Turtle Island creation story 
to 
Lenapehocking (Delaware Valley) 

The first European contact with Lenape people was recorded in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano in the lower New York Bay. But this is European history. Lenape peoples lived in Lenapehocking long before 1542. The Shawnee-Minisink site in the Delaware River Gap, which is the historic heart of Lenape lands, has been dated to between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago. Is this the beginning of Lenape history?

Lenape tell their history as beginning  with the story of Turtle Island. There are many versions of this story amongst the Northeast woodland tribes. J.N.Hewitt, (Tuscarrora) transcribed creation stories from Haudenosaunee. They had not endured forced migration hence their language remained intact. Their version of Turtle Island - Sky woman is full and rich. The Lenape suffered by forced both migration and assimilation which made it difficult to pass on their oral historical but not all was lost. And continuing work is being done by the tribes to find and maintain their language, history and traditions.  One short version of the Turtle Island story collected by Mark Harrington. It is from the book, On the turtle's Back - Carmilla Townsend, 

"The earth was created once (by Gicelemu' kaong) , and then covered with water afterwards. There was trouble getting dirt to start a new earth. Various animals were sent down to get dirt, but all came up drowned. The Muskrat finally got the dirt in his paw: but he was dead when he came up. Whoever was fixing the new earth - perhaps God- took this dirt, and inquiring which creature was able to hold it, put the dirt on the Turtle's back. At once it began to grow until it became the great Island we live on today. "

Longer versions of this story are told by other Lenape tribes and Northeastern Woodland tribes. Examples are easily found on the internet. Click here

What occurred between the formation of the earth on a turtles back and 10,000 years ago when villages were existing in the Delaware Water Gap? Richard Adams a Lenape from the Delaware Tribe in Oklahoma wrote a history of the tribe for the US Government in 1906.  A summary of that early history follows. The report provided to the  can be found on line at  government at 
The stories passed down through the generations tells of a people who migrated from a distant western part of Turtle Island (American Continent). They migrated east as one very large body. After a very long journey they reached the shores of Namoeei Sipu (Mississippi) where they joined with the Mengwe tribe who were also looking for good land to settle on. They asked permission of the Alligewi Tribe to cross over their land to the east of the river. The Alligewi were a vast tribe with many fortified cities. Permission was granted but when seeing large number of Lenapi and Mengwe crossing they attacked them. A war ensued which caused may dead on both sides. In the end Mengwe and Lenape were victorious. The Alligewi fled south down the river. The Mengwe went north up the river on the east side. The Lenape remained in the region for hundreds of years. The land was good and they multiplied. The huntsman continually ventured farther east until they reached the great salt water lake. From there they explored the Great bay (Chesapeake), the Great River (Lenape-wihittuck -Delaware) and the North River (Hudson).

Their nation divided into three separate bodies. The larger body, about half settled on the Atlantic and the other half was again divided into two parts, one of which remained beyond the Mississippi, and the remainder east side of that river. Supporting this migration story is that the Delaware language was found among the western tribes by John Heckewelder in the 1700’s. American history starts in the 1600’s but the history of this Turtle Island starts long before the early Lenape villages of 10,000 BC.