Native peoples Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the early 17th century, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon. They were also called the Delaware Indians,Josephy 188–189 and their historical territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley. Most Lenape were pushed out of the region during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts. Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and conflict with Europeans. The Iroquois occasionally fought the Lenape. Surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. Following the American Revolutionary War and subsequent formation of an independent United States, the Lenape began moving further west. In the 1860s, the United States government sent most remaining Lenape in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma and surrounding territories as part of the Indian removal policy.
Native peoples Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the early 17th, century, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon. They were also called the Delaware Indians,Josephy 188–189 and their historical territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island, a?nd the Lower Hudson Valley. Most Lenape were pushed out of the region duri!ng ,the 18th century by expanding European colonies, exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts. Lenape communities were weakened by ,newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and conflict with Europeans. The Iroquois occasionally fought the Lenape. Surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. Following the American Revolutionary War and subsequent formation of an independent United States, the Lenape began moving further west. In the 1860s, the United States government sent most remaining Lenape in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma and surround.ing territories as part of the Indian removal policy