dispute. In the 2004 court case, Delaware Nation v. Pennsylvania, the Delaware Tribe, one of three later federally-recognized Lenape tribes, and its descendants in the 21st century [disputed] the original so-called "purchase" in 1737, but the U.S. District Court granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss. It ruled that the case was nonjusticiable, even if the Delaware Nation's allegations of fraud were true. This ruling held through several appealed actions made through several levels of the United States courts of appeals. The Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the case, thereby upholding the lower courts' decision.

[The specious "walk" described below concluded on September 20, 1737].

The District Court recounted the Delaware Nation's allegations:

Penn's sons were less interested than their father in cultivating a friendship with the Lenape. Thomas Penn, in particular, is reportedly responsible for executing The Walking Purchase of 1737, pursuant to which Thomas Penn approached the Lenape chiefs and "falsely represented an old, incomplete, unsigned draft of a deed as a legal contract." Thomas Penn represented to the Lenape chiefs that some fifty years prior, the ancestors of the Lenape had signed documents stating that the "land to be deeded to the Penns was as much as could be covered in a day-and-a-half's walk." Believing that their forefathers had made such an agreement, the Lenape Chiefs agreed to the terms of the deed and consented to the day-and-a-half walk.

The Lenape chiefs trusted that the "white men" would take a leisurely walk through the tangled Pennsylvanian forests along the Delaware River. The Lenape chiefs were not aware that they were about to lose a significant amount of land. Unbeknownst to the Lenape, Thomas Penn took measures to ensure that the distance covered by his "walkers" would be as large as possible. Among other things, Thomas Penn had a straight path cleared through the forests and hired three of the fastest runners in the province. "[H]e and his agents spent weeks mapping their route-which went northwest rather than north as the treaty specified-hacking trails out of the woods."

In addition, Thomas Penn promised that the fastest runner would receive five pounds sterling and 500 acres of land. In the end, the runners of the Walking Purchase of 1737 procured 1,200 square miles [more than 1 million acres] of Lenni Lenape land in Pennsylvania. Included in the land procured was land commonly referred to as the "Forks of the Delaware," which contained the parcel of land at the center of this dispute, "Tatamy's Place."

The Lenape complained to the King of England about the execution of the "walk" by Penn and his agents to no avail. In response, the Lenape began their movement westward in compliance with their ancestors' purported agreement to the terms of the Walking Purchase's deed. Over a hundred years later, experts examining the deed concluded it likely was a forgery. As a result of the Walking Purchase, members of the Lenape, now recognized as The Delaware Nation, were segregated into pockets or parcels of land surrounded by non-tribal settlers.

The Delaware Tribe leaders appealed for assistance to the Iroquois confederacy tribe to the north, who claimed hegemony over the Delaware River, but the Iroquois leaders decided that it was not in their best interest to intervene on behalf of their southern neighbors since Iroquois leader Captain Logan already made a deal with the Iroquois to support the colonial side. As a result, the Lenape vacated the Walking Purchase lands in present-day eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey.

Lenape chiefs Lappawinsoe, Manawkyhickon, Sassoonan, Nenatcheehunt, and others continued protesting the arrangement, since the Lenape were forced into Shamokin and Wyoming River valleys, which were already crowded with other displaced tribes. Some Lenape later moved further west into the Ohio Country in present-day Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, and to southern and western regions in colonial New France in present-day Quebec. Because of the Walking Purchase, the Lenape grew to distrust the Pennsylvania government.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_Purchase

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[Wonder Why]

1. Another "stolen fair and square" act aginst the locals.

[IbogaProject]

2. Ugh

I grew up on their land.