Long before high-rise towers lined Broad Street or commuter trains hummed into Penn Station, the banks of the Passaic River were known as part of Lenapehoking—the ancestral homeland of the Lenni-Lenape Indigenous people.
Today, as Newark confronts both its rich heritage and the national movement toward historical equity, local institutions and cultural centers are turning a critical lens back to the spring of 1666, when Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat arrived on the shores of the Passaic to found what would become New Jersey’s largest city.
The 1666 Purchase: Sacred Territory vs. Colonial Property
When Robert Treat and his party of Puritan settlers landed in May 1666, they initially met resistance. The local Hackensack and Acquackanonk bands of the Lenni-Lenape made it clear that the land was inhabited, cultivated, and governed.
Through an interpreter named Samuel Edsal, Treat organized negotiations with the revered Lenape leader, Chief Oraton. The resulting transaction—formalized in a historic 1667 deed—transferred a massive tract encompassing present-day Newark, Belleville, Nutley, Bloomfield, and the Oranges. In exchange, the Lenape received trade goods including cloth, axes, kettles, gunpowder, and wampum.
Historical scholars emphasize that the two parties approached the agreement with fundamentally different worldviews:
The English Perspective: Treat and the settlers viewed the transaction through European legal traditions as an absolute, permanent transfer of private property rights.
The Lenape Perspective: Indigenous traditions understood land as a communal, living resource held in trust for future generations. For the Lenape, the agreement was a diplomatic covenant sharing the rights to hunt, forage, and inhabit the region alongside the newcomers.
As colonial settlement expanded and European property laws were enforced, the Lenape were systematically displaced westward and north toward Oklahoma, Ontario, and Wisconsin, while remaining within localized regional communities such as the Ramapo Munsee Lenape Nation.
Historical Timeline: From Lenapehoking to Civic Remembrance
Historical Timeline: From Lenapehoking to Civic Remembrance
Pre-1666: Indigenous Stewardship of Lenapehoking
Pre-1666
The Hackensack and Acquackanonk bands of the Lenni-Lenape steward the Passaic River valley, utilizing seasonal encampments, trade networks, and agricultural practices across the region.
May 1666: Arrival of Connecticut Puritans
May 1666
Robert Treat leads a group of English Puritans from Milford, Connecticut, landing on the banks of the Passaic River to establish a new religious settlement.
July 1667: Formalization of the Newark Deed
July 1667
Chief Oraton and Puritan leaders finalize the deed transferring land spanning modern Essex County in exchange for trade goods, wampum, and supplies.
18th–19th Centuries: Systematic Displacement
1700s–1800s
Expansion of European colonial settlements forces the displacement of Lenape populations westward, while local groups preserve heritage within regional enclaves.
Present Era: Formal Land Acknowledgments
2020s
Newark institutions—including NJPAC and Rutgers University–Newark—integrate formal Land Acknowledgments into their civic identities to honor Indigenous heritage.
Formalizing Remembrance: Land Acknowledgments Across the City
In recent years, Newark’s civic, educational, and cultural institutions have embraced formal Land Acknowledgments to honor the area’s Indigenous roots and counteract the historical erasure of Native peoples.
At the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) Arts Education Building on Rector Street in downtown Newark, visitors and students encounter an official land acknowledgment integrated into the institution’s core civic identity. Similar acknowledgments are now recited at public gatherings across Rutgers University–Newark and featured in public art installations throughout the downtown district.
By recognizing the Lenni-Lenape as the original stewards of the Passaic River valley, Newark continues to redefine its narrative—not merely as a city founded by Connecticut settlers in 1666, but as a place deeply rooted in thousands of years of Indigenous history and stewardship.
