June 2022

Esopus Munsee Winter Customs - Deep Snow Moon and The Story of the Celestial Bear

Friday, June 10, 2022 0
Esopus Munsee Winter Customs - Deep Snow Moon and The Story of the Celestial Bear

Esophus Munsee

Since time immemorial, the land on which historic Huguenot Street sits today was home to Esopus Munsee people and their Lenape ancestors. Long before any stone houses were built here, indigenous families lived in circular dwellings made of plant materials, primarily saplings and bark. These homes were called wigwams and looked similar to the replica that stands today on the lawn of the DuBois Fort Visitor Center.

The Esopus Munsee people spoke a Munsee dialect of the Lenape language. Lenape is one of the languages of the East Algonquin subgroup of the Algonquin language family. This map indicates some of the Indigenous territories and different languages that were spoken in what is now New York State and the surrounding region.

Efforts are being made today to preserve and teach the Lenape language.


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Munsee / Munsey - "people of a stone country.". (Minassiniu, Minisink, Minsi, Moncy, Monthey, Mundook, Muncey, Munsi, Muncie).

Four groups of this division were sometimes called together (Esopus, Espachomy) : Catskill, Momekotiny, Waranawonkong, Wawarsink

Culturally, the Mansi stood apart and until the last century were often considered an independent tribe. The term appears in sources in the 18th century.


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