Lenape Indians loved to talk about their faith, but the records of those conversations are scattered here and there. Yet, those geographically scattered conversations have some common themes that probably were part of almost all of their conversations. So, let’s take a look at some of the best sources that record Lenape faith talk in order to imaginatively discover the ones that took place in Elmhurst,, Queens.
The most reliable early report on the religious beliefs of the local Lenape comes from the missionary David Brainerd, who lived among the Lenape in Long Island, north of New York City, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He talked with many Lenape including one who had been a conjurer (a caller of the spirits) before he became a Christian. Since Brainerd (1718-1747) talked with Lenape about their religious beliefs only after 1740 and outside of Queens, we cannot be certain that what they believed in Brainerd’s time was what they believed a hundred years earlier in Queens. However, Brainerd’s reports are consistent with the fragmentary reports from the earliest times of the Dutch settlement in New Amsterdam and are the best that we have to approximate what the local Queens Lenape believed.
The missionary also found that many Lenape had only a vague notion about many of their beliefs, perhaps because they were not religious specialists, but the former conjurer was indeed more specific. His testimony is consistent with other Lenapes’ reports at that time.
Brainerd was an unusual pastor with great sympathetic objectivity about the Lenape. Early in his ministry, which started as a temporary assignment at an East Hampton church on Long Island, his preaching developed into a good bridge to the Montauk Indians who were related to the Lenape (and other tribes). However, Brainerd’s knowledge of Lenape dialects was a work in progress. He and other missionaries were fortunate to have gifted Indian linguists as translators.
Before Brainerd’s arrival, a Montauk warrior named Cockenoe had ended up working with another famous missionary John Eliot in Boston to translate the Bible into an Algonquian dialect, titled Mamusse Wunneetupanatam we Up-Biblum God (“The Whole Holy HisBible God, both Old Testament and also New Testament.” The initial translations were published in 1653, which for the first time created writing for North American Indians. The Book of Matthew was published in 1655. Eliot and his Indian collaborators worked hard to create an alphabet and language that would feel natural to the Algonquian speaker. The printing of the Algonquian Bible was the largest and most expensive printing job done in America up to that time.
Eliot also said that he bore in mind questions that the Indians were asking about Christianity. These questions were undoubtedly also being asked by Lenape Indians in Queens. In their eagerness to debate religion, early European Americans were like Muslims, Orthodox Jews, and evangelical Christians today in New York City. The Lenape were also quite curious and asked a lot of questions:
- If but one parent believe, what state are our children in?
- How doth much sinne make grace abound?
- If an old man as I repent, may I be saved?
- What meaneth that, Let the trees of the Wood rejoice?
- What meaneth that, We cannot serve two masters?
- Can they in Heaven see us here on Earth?
- Do they see and know each other? Shall I know you in heaven?
- Do they know each other in Hell?
- What meaneth God, when he says, Ye shall be my Jewels
- If God made hell in one of the six dayes, why did God make Hell before Adam had sinned?
- Doe not Englishmen spoile their souls, to say a thing cost them more then it did? and is it not all one as to steale?
The questions, which were culled by Linda Gregerson from the pastor’s writings, centered around communication, theology, hope, and family. Lenape’s Algonquian didn’t have words that were clearly equivalent to some English words. Additionally, certain ideas like “One God” didn’t accommodate the Lenape understanding that in addition to the Great Spirit there were multiple good spirits upon which one could call.
Metaphors also don’t easily pass between languages. The Lenape were puzzled by Biblical phrases such as “trees rejoicing.”
They were also concerned about how becoming a Christian might disrupt their families and tribe. They also questioned inconsistencies in the Christian message and behavior.
We can well imagine that local Elmhurst religious debates among the Indians and with the Europeans followed along the lines of these questions that were culled from dozens of conversations.
So, Brainerd had plenty of food to think about concerning the Lenape. Several times, he was invited to preach at a local Indian congregation on Long Island. A local pastor observed Brainerd and wrote how impressed he was by the young pastor’s ability to give instructions, encouragements, and admonitions in personal interactions with the Indians. Over time, the Lenape and other tribal peoples came to see him as a brother.
Preaching to Mahicans later, Brainerd shared how he was often weighed down by a sense of his own sin. He said all people — the Europeans and the Mahicans – were in the same miserable situation which could only be released by the redemption of Jesus Christ. The pastor targeted rebuke toward those who particularly needed redemption because of their behavior toward Indians: the so-called Christians, “white heathen.” His biographer John Grigg noted, “Whenever the term white entered his usage, it almost always described colonists who were not Christian, or at least not living demonstrably Christian lives.” On the other hand, ‘my people’ were Lenape Christians or those on their way to faith.
He burned with anger against these hypocrites who made vast profits selling rum to the Indians, had “no regard to the souls of the poor Indians,” and were attempting to “drive them off” their land. Of course, Brainerd sometimes lamented that he lived with a fear least the Europeans would retaliate against him. The Indians felt that they had an ally, almost a family member.
