Disposession and Diaspora

By the early 1700s, some Lenape were being pressured to leave the colony of New Jersey to find new homes in the west while others assimilated into European culture. Those who stayed in New Jersey resented the colonization of their homeland and raided European settlements during the French and Indian War (1754-1763).

In 1756, a colonial commission on Indian affairs was created with the goal of resolving conflicts. In 1758, a peace conference was held and some Lenape were paid for their land while even more Lenape groups made the difficult choice to leave their homes to go westward.

​The colonial New Jersey government also created the first Indian reservation in 1758. Some of the Lenape were relocated to the Brotherton reservation, located in what is now Indian Mills in Burlington County, New Jersey. The reservation failed as the land was not productive and the Lenape continued to be harassed by colonists.

​William Trent, the youngest son of the founder of Trenton, organized a militia to defend British interests in the northwest territory known as the Ohio country. He had a  role in giving Native people blankets from smallpox victims during the French and Indian War and a reputation for effective communication in his “frame of speech to the Indians, in their style.

Accounts of the younger William Trent's interactions with the native people of the area are included in two books
​by Jason Cherry, “Pittsburgh’s Lost Outpost: Captain Trent’s Fort” (2016) and “William Trent: Factor of Ambition” (2024). ​

Only some Lenape remain in their ancestral lands today. Those who joined other tribes had to move again as white settlers expanded westward.


Regardless of where they ended up, Native Americans across the country continued to be oppressed by colonial expansion and only gained citizenship in 1924. 

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