The diaspora of the Delaware Indians, from their historical homelands in the watershed of the Delaware River to western Pennsylvania and Ohio, is a story of dispossession, war, and chaos. It is also a chronicle of adaptation, resilience, and transformation that cannot be told simply. Richard S. Grimes offers an interesting interpretation suggesting that the Delaware experienced an ethnogenesis between 1730 and 1795, transforming themselves into a nascent nation with a unified identity built on militarism and rejection of Iroquois hegemony. The emergence of the newly unified Delaware nation in western Pennsylvania, according to the author, was fueled by Iroquois and Pennsylvania political strategies, subversion of long-held gendered authority, and an altered economy prioritizing hunting and trade over farming.
Central to this study is the diplomacy between colonial Pennsylvania’s leadership and the Iroquois confederacy. The Iroquois’ territorial mobility and their unified diplomatic front allowed them to establish dominance over the...
