The Walking Purchase (or Walking Treaty) was a 1737 agreement between the Penn family, the original proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania, later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Lenape native Indians (also known as the Delaware Indians). In the purchase, the Penn family and proprietors claimed that a 1686 treaty with the Lenape ceded an area of 1,200,000 acres (4,860 km2) in northeastern Pennsylvania, and forced them to vacate. The area is along the northern reaches of the Delaware River, on Pennsylvania's border with what was called, at the time, West New Jersey. Encyclopædia Britannica refers to the treaty as a "land swindle". The Lenape appealed to the Iroquois Indian tribe to their north for aid on the issue, but the Iroquois refused their request, ultimately siding with the Penn interests. A legal suit was filed almost 300-years later over the continuing dispute. In the court case Delaware Nation v. Pennsylvania (2004), the Delaware nation (one of three later federally recognized Lenape tribes) and its descendants in the 21st century claimed of land included in the original so-called "purchase" in 1737, but the U.S. District Court granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss. It ruled that the case was nonjusticiable, even if the Delaware Nation's allegations of fraud were true. This ruling held through several appealed actions made through several levels of the United States courts of appeals. The Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the case, thereby upholding the lower courts' decision. History The founder of the Colony, William Penn (1644–1718) in 1681, enjoyed a reputation for fair dealing with the Lenape (including the Delaware Indians). However, his heirs, John Penn ("the American") and Thomas Penn, were known for not following many of their father's moderate practices. In 1736, they claimed a deed from 1686 by which the Lenape promised to sell a tract beginning at the junction of the upper Delaware River and the tributary Lehigh River (near present day Easton, Pennsylvania) and extending as far west as a man could walk in a day and a half, later to become known as the "Walking Purchase" or the Walking Treaty of 1737. The original 17th century document might have been a verbal agreement, an unsigned treaty, an unratified treaty, or an outright forgery. Regardless, the Penns' agents began selling land in the Lehigh Valley in the disputed area along the Lehigh River as if the