Moravian 47 (

Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along ...

: ''Náahii'', literally 'downstream', in contrast with

Munsee-Delaware Nation Munsee-Delaware Nation (Munsee: Nalahii Lunaapewaak, ''meaning: Lenapes from the Upstream'', in contrast with The Lenape at Moraviantown, referred to as "Downstrean Lenapes") is a Lenape First Nations band government located west of St. Thomas ...

, referred to as "Nalahii", meaning "upstream") is an

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." In ...

located in Chatham-Kent,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, with an area of . It is occupied by the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown

First Nation Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

( del, Eelūnaapèewii Lahkèewiit), a part of the

Christian Munsee The Christian Munsee are a group of Lenape (also known as ''Delaware''), an Indigenous people in the United States, that primarily speak Munsee and have converted to Christianity, following the teachings of Moravian missionaries. The Christian M ...

branch of the Lenape, and is commonly known as Moravian of the Thames reserve. The resident registered population is 457, with another 587 band members living off the reserve. A group of Munsee was converted to Christianity by missionaries of the

Moravian Church , image = AgnusDeiWindow.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , caption = Church emblem featuring the Agnus Dei.Stained glass at the Rights Chapel of Trinity Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States , main_classification = Proto-Prot ...

in Pennsylvania; these persons and their descendants are known as the

. They moved to Ohio Country, under pressure from European settlers in the east. Vibrant Moravian Christian Indian settlements were established in Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten, Salem,

Petquotting Petquotting (pronounced "pay cutting" ) was the name that the Moravian Missionaries gave to their two settlements on the Huron River (Ohio). The first Moravian Christian Indian village of Petquotting was established in 1787, on the east side of t ...

and Goshen. After many of those in Gnadenhutten and Salem were murdered by American colonial militia in the

Gnadenhutten massacre The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing of 96 pacifist Moravian Christian Indians (primarily Lenape and Mohican) by U.S. militiamen from Pennsylvania, under the command of David Williamson, on March 8, ...

of the Moravian Christian Indian Martyrs on 8 March 1782 during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, the remaining

in Ohio gathered in Sandusky and led by Moravian missionary

David Zeisberger David Zeisberger (April 11, 1721 – November 17, 1808) was a Moravian clergyman and missionary among the Native American tribes who resided in the Thirteen Colonies. He established communities of Munsee (Lenape) converts to Christianity in the ...

, departed towards the

Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. They eventually reestablished their Christian Indian community in what is today

southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

. At first temporarily settling near present-day Amherstburg, Ontario, in 1792, Zeisberger obtained permission from the British colonial authorities for the community to inhabit a site on the

, near where it is located today. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

between Great Britain and the United States, the

Battle of the Thames The Battle of the Thames , also known as the Battle of Moraviantown, was an American victory in the War of 1812 against Tecumseh's Confederacy and their British allies. It took place on October 5, 1813, in Upper Canada, near Chatham. The Britis ...

took place near the community. The

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

leader Tecumseh, an ally of the United Kingdom, was killed by invading United States forces. Following the battle, before the US cavalry left the area, it burned the entire Christian Munsee community to the ground. They rebuilt on the south side of the Thames in their present location. In 1903, the Moravian Christians transferred the Christian Munsee mission in Moraviantown to Methodist Christians, a denomination that eventually joined the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

, the

United Protestant A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations. Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state ...

denomination to which the Christian Munsee in Moraviantown belong to today.

References

External links

Delaware Nation at Moraviantown
{{Moravian Church Navigation Lenape reserves in Ontario Chatham-Kent Settlements of the Moravian Church

See also

References

External links