Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware

The Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware Inc. is a state-recognized tribe and non-profit organization in the US state of Delaware. It does not have federal recognition as an American Indian tribe.

The organization gained official recognition in Delaware on August 3, 2016.^[1] The group has around 225 members.^[2]

Members of the organization were once known as "the Moors" or the "Delaware Moors". Moors were sometimes listed as "M" on official documentation, such as state driver's licenses. A 1948 Smithsonian report referred to them as the "Moors of Kent County, Delaware".^[3] Prior to the state's recognition of the tribe, the Delaware Moors were considered "Mulatto" or of African-American descent.^[4] The Lenape Indian Tribe is related through ancestry and cultural ties to the state-recognized Nanticoke Indian Association in Delaware and the state-recognized Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation in New Jersey, both of whose ancestors were known as Moors.^[5]

In 2021, the organization acquired 11 acres of land near Fork Branch Nature Preserve, with the assistance of the State of Delaware, a private financier, and an environmental conservation group. This was part of the Lenape historic territory. Long after the colonial period, ancestors of group members had attended a small schoolhouse that formerly existed on property near the acquired land. It is also near a former Lenape cemetery and church.^[2]

• Official website, Lenape Indian Tribe Delaware, Kent County