Why did the Lenape people accept the name “Delaware”?
It has long been known that the name applied to the Native people who lived along the Delaware River was taken from the title of an Englishman, Lord de la Warr, whose name was Sir Thomas West. He was appointed governor of the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1610. One of his followers, Captain Samuel Argall, once sailed into a majestic bay which he named “de la Warr Bay” in honor of the governor. The river that flowed into the bay was given the same name, and they both were later contracted into Delaware. People have asked why the Lenape people seem to have no problem with accepting this “foreign” name for themselves. The reason is that the Lenape have their own story about the origin of the name “Delaware.” It is as follows: The Lenape story is that when the Europeans first arrived a whiteman kept trying to ask a Lenape what tribe he belonged to, and he told him “Lenape.” For some reason the whiteman had trouble saying the word properly, and would say “Lenuhpee,” “Renahpay” an
