Lenapehoking () is widely translated as 'homelands of the Lenape', which in the 16th and 17th centuries, ranged along the Eastern seaboard from western Connecticut to Delaware, and encompassed the territory adjacent to the Delaware and lower Hudson river valleys, and the territory between them.

Beginning in the 17th century, European colonists started settling in Lenapehoking. Combined with the concurrent introduction of Eurasian infectious diseases and encroachment from the colonists, the Lenape were severely depopulated and lost control over large portions of their country. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the United States government forcibly removed the Lenape to the American Midwest and Oklahoma.

Beyond the ancestral domain, Lenape nations today control lands within Oklahoma (Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians), Wisconsin (Stockbridge-Munsee Community), and Ontario (Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations).

Etymology

The name of the Lenape country, Lënapehòkink, can be broken down into three parts. The first is the name of the nation itself: Lënape, which means "real person" or "original person", a construction seen in the national endonym of their Anishinaabe relatives. The second element, hòki, originates from the Proto-Algonquian word *axskiy, meaning "land", relating it to the aski in Nitaskinan, the assi in Nitassinan, Ojibwemowin's aki, and the Istchee in Eeyou Istchee. Finally, the last element, -nk, is the locative suffix. Lënapehòkink thus translates to "in the land of the Lenape", a word popularized when Nora Thompson Dean shared the term with conservationist Theodore Cornu in 1970, and later with archaeologist Herbert C. Kraft. This term has since gained widespread acceptance and is found widely in recent literature on the Lenape and in New York institutions today as part of land acknowledgement.

Another historical Lenape term for much of the same region is Scheyischbi or Scheyichbi, although this is also often cited as referring specifically to New Jersey.

Territorial extent

At the time of the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Lenape homeland ranged along the Atlantic's coast from western Connecticut to Delaware, which generally encompassed the territory adjacent to the Delaware and lower Hudson river valleys, as well the hill-and-ridge dominated territory between them. Relatives of the Algonquian nations whose countries ranged along the entire coast from beyond the Saint Lawrence River in today's Canada, and the nations throughout all of New England, A 1610 map depicts the name Manahata twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River (later named the North River, and now called the Hudson River). The word Manhattan has been translated as 'island of many hills' from the Lenape language. The Encyclopedia of New York City offers other derivations, including from the Munsee dialect of Lenape: ('place of general inebriation'), ('place where timber is procured for bows and arrows'), or ('island'). Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman) defined it as: 'place that is an island', from Lenape .

  • Sapohanikan – habitation site and cultivated area by the cove on the Hudson River at present day Gansevoort Street, Greenwich Village.
  • Nechtanc – habitation site along the East River site of Jacob Van Corlaer's plantation at Corlaer's Hook, near the present location of the Williamsburg Bridge, in the part of the Lower East Side that is near Chinatown.
  • Indirectly named after Lenape shell middens: Pearl Street and Collect Pond

Staten Island

  • – name for Staten Island
  • – name for Staten Island
  • – habitation site and cultivated area along Great Kills Harbor

Brooklyn

  • or – habitation in Bay Ridge near the present location of the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge
  • Gowanus Canal – originally named by early settlers as "Gowanes Creek" after , sachem of the local Lenape tribe called the Canarsee, who lived and farmed along the shores of the creek. Also source of the neighborhood Gowanus and the Heights of Guan.
  • – habitation site in present Red Hook

Queens

  • Rockaway, evolved from the Lenape word , which apparently referred to 'a sandy place'.
  • Maspeth originally Mas-pet were a part of the Rockaway band that lived along Maspeth Creek.

Westchester County

  • Ossining – derived from the local tribe, meaning 'stone upon stone', and , also meaning 'stone'.
  • Mamaroneck – from Munsee "striped stream/river"; not, as is often incorrectly cited, as "the place where fresh water falls into the sea"
  • Tuckahoe
  • Armonk
  • – name for White Plains which is a direct translation meaning 'the white plains' or 'the white marshes', either referring to the white fog that hangs over the area, or the white balsam trees said to grow there.
  • – name for Mount Kisco
  • Chappaqua
  • Katonah
  • Croton
  • Crompond

Rockland County

  • Monsey – from the name of the Munsees, northern branch of the Lenapes

New Jersey

  • Absecon – meaning: 'little water'
  • Assunpink Creek – meaning: 'Stony Creek' / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'rocky place that is watery', from Lenape .
  • Kittatinny – 'great hill' or 'endless mountain' / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'big mountain', from Lenape .

Pennsylvania

  • Aquashicola Creek – derived from the Lenape, meaning 'where we fish with the bushnet'.
  • Cacoosing Creek – derived from the Lenape word , meaning 'owl'
  • Buckwampum Mountain – located in eastern Springfield Township, Bucks County, means 'a round bog'.
  • Catasauqua – 'thirsty ground'
  • Catawissa – 'growing fat'
  • Chinquapin – The name is taken from a small nut-bearing tree or shrub, resembling the American Chestnut.
  • Cocalico – 'where the snakes collect in dens to pass the winter'
  • Cohocksink Creek – from a Lenape word for 'pine lands'.
  • Cohoquinoque Creek – derived from a Lenni-Lenape word for 'the grove of long pine trees'.
  • Connoquenessing – 'a long way straight'
  • Conococheague Creek – 'water of many turns'
  • Conodoguinet Creek – 'a long way with many bends'
  • Conshohocken – original form , meaning pleasant valley. / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'elegant land', from Lenape . (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
  • Macungie – derived from , meaning 'bear swamp' or 'feeding place of the Bears'.
  • Mahoning Creek – from Lenape word , meaning 'at the mineral lick', referring to a place frequented by deer, elk and other animals.
  • Manatawny Creek – 'place where we drank'
  • Manayunk – 'place where we go to drink' *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'where the hills are clustered', from Lenape .
  • Moshannon Creek – derived from , 'moose stream' (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
  • Moyamensing – place of judgment, located in the south part of Philadelphia
  • Muckinipattis Creek – 'deep running water'
  • Neshaminy Creek – from Lenape word , 'two streams' or 'double stream' (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
  • Nockamixon Township – from Lenape word , 'where there are three houses'
  • Okehocking Historic District – an 18th-century Indian Land Grant by William Penn to the Okehocking band of Lenape (Delaware) Indians in 1703.
  • Ontelaunee – little daughter of a great mother
  • Passyunk – a Philadelphia neighborhood and former township named for a Lenape village (compare to Passaic, New Jersey) / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'in the valley', from Lenape . (This Lenape placename does not occur within the bounds of Lenapehoking, as defined by the map accompanying this article.)
  • Paunacussing Creek – means 'where the powder was given to us'.
  • Perkasie – derived from , meaning 'where the hickory nuts were cracked'.
  • Skippack – from Lenape word , 'wet land'
  • Towamensing – 'fording place at the falls' / *Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman): 'turtle land', from Lenape .
  • Wyomissing – meaning 'the land of flats'; a borough in Berks County Pennsylvania