| Group: | Raritan |
| Total: | No longer distinct tribes. |
| Languages: | Munsee language |
| Religions: | Indigenous religion |
| Related Groups: | other Lenape tribes |
The Raritan are two groups of Lenape people who lived around the lower Raritan River[1] and the Raritan Bay, in what is now northeastern New Jersey, in the 16th century.
The name Raritan likely came from one of the Lenape languages (among the languages in the Algonquian language group), though there are a variety of interpretations as to its meaning. It may derive from Naraticong [2] meaning "river beyond the island."
Raritan is a Dutch pronunciation of wawitan or rarachons, meaning "forked river" or "stream overflows".[3]
The first group known as the Raritan was also known as the Sanhicans.[4] A second group, known as the Wiechquaeskecks,[1] Wisquaskecks, Roaton, Raritanghe,[5] and Raritanoos settled the Raritan watershed area after the first departed.[4] [1]
The original Raritans, the Sanhicans, lived along Raritan Bay's west shore[4] until 1640s, when attacks from the Delaware River Indians and Dutch settlers drove them inland.[1]
The Wisquaskecks had lived in what is now Westchester County, New York.[6] After the Sanhicans migrated east, the Wisquaskecks[4] moved into the area by 1649 and then also became known as the Raritans.[1]
The Raritan had early contact with settlers in the colony of New Netherland.[7] [8] Dutch colonist David Pietersz. de Vries described the Raritans as "a nation of savages who live where a little stream [the Raritan River] runs up about five leagues behind Staten Island."[5] He wrote that Cornelis van Tienhoven took more than one hundred men to the Wisquaskecks to address their theft of pigs and attempt theft of a yacht. Van Theihoven's group killed several of the Wisquaskecks and took their chief's brother as a hostage.[5] Van Theihoven tortured the prisoner, and the Americans Indians responded to the attack by killing several Dutch settlers.[5] William Kieft, governor of New Netherland, had planned the extermination campaign against them. The attack against the American Indians was a contributing event to the bands' allying in Kieft's War (1643-45) against the settlements of New Netherland.[7]
In 1649, the Wisquaskecks held a peace conference with the Dutch settlers. Pennekeck, a leader from Newark Bay, "said the tribe called Raritanoos, formerly living at Wisquaskeck had no chief, therefore he spoke for them, who would also like to be our friends...."[4] The Sanhicans unsuccessfully tried to contest Pennekeck.[4] [9]
. Russell Shorto . The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. 2004. Random House. 1-4000-7867-9.