Okehocking Tribe

The Okehocking (also erroneously attested as the Ockanickon or Crum Creek Indians) were a small band of Unami-speaking Lenape, who originally inhabited an area along the Ridley and Crum Creeks in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. First attested in 1700, the band's name may have derived from the bends in Crum and Ridley Creeks. The group likely numbered between 15 and 25 individuals, and was unusually small for a Lenape band of the time.

Colonial pressures forced the band to relocate its summer settlement, leading the band to settle on a vacant tract of land originally deeded to a Quaker settler around 1701. The Proprietary government of Pennsylvania directed surveyors to allot the band a tract along one of the creeks. After petition for land in 1702, they were granted , but were cut off from most of Ridley Creek and may have been granted mostly hilly, unfertile land by the colonists. In 1710, a colonial road was built through the Okehocking land.

Although most regional Lenape had abandoned their lands after 1718, the Okehocking remained on the tract until the early 1730s. Afterwards, they resettled westwards, perhaps to the village of Quittaphilla, near present-day Lebanon. The last mention of the band is in 1737, although it has been suggested that a sub-clan of Lenape recorded in 1860 and 1913 are descendants of the Okehocking.

Demographics

Etymology

According to Lenape speaker Nora Thompson Dean, the name "Okehocking" is a place name that may translate to 'the place surrounded', and is likely the band's endonym. The name may refer to land surrounded by a stream's bends. The name is consistent with the band's territory along Ridley Creek and Crum Creek in what is now Pennsylvania. The term "Crum" similarly derives from the Dutch word for 'bent', and may reflect Dutch traders either similarly describing the creek or translating from the Unami word for it. The band was also known as the Crum Creek Indians and initially had its name recorded as "Ockanickon". This may have resulted from the recorder mistaking the band's name for that of a prominent Lenape elder in present-day New Jersey named Ockanickon.Becker 1986, p. 46 The two names are likely unrelated.

Population

The Okehocking were probably an unusually small band even by the standards of the foraging Lenape. Only 3 adult males, all of whom typically participated in Lenape band activities, are recorded in 1702. Since they are not referred to as "chiefs," they were likely respected elders. Although reference is made to "others" in a 1702 survey warrant, there were probably no more than 3 or 4 other heads of families in the band. Based on these numbers, the total population of the Okehocking in 1702 probably numbered between 15 and 25. At a time when families of 10 in colonial Pennsylvania were granted about , the estimate of 25 band members is consistent with the grant given to the Okehocking. Pennsylvania's Proprietors would have regarded the grant as too small for any larger group.

History

Early accounts and settlement (c. 1680–1701)

The Okehocking are first historically attested in 1700, about 70 years after European trade began in the Lenape area. Prior to European encroachment, the band was initially known to inhabit throughout the area along and between the Crum and Ridley Creeks, and likely foraged inland beyond the creeks and along the Delaware River. The Okehocking probably had a summer settlement in the vicinity of the Delaware.Becker 1976, p. 30 None of the band's village names have been recorded. Rapid English settlement in the region after 1680 disturbed the local Lenape, including the Okehocking. Despite growing colonization in the surrounding territory, in what is now Edgmont Township, Pennsylvania Proprietor William Penn did not award land grants in the area inhabited by the band, in keeping with his policy of not settling areas occupied by natives. Probably to avoid the expanding colonial construction, population, and deforestation, the Okehocking were pressured to move their summer settlement further up the river to an area free of settlers.Becker 1986, p. 50

By 1701, either on their own initiative or advice from the Proprietors, they had settled on a vacant tract of land between the creeks originally deeded to a Quaker named Griffith Jones in 1686. Jones's plot was within a larger tract claimed by an association of Welsh speaking Quakers and had not been settled, reverting to William Penn under colonial law. In 1701, Abraham Beaks petitioned for the vacant tract, prompting a survey to be ordered by the Proprietary