I
State (pop., 2000: 783,600), middle Atlantic region, U.S. It lies on the Atlantic Ocean and is bordered by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland.
Covering 2,026 sq mi (5,247 sq km), its capital is Dover . Originally inhabited by Wilmington , in 1638. In 1655 New Sweden was taken by the Dutch of New Amsterdam and in 1664 by the English. Delaware was thereafter a part of New York until 1682, when it was ceded to William Penn . It was governed by Pennsylvania until 1776, although it was granted its own assembly in 1704. The first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1787, it is the nation's second smallest state but one of its most densely populated. Chemical manufacturing is the major industry, followed by food processing. Delaware's most important transportation artery is the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, deepened for ocean shipping, which shortens the water route between Philadelphia and Baltimore .
II
or Lenape
Confederation of North American Indians living mostly in Oklahoma, U.S. Thousands more live in Wisconsin and Kansas, U.S., and in Ontario, Can.
They speak a language of the Algonquian family. They once occupied the Atlantic seaboard from southern Delaware to western Long Island, especially the Delaware River valley, for which the confederation was named. To other Algonquian divisions, the Lenape were the "grandfathers," believed to be the original tribe from which all others sprang, and they were highly respected. They depended primarily on agriculture but also hunted and fished. They were grouped in three clans based on maternal descent; these were in turn divided into lineages, whose members lived together in a longhouse . They were governed by a council of lineage sachems (chiefs), who directed the public affairs of the community; the eldest woman of the lineage appointed the sachem. The Delaware were the Indians most friendly to William Penn ; they were rewarded by the infamous Walking Purchase, a treaty that deprived them of their own lands and forced them to settle on lands assigned to the Iroquois. After 1690 they drifted westward. They sided with the French in the French and Indian War (1754–63) and helped defeat the British general Edward Braddock. In 1867 most of the remaining Delaware were removed to Oklahoma. Some 8,300 people claimed sole Delaware descent in the 2000 U.S. census.
III
[c mediumvioletred] (as used in expressions)
Baron Delaware
{{link=Delaware Bay">Delaware Bay
Delaware River