Dutch Letter: Lenape 'sold' Manhattan for $24
Friday, September 11, 2009
Filed Under:
National
A 1626 letter that said the historic Lenape Nation sold the island of present-day Manhattan to the Dutch is on display at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City.
The letter said Dutch Gov. Peter Minuit purchased the island for $24 in items. It's the only record of the transaction -- no other documentation exists.
"It's called the best business deal ever," Martine Gosselink, a curator at the
National Archives of the Netherlands, told The New York Post. "For us, the idea you can buy Manhattan is crazy, but for them, it was just another piece of land."
The Lenape, also known as the Delaware, were later removed to Oklahoma.
Get the Story:
Dutch 'treaty' (The New York Post 9/11)
Copyright © Indianz.Com
Subscribe