New Jersey Early History

First Early Inhabitants

Early history examines the archaeological record that tells the story of the first inhabitants of New Jersey. Learn about the history and culture of the first inhabitants, and what lessons it might teach us about the early history of New Jersey.

• 5000 BC - Native Americans had occupied New Jersey for thousands of years before European colonization. Explorers in the 1500s found a peaceful people with an economy of hunting, gathering and small-scale agriculture. They collectively came to be known as the Lenape (which roughly translates as "people") Their descendants today are known as Delaware and Munsee Indians and are dispersed over North America with the largest group living near Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Native Americans from the Delaware tribe of Algonkian Indians lived in New Jersey when Europeans explorers first arrived. They built villages along the Delaware River, spending most of their time hunting and planting corn, beans, and other crops for food. The first inhabitants of New Jersey. They called themselves the Leni Lenape, which means "original people."

Ten thousand years before the first European settlers set foot in New Jersey, the Leni Lenape were hunting and raising crops such as corn, beans, and squash.