Tribal, Delaware of Oklahoma

DELAWARE TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA -  The Delaware Tribe of Indians, sometimes called the Eastern Delaware, based in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is one of three federally recognized tribes of Delaware Indians in the United States, along with the Delaware Nation based in Anadarko, Oklahoma and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community of Wisconsin.  More Lenape or Delaware people live in Canada.  Tribal membership is limited exclusively to descendants of Delaware people on the 1906 tribal rolls from Indian Territory.  They based enrollment on lineal descent, that is, they have no minimum blood quantum requirements.

The historically Algonquian-speaking Delaware refer to themselves as Lenni Lenape.  At contact, in the early 17th century, the tribe lived along the Delaware River, named for Lord de la Warr, territory in lower present-day New York state and eastern New Jersey, and western Long Island

The Delaware nation was the first to sign a treaty with the new United States.  They signed the treaty on the 17th September 1778.  Despite the treaty, the Delaware were forced to cede their Eastern lands and moved first to Ohio, later Indiana(Plainfield), Missouri, Kansas, and Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The ancestors of the Delaware Nation, following a different migration route, settled in Anadarko.  Other Delaware bands moved north with the Iroquois after the American Revolutionary War to form two reserves in Ontario, Canada.  Traditionally the Delaware were divided into the Munsee, Unami, and Unalachtigo, three social divisions determined by language and location.

After dealing with the United States on a government-to-government basis, the ancestors of the Delaware Tribe of Indians agreed in 1867 to relocation to Oklahoma, to live within the Cherokee Nation. The Delaware Tribe of Indians operated autonomously within the lands of the Cherokee Nation.