Christian Munsee facts for kids
The Christian Munsee are a special group of Lenape people, also known as Delaware. The Lenape are an Indigenous people from the United States. The Christian Munsee mainly speak the Munsee language. They became Christians after learning from Moravian missionaries.
People also call them the Moravian Munsee or Moravian Indians. Sometimes they are simply called the Christian Indians. Today, Christian Munsee belong to different Christian churches. These include the Moravian Church, the Methodist Church, and the United Church of Canada.
Many important people have come from the Christian Munsee tribe. These include Gelelemend, a Lenape chief, and John Henry Kilbuck, a missionary. Others are Papunhank, a diplomat and preacher, Glikhikan, a chief and elder, and Washington Jacobs, a chief of the Moravian of the Thames reservation.
Today, Christian Munsee communities live in places like Moravian of the Thames in Canada. There is also a Christian Munsee tribe in Kansas and the Stockbridge–Munsee Community in Wisconsin.
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History of the Christian Munsee
Starting in the 1740s, the Moravian Church sent missionaries to American Indian tribes. They started settlements with the full support of the tribes. This meant that important Lenape chiefs joined the Christian Munsee from the beginning.
The Moravian Christians wanted to keep Lenape cultural practices alive. At the same time, they shared the Christian faith with the Lenape. Moravian missionaries even created a way to write down Lenape dialects. For example, David Zeisberger made dictionaries of different Native languages. He translated them into English and German.
Early Settlements in the East
The Munsee were part of the Wolf Clan of the Lenape. They lived where New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey meet today. Europeans first met them in 1524. This was when Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into what is now New York Harbor.
Like many Native peoples on the Atlantic coast, the Munsee suffered greatly. European diseases like smallpox and influenza killed many of them. Those who survived were forced to move inland.
By the mid-1700s, some Lenape began to follow the teachings of the Moravian missionaries. The Moravians were Protestants who came from Moravia, now in the Czech Republic. They founded their church in Herrnhut, Germany. They wanted to protect their new Christian followers. So, they created special mission villages on the frontier. These villages were separate from both European settlers and other Native people.
Moving to Ohio and Difficult Times
David Zeisberger was a very important missionary among the Munsee. In 1772, he led his group of Christian Munsee to the Ohio Country. He hoped this would keep them safe from the fighting of the coming American Revolution.
However, in 1782, a group of soldiers from Pennsylvania attacked. They were looking for Native Americans who had been raiding settlements. They found ninety-six of Zeisberger's Christian Munsee gathering corn. The soldiers rounded them up in the village of Gnadenhütten in eastern Ohio.
The Munsee people told the soldiers they were innocent. They explained that their Christian faith meant they did not fight. But the soldiers voted and decided to kill them all. This included women and children. These faithful people are known as the Moravian Christian Indian Martyrs.
While the soldiers were killing the Moravian Christian Indians in Gnadenhütten, some others were warned. A messenger from missionaries in Sandusky reached Schoenbrunn. He brought news that everyone would move to Detroit. Two Moravian Indians from Schoenbrunn went to warn their friends in Gnadenhütten. On their way, they found the body of Joseph Schebosh Jr. He was a Moravian with a European father and an Indian mother. They buried him and quickly returned to Schoenbrunn. They warned their people that the same thing might happen to them. Because of this warning, the Moravian Christian Indians at Schoenbrunn were able to escape to Sandusky. They left before the soldiers could reach Schoenbrunn to commit another massacre.
In 1798, David Zeisberger led many Moravian Christian Indians back to Ohio. They started the Goshen Mission near Schoenbrunn. Zeisberger lived there until he died peacefully. After his death, many Moravian Christian Indians moved to Ontario, Canada. Others moved to Kansas. Missionaries continued to live and work among them. Today, many descendants of Jacob and Ester, who were children of a Gnadenhütten martyr, make up the Christian Munsee tribe in Kansas.
In 1903, the Moravian Christians gave the Christian Munsee mission in Moraviantown to Methodist Christians. This church later joined the United Church of Canada. Many Christian Munsee belong to this church today.
Life in Ontario
After ten more years of trouble, most Christian Munsee followed Zeisberger to Ontario, Canada. They built a new home at Fairfield, also known as Moraviantown. It was along the Thames River. They lived there peacefully for twenty years. They supported themselves by farming and working.
However, they became victims of war again. During the War of 1812, American soldiers burned their village. This happened during the Battle of the Thames. This battle is famous for General William Henry Harrison's victory. It is also known for the death of the Shawnee chief Tecumseh. But the burning of Moraviantown is often just a small note in history.
The Munsee fled into the wilderness to be safe until the fighting stopped. Then they returned and built a new Fairfield across the Thames River to the south. This place is now known as Moraviantown. In 1903, the Moravian Christians gave the Christian Munsee mission in Moraviantown to Methodist Christians. This church later joined the United Church of Canada. Many Christian Munsee belong to this church today.
Moving to Wisconsin
By the 1830s, some Christian Munsee wanted to move to the American West. In 1837, some Munsee from Fairfield went to Wisconsin. They joined another Christian group of Native Americans, the Stockbridge Indians. These were the last parts of the Mohican and Wappinger peoples from the east bank of the Hudson River. The two tribes became known as the Stockbridge-Munsee. They are now the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Shawano County, Wisconsin. However, most of the Munsee eventually returned to Canada.
Today, the Christian Munsee in southern Ontario are the Moravian of the Thames and the Munsee-Delaware Nation.
The Christian Munsee in Kansas
A small group of Christian Munsee decided to move again. This time, they went to Kansas Territory. They wanted to join their Lenape relatives who were not Christian. They first settled in Wyandotte County, then Leavenworth County. A few families settled near Fort Scott in Bourbon County. By 1857, most other Lenape in Kansas were moved to Indian Territory.
The Christian Munsee, who were now less than one hundred people, bought a new reservation. It was in Franklin County. They bought it from a small group of Ojibwa (Chippewa) who had moved from Michigan. The Treaty of 1859 officially combined the Swan Creek and Black River Band Chippewa with the Christian Munsee. They shared a reservation of twelve square miles along the Marais des Cygnes River near Ottawa. Henry Donohoe, Ignatius Caleb, and John Williams signed the treaty for the Munsee.
Even though the two tribes shared a reservation and the United States government saw them as one tribe, they kept their own cultures and religions. The Moravian church continued to send missionaries to the Munsee.
Under the Dawes Act, the Chippewa-Christian Indian Reservation was divided into separate plots of land. Each plot was 160 acres and given to individual members and their descendants. The people eventually accepted assimilation, meaning they adopted the ways of the larger society. In 1900, the last federal money was paid out. All benefits and official recognition as Native Americans ended. Some members of the Christian Munsee Tribe in Kansas still live on the reservation in Ottawa, Kansas. They hold onto their Christian faith and Lenape heritage.
Important Christian Munsee People
The Christian Munsee tribe has had several people who became important in both Christianity and the Lenape Nation:
- Gelelemend: A Lenape chief from the Turtle clan.
- John Henry Kilbuck: A Moravian Christian missionary who worked with Native peoples in Alaska.
- Papunhank: A Moravian Christian Lenape diplomat and preacher.
- Glikhikan: A Munsee chief, Moravian Christian elder, and a Moravian Christian martyr.
- Washington Jacobs: A chief of the Moravian of the Thames reservation.
