Lapowinsa, Chief of the Lenape,

Lapowinsa, Chief of the Lenape, Lappawinsoe painted by Gustavus Hesselius in 1735.

Chief Lapowinsa

Chief Lappawinze, Lapowinsa,Lapowinsa('means- getting provisions')Lapowinsa was a Delaware Indian chief who signed the "walking purchase," treaty of 1737 in Philadelphia.The Walking Purchase Treaty granted to the whites, land extending from Neshaming creek as far as a man could walk in a day and a half. When the survey was made under this stipulation the governor of Pennsylvania had a road built inland and employed a trained runner, a proceeding that the Delawares denounced as a fraud.

Tammany, Indian chief,who lived in the 17th century. He was chief of the Delawares, He was known by and called several names :Temane, Tamenand, Taminent, Tameny, and Tammany. According to one account, he was the first Indian to welcome William Penn to this country, and was a party to Penn's famous treaty.Tamanend was the sachem or trusted spokesman of his village.

TAMANEND was partner with William Penn in a boldly conceived agreement dated 1683 that Europeans and Indians would live together in peace as long as the creeks and rivers run and while the sun, moon, and stars endure.Tamanend trusted Penn and his lofty ideal of a commonwealth of freedom, peace, and tolerance for all inhabitants.

In 1862 Penn arrived in America and got to know know the Indians well. He learned to speak the Lenape language. The Indians called him Miquon, the word for quill in their language. Penn entered into cordial negotiations with more than twenty sachems because no single leader could speak for the Lenape people.

1893: Tatamy Borough, in Eastern Pennsylvania was incorporated. It was named for "Moses" Tatamy, a Christianized Native American Indian Chief who lived in the area during early settlement.

When land for a new park in Southampton ,PA was purchased in 1975, a contest was held to name the park. Prize winning entry was "Tamanend," a reminder of our historical heritage in this Indian.

Friends of Tamanend Park, committed to preserving the park's natural beauties, have placed a cluster of weathered Delaware River boulders in the park to honor the Lenape Indians. The date, 1683, marks the year of Tamanend's partnership with Penn for a lasting peace. Five Indian names appear on the boulder: Tamanend, Wheeland (brother), Yaqueekhon and Quenameckquid (sons), and Weheequeckhon (sister's eldest son to be Tamanend's successor). Yaqueekhon signed a treaty document in 1692 and he is named in a council of the provincial government with Indians who well remebered Penn's first message to them:I desire to enjoy (this land) with you in Love and consent that we may always live together as Neighbors and friends.

1893: Tatamy Borough, in Eastern Pennsylvania was incorporated. It was named for "Moses" Tatamy, a Christianized Native American Indian Chief who lived in the area during early settlement.A missionary Heckewelder,in 1817, describes Chief Tammany as the greatest and best chief known to Delaware tribal tradition.gb

Little of his real history is known.Whites considered him a great man. In the Revolutionary war his enthusiastic admirers dubbed him a saint...St. Tammany, the Patron Saint of America. His name was inserted in some calendars, and his festival celebrated on the first day of May in every year." Heckewelder goes on to describe the celebration, which was conducted on Indian lines, including the smoking of the calumet, and Indian dances in the open air, and says that similar "Tammany societies" were afterward organized in other cities. He states also that when Col. George Morgan, of Princeton, N. J., was sent by Congress about the year 1776 upon a special mission to the western tribes, the Delawares conferred upon him the name of  Tamanend in remembrance of the ancient chief and as the greatest mark of respect that they could pay to Morgan.

Haines, in his chapter on the Order of Red Men, quotes a contemporary document from which it appears that the Philadelphia society, which was probably the first bearing the name, and is claimed as the original of the Red Men secret order, was organized May 1, 1772, under the title of "Sons of King Tammany," with strongly Loyalist tendency. It is probable that the "Saint Tammany" society was a later organization of Revolutionary sympathizers opposed to the kingly idea. Saint Tammany parish, La., preserves the memory.

When they made their first treaty with Penn, in 1682, the Delaware had their council fire at Shackamaxon, about the present Germantown, suburb of Philadelphia, and under various local names occupied the whole country along the river.To this early period belongs their great chief Tamenend from whom the Tammany Society takes its name.