I Am Old and Weak … and You Are Young and Strong: The Intersecting Histories of Rutgers University and the Lenni Lenape

When the indigenous people along the banks of the Raritan were first becoming acquainted with the Dutch settlers who had come to live among them, they responded with humor whenever possible. They loved to tease the newcomers, testing to see how much they could get them to believe, and then laughing over the results in private. A missionary who lived among the Lenape years later—and came to speak their language fluently—explained: “They are fond of the marvelous, and when they find a white man inclined to listen to their tales of wonder, or credulous enough to believe their