On August 25th 1737, one of history's most disreputable treaties in the records of native-white relations was signed. The agreement, involving the Founder of Pennsylvania's sons and the Delaware or Lenape, was determined by “as far as a man could walk in a day and a half”. Unlike their father, William Penn, who had earned his reputation for being fair and respectful towards the Natives, Richard, John and Thomas Penn had a different mindset. After his death, his sons faced problems with their father’s debt. In order to pay off the loans, the Penn brothers and their agent James Logan made an agreement with Lenape leaders known as The Walking Purchase. By this, they would claim the land measured by the “walk” and sell it to the colonists for money. …show more content…
Although the transcript was forged, the Penns “showed to leaders of the Delaware Indians living there a deed that they insisted proved William Penn had bought the land in 1686, adding that he had not paid for it because the land described in the deed had never been measured off to the satisfaction of both buyer and sellers” (Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission). Despite the fact that a deed did exist, it had been altered to make it more favorable to the brothers. According to the one signed by Lenape chiefs, the purchase was measured by a man’s walking of a day and a half from a fixed starting point. This meant that the walk would determine and specify the boundaries of the purchase thus the amount of land that would be claimed. The Lenape, however, suspected this at first, and "charged that the deal was a fraud. It is very likely that the reason for the Indians' ignorance of the 1686 sale is that it never happened. Logan could not produce an original copy of the deed, nor does the sale appear in Pennsylvania's provincial land record” (Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission). Although the local leaders resisted, the proprietors of Pennsylvania went ahead with their plans to ensure the treaty would be signed …show more content…
“It was a simple matter of switching labels. What appeared to the Indians to the Tohickon Creek was labeled "West Branch River Delaware."” (Jennings, 37).The Lenape could not recognize the names as they did not speak or read English, and could only visualize the maps given to them. Not only were the names changed, but the entire map itself was “a distorted one, misrepresenting the far away Lehigh river as the relatively close Tohickon Creek, and including a dotted line showing a seemingly reasonable path that the “walkers” would take” (Gilbert) in order to reflect a smaller area as Thomas did not want the Natives to know how big the land actually was. Under the assumption that the land to be covered was small, the Lenape agreed to finally sign the treaty for the walk since there was “not much” to lose. This was exactly what the Penns and Logan wanted them to think as it was the only way they would agree to this. Additionally, since no one in England knew much about the territory the Penns decided to send the fake maps as proof. They knew no one would know what the terrain truly looked like, and therefore no one would be able to notice the trickery. The Penns made sure anyone able to interpret the documents did not have access to them. They wanted to make sure there was no evidence that could be held against them in case of