Colonial History of New Jersey - Pre-colonial Population

Pre-colonial Population

A wave of inhabitants entered the region from the west approximately 3,000 years ago and left behind advanced hunting implements such as bows and arrows and evidence of an agricultural society. The region has probably remained continually inhabited from that time. At the time of the European colonialization, the area of Lenape settlement, which they called Scheyichbi (see: Unami language), encompassed the valleys of the lower Hudson River and the Delaware River, and the area in between, namely, what is now known as the U.S. state of New Jersey; Exonyms given the different groups by the colonolizing population were taken from geographic names of Native American settlements. and included the Hackensack tribe, the Tappan tribe, and the Acquackanonk tribe in the northeast, the Raritan tribe, and the Navesink tribe in the center.