About Us

 

Munsee-Delaware Nation is a Lenape First Nations band government located 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of St. Thomas, in southwest Ontario, Canada. Known previously as the Munsee of the Thames, their land base is the 1,054 hectares (2,600 acres) Munsee-Delaware Nation 1 reserve, with the unincorporated community of Muncey (west from the Oneida Nation of the Thames) as their main community. The reserve is splintered into several non-contiguous areas, made up of individual lots within the Chippewas of the Thames reserve.

 

Members of the Munsee branch of the Lenape (Delaware) nation arrived in the area in the eighteenth century. The Lieutenant-Governor, John Graves Simcoe, encouraged the Munsee to settle there although Chippewa were already established there. In 1819 the Chippewa of the Thames reserve was established, and in 1840 the Munsee and the Chippewa finally reached an agreement to share the land. In 1967 the Munsee portion became part of the current reserve, which was established by Order in Council.