The Wapanachki Delawares and the English; Their Past as Viewed by an Ethnologist
STUDIES in the Indian background of American history have entered a new phase. It is that of ethno-history. We have been told much that was unintentionally misleading by early writers on the eastern tribes, who saw these people and interpreted their ways of life through eyes dominated by European standards and traditions. Later writers repeated the views of their predecessors. These misleading interpretations were common with relation to the Delawares and related tribes of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay country and to those of southern New England. To most readers, the statements made by pioneer historians belong to a period of the past which has closed its annals for almost two centuries, so far as these concern the native peoples who have been gone that length of time from their original haunts. To the ethnologist, however, many of the records are only reminders of customs and traditions still current among descendants of these tribes now residing in Ontario and Oklahoma. To him it matters little that they are some hundreds of leagues from their erstwhile homes on the Atlantic seaboard. It may indeed seem incredible that elderly people among the Delawares, and others in these distant regions, believe in teachings, perform