Traditional gambling among the Lenape

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2002

"The Lenape believed that gambling among their ancestors played a significant role in their everyday lives, in the success and failure of their crops, in their ultimate survival.

These Algonquin people, who hunted, fished and farmed throughout Lenapehoking � what is today southeastern New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware � as far back as 1,300 years ago, believed that the seasons changed as the result of wagers placed by the four ancestors who governed the directions � east, south, west and north.

"On earth, the seasons are governed by manetuwak who watch over the four quarters of the world," wrote Herbert C. Kraft in his 1986 book ;The Lenape.'"

Get the Story:
Gambling was big with Sullivan's Indians long ago (The Middletown Times Herald-Record 3/1)