We stand in support of Lenape leaders refuting Pieter Schaghen’s 1626 letter to the Dutch West India Company, which mentions a supposed purchase of the Island of Manhattan, approximately 22,000 acres, in a trade for goods contemporarily valued around $24. We find this alleged purchase to be myth-based and causative of historical and ongoing harm. Thus, we stand in unity with Chief Urie Ridgeway (Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Bridgeton NJ), Chief Dwaine Perry (Ramapough Lenape, Mahway NJ), and Brent Stonefish (Munsee-Delaware, Ontario CA).
Our discernment, grounded in experiences and respect for the Lenape People, acknowledges that they have their own systems of rules, laws, and ways of living beyond spirituality; their lifeways govern Lenape society with a deep cultural stewardship of Mother Earth, making the concept of owning land inconceivable. Furthermore, the Lenape are a matriarchal society where matters of importance are overseen by women. However, Schaghen’s letter lacks any evidence of a matriarchal voice, an oral treaty, a wampum belt, a written treaty, or signatories, all of which were customary cultural practices of the time.
Today, the Dutch West India Company is recognized as a trade company which included the slave trade. These enslavers established a feudal system in Lenapehoking, granting land to colonists who brought 50 individuals to this land, thereby marginalizing Lenape voices, creating myths about the original people of this land, and commodifying the land, Mother Earth.
Early contact with Western European diseases is estimated to have reduced the Lenape population by 90-95 percent. Despite surviving massacres, forced removals from Lenapehoking, restrictions on cultural lifeways, forced assimilation, and the removal of children to Indian Boarding Schools and child welfare systems, the Lenape Nations endure and are still here.
Therefore, Salem Quarter (NJ) finds The Schaghen Letter to be a tenacious untruth that has contributed to subsequent historical and ongoing contemporary myth-based harms endured by the original people of Lenapehoking and widespread practices that continue to impact Indigenous People of Turtle Island, as well as other colonized lands. We hear the Lenape leadership, both those who have been removed and those who have remained, seeking inclusion and equity.
To this measure, we, Salem Quarter (NJ) Religious Society of Friends, seek the following, with accountability:
• Recognition of the diverse gifts of Spirit within all creation.
• Relationship building with the original inhabitants of this land, Lenapehoking.
• Harmony, living and honoring all life by stewarding Lenapehoking.
• Mutually beneficial decision-making with Lenape Nations.
• Restoration with and for Lenape Nations/People on whose homeland we benefit.
Presented by the Indian Affairs Committee to Salem Quarter, 9th day Sixth Mo. 2024, Lower Alloways Creek Meetinghouse; accepted and approved by Salem Quarterly Meeting 9th day Sixth Mo. 2024
IAC’s Backstory:
After reading The Schaghen Letter, we queried: From whose point of view was this letter written; to understand this event more completely, what information is needed; how does this account shape what we understand about the land exchange that took place on Manhattan in 1626? We further read Lenapehoking: The Tenacious Myth of the Purchase of Manhattan and we reflected on personal conversations with Chief Urie “Fox Sparrow” Ridgeway (Nanticoke-Lenape) about their Lenape constituency trip to Amsterdam, Autumn 2023.
We stand in support of Lenape leaders refuting Pieter Schagen’s 1626 letter to the Dutch West India Company, which mentions a supposed purchase of the Island of Manhattan, approximately 22,000 acres, in a trade for goods contemporarily valued around $24. We find this alleged purchase to be myth-based and causative of historical and ongoing harm. Thus, we stand in unity with Chief Urie Ridgeway (Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Bridgeton NJ), Chief Dwaine Perry (Ramapough Lenape, Mahway NJ), and Brent Stonefish (Munsee-Delaware, Ontario CA).