Consistently throughout our history, the oldest surviving male was named Chief of the Tribe until the Tribal Constitution was amended to be the Chairman of the Delawares of Idaho, Inc. We can demonstrate that we have been a continuous entity since before 1900. The families routinely stayed together throughout history and would follow the oldest surviving males direction, health permitted, as evident in the following timeline:
Timeline
Pre-1492 – The Lenape (meaning “The People”) inhabit Lenapehoking, an ancestral homeland spanning present-day New Jersey, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, and southern New York.
1524 – First recorded contact occurs when Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano anchors in lower New York Bay and encounters Lenape fishermen.
1609 – Henry Hudson explores the Delaware and Hudson rivers, establishing Dutch trade relations that trigger intense competition over beaver pelts.
1638 – The establishment of New Sweden on the Delaware River expands trade, but introduces devastating European diseases (smallpox, measles) that decimate up to 90% of some coastal Lenape villages.
1682 – Chief Tammany signs a legendary peace treaty with William Penn at Shackamaxon, establishing early peaceful coexistence in Pennsylvania.
1737 – The Walking Purchase fraud drastically alters relations. Pennsylvania colonial officials use a forged deed to swindle the Lenape out of over 1.2 million acres of prime land, forcing families to abandon the Delaware River valley.
1740s – Displaced Lenape migrate west over the Allegheny Mountains into the Susquehanna and Ohio River valleys, fracturing into decentralized geographic factions.
1755–1758 – Seeking to reclaim their homelands, western Lenape warriors ally with the French during the French and Indian War, launching devastating raids on Pennsylvania settlements before signing the Treaty of Easton (1758) to secure peace.
1763 – Chief Pontiac’s Rebellion sees western Lenape launch an unsuccessful siege on Fort Pitt to halt British westward expansion.
1778 – The Lenape sign the Treaty of Fort Pitt—the very first formal treaty between the United States and a Native nation. It promises the Lenape a potential 14th State in exchange for support against the British.
1781–1782 – The alliance fractures during the Revolutionary War. Pro-British factions move deeper into Ohio. In March 1782, American militia brutally massacre 96 peaceful, Christian Lenape at the Gnadenhütten mission, destroying any hope of peace with the U.S.
1785 – The Lenape join the Western Confederacy, a massive pan-tribal alliance formed to defend the Ohio River as a permanent boundary against American settlement.
1790–1791 – Lenape warriors help inflict crushing defeats on American armies led by General Josiah Harmar and General Arthur St. Clair (St. Clair’s Defeat).
1794 (August 20) – The Western Confederacy is decisively defeated by General Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. British allies refuse to open the gates of Fort Miamis to shelter fleeing warriors.
1795 (August 3) – Chief Buckongahelas and other leaders sign the Treaty of Greenville, formally ceding most of Ohio and initiating the long westward diaspora.
1795 – 1820 – The largest contingent of Lenape survivors moved immediately west into the White River valley of central and southern Indiana. They established several new villages alongside other displaced nations. However, American expansion quickly caught up to them, leading to the 1818 Treaty of St. Mary’s, which forced them to cede these Indiana lands as well.
1820 – 1867 – By the 1820s, the main body of the tribe drifted further west. They stayed briefly in Missouri before being relocated by the federal government to a reservation in northeastern Kansas along the Kansas and Missouri rivers. While in Kansas, many Lenape men served as vital scouts, diplomats, and interpreters for the U.S. Army on the western frontier.
1830s – Delaware (Lenape) bands migrated into Texas, settling in the eastern and northeastern parts of the region along river basins like the Red, Sabine, and Neches rivers. Lucinda Marshal may have been here with Chief John Connor as Wm Marshal Connor-Washer may have also been here. There is a lot of confusion regarding Wm Marshall and who he is related to as evident here: http://lenapedelawarehistory.net/mirror/john_marshall.htm
1846 – Mary Francis Marshall, Daughter of Wm Marshall and Lucinda Llewellyn Marshall, is born in Crawford County, Indiana. She is listed as a minor under Entry 310 of Pratts Registry of Delaware Indians 1867.
1865 – Wm (William) Marshall, a Delaware Indian, is given 80 acres of land on June 1, 1865, according to the Treaty of May 30, 1860. Land Allotment William Marshall 1865
1866 – Mary Francis Marshall married James Ross Fent on Dec 25, 1866 in Wapello County, Iowa. Marriage Record James Fent and Mary Marshall 1866
1866 – Pratts Registry of Delaware Indians lists Rebecca Lucas Entry 638, her daughter Lucinda Llewellyn Marshall Entry 310 and Wm Marshall Entry 399, Mary Francis Marshall is listed as a minor under Entry 310 (Listed on K Page 113 of Pratts Registry of Delawares in 1867 – Located in Record Group 75 of the National Archives). Rebecca Lucas elects to remove to the Cherokee Nation under the terms of the Treaty of July 4, 1866 designed to relocate the Delaware people from Kansas to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma).
1867 – Rebecca Lucas sells her allotment 929 of Delaware Lands to the Missouri River Railroad Company on the 11th of December, 1867 at the Delaware offices of John G. Pratt, U.S. Agent, for $125 under the provisions of the Treaty of July 4, 1866. Lucinda Llewellyn Marshall received the amount and is listed as Daughter and Head of Household. Receipt for Lands 1867.
1873 – Otelia Eveline Fent, daughter of James Ross Fent and Mary Francis Fent is born in Cottonwood Falls, Chase Co, Kansas.
1880 – James Ross Fent, Mary Francis Marshall, and children: Wm (William), Cora, Otelia, Ella, Carrie, and George are listed on the Cottonwood Falls, Chase Co, Kansas census of June 10, 1880, line 6-13. Cottonwood Falls Kansas 1880 Census
1880 – Lucinda Marshall removed to the Cherokee Nation and was listed as Entry 310 No. 232 (Dead) in 1880 Record Book. (Book is the Property of Federal Record Center located in Ft. Worth, Texas.) Lucinda may have returned to Texas having possibly been there in the 1830s.
1882 – There is a diferent Mary Marshall born in 1882 to William H. Marshall (b. 1852) and Susan L. Marshall on the Delaware Annuity Roll of 1883. William H. Marshall then marries Lizzie Secondyne. There is a James Lucas listed as a brother in law. There could be an older brother or father named William Washer-Connor Marshall.
1889 – Otelia Eveline Fent (Tillie) married Leander Louis Creech on Oct 14, 1889 at Cottonwood Falls, Chase Co., Kansas. Their marriage in 1889 preceded the Cherokee Intermarriage Law of 1902. Leander Louis Creech is named Chief High Pockets. Marriage Record Leander Creech and Tillie Fent 1889
1892 – Bruce Leander Creech, son of Leander Louis Creech is born in Matfield Green, Chase Co., Kansas.
1894 – James and Mary Marshall Fent lived in several different places till he was removed to Pawnee, Oklahoma in 1894.
1894 – Oral history states Leander and Otelia Creech lived at a stage relay stop near Coffeeville, Oklahoma. Sometimes they would wake up to find 15-30 men sleeping there. They were the Jesse James gang and would leave small bags of gold as payment.
1898 – Rebecca Lucas Entry 638 deceased, Lucinda Marshal Entry 310, Wm Marshal Connor-Washer Entry 399 was listed on the 1898 Citizenship roll of Delaware Indians living on the Cherokee Nation on or before Aug 4, 1898. Lucinda Marshal and family were not carried forward to 1899 roll. Delaware Roll 1898
1902 – Cherokee Nation passed a bill to remove all Intermarried and Freedman Indians from the Delaware Indian Rolls. They were told to go to the District Office of the Bureau of Indians Affairs in Billings, Montana to protest. Oral history tells that 13 families traveled to Montana by wagon train.
1905 – Oral History states Charlie Fent (Otelia’s brother) shot Melvin Creech (Otelia’s son and Charlie’s nephew) in Indian Territory in Billings in appr. 1905.
1907 – The Creech, Fent, and Watches family arrived in Montana by wagon train and moved to South 23rd St. in Billings, Montana. Leander and his son Bruce Creech worked at the Mitchell Heating Plant. Bruce Creech worked as a Steam Engineer. (Photos attached to oral history in the Idaho Historical Society confirm this.)
1909 – Arthur Albert Creech, son of Leander Louis Creech and Otelia Fent Creech is born in Billings, Montana. Birth Certificate Arthur Creech 1909
1910 – Apr. 22, 1910: The Creech family was living in Billings, where Leander and his son, Bruce, worked in the Mitchell Heating Plant while daughter Viola helped as a servant in a local home. (U.S. Census, Yellowstone, Billings, Montana, P. 9A, lines 27-36, Apr. 22, 1910)
1911 – While residing in Billings, Montana, Otelia Creech and her Eldest daughter Viola Creech hired Attorney Thad Smith of Billings, Montana to find out why they had not received their Allotments as Delawares of the Cherokee Nation. Copies of Att. Smiths letters show that the Ancestry was of Delaware blood (Letter sent to the Secretary of the Interior, dated Feb 8, 1911 – List the Ancestry. Also letter sent to the Secretary of the Interior dated Oct 8, 1912 list the Ancestry). Violet Creech mentions Leander Loius Creech Father; E.W. Creech Grandfather; Elizabeth Creech (nee Elizabeth Williams) Grandmother; Elizabeth Williams, Great-Grandmother; Tillie Fent now Tillie Creech, Mother; Mary F. Marshall (Mary F. Fent) Grandmother; Lucinda Pringle (Lucinda Marshall), Great Grandmother; J.R. Fent, Grandfather; W.M. Fent, Great-Grandfather; Elizabeth Fent, Grandmother; Elizabeth Drake, Great-Grandmother; Squire Zane 3d Grandfather. All of which are Lenape Indians.
1913 – On Oct 14, 1913, they were advised by the Commissioner that the names of none of the persons mentioned in the above letters could be found upon any of the citizenship rolls of the Cherokee Nation, nor did it appear that an application for the enrollment of said persons as Cherokee or Delaware Citizens could be located. (Letter dated Oct 14, 1913 on file in the National Archives.) Otelia Creech and family were rejected as not being Cherokee or Delaware. Thad Smith Letters 1911-1913
1912 – The group moved to Basin, Wyoming using the same wagons that took them to Montana and settles in what was called Basin Gardens. Leander Louis Creech plants 75 acres of beets for a contract. Creech Farm in Basin, Wyoming 1915. Bruce Creech’s Obituary mentions he moved with his family to Big Horn County around 1916. Several family members were listed as living in Otto, a very small community in Big Horn County, Wyoming.
1917 – Mary Francis Marshall Fent dies in Fort Dodge, Kansas. Mary Francis Fent Death Certificate 1917. Her death certificate lists father as Wm Marshal and Cynda (Lucinda) Llewellyn.
1912-1918? – Oral History tells of an Annual Big Game Hunt that took place in the foothills of Wyoming. Annual Big Game Hunt c. 1912-1918
1918 – Oral History states the group traveled to Alamo Flat, ten miles south of Basin, Wyoming. Oral History states that a close family friend, Arthur Creech’s maternal uncle Charlie Fent, Merele Creech, Esaw Creech, and Cora (Fent) Watches died to the Flu Epidemic of 1918. Four different groups lived on this 1000 acre property, called Randall Ranch.
1918, Sept. 12: Twenty-year-old Manzy (Mauzy Grant Creech), and his brother, Merle, both of whom had been farming near Basin, registered in the World War I draft and listed their mother, “Mrs. L.L. Creech” as their “nearest relative”. (World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, No. A659, Sep. 12, 1918, www.ancestry.com)
1918: Charlie Fent died to the Flu Epidemic.
1918, Oct. 11: “Moreley (Merele) Creech, Elk creek, died”. (“Spanish Influenza Now on Wane Here”, Basin Republican-Rustler, Basin, WY, Oct. 18, 1918, p. 1[1])
1918, Oct. 18: “C.O. Creech, Elk creek, died”. (Oral history states Esaw Creech) “Spanish Influenza Now on Wane Here”, Basin Republican-Rustler, Basin, WY, Oct. 18, 1918, p. 1[1])
1924 – 1929 – The Creech family moved to Ontario, Oregon (Bruce Creech and family) and Payette, Idaho (Chief Leander Creech and family) about 10 miles apart and eventually settled in the Payette Valley in Idaho on 127 acres of farmland on Birdies Island. Birdies Island. Oral history states that others from the group continued south to California because of Idaho’s harsh winters. Letters from surviving neighbors in the 1970s state the families were known to be Indians. The families would contract to pick fruit or beets. The eldest member of the family would be paid and it was up to him to decide who earned what. The family members that lived near Birdies Island included: Leander and Pearl Creech, Art and Ruth Creech, Joan (Creech) Lippert, Tom Lippert, Dale Creech, Nina Hagglund, Charlotte Creech, Chuck (Charles Creech), Ray Pease, Elsie Coates and Al with all their kids, Alan, Jean, Bill-Clarence Coates, and Gary, Kate Kingston, Frank, Gilbert, Bruce (Lanay) Creech, Clyde, Fred and Annie, and LeRoy Hobson.
1927 – James Ross Fent left the Old Soldiers Home in 1924 and dies in Joplin, Missouri in 1927.
1929 – 1937 – The families worked the orchards in the Payette Valley until a big freeze occurred and killed a lot of the orchards. The Great Depression also caused a lot of difficulty in finding jobs. Over the next seven or eight years, the families went to Freewater, Oregon for the fruit harvest in the spring time and would camp along the Walla Walla River with the Wapiti, Yakima, and Nez Perce tribes.
1935 – Clyde Wesley Creech, son of Bruce Creech went on his own and traveled the US.
1939 – Chief Leander Creech purchased 80 acres next to Birdies Island in Payette, Idaho. Birdies Island Deed 1939
1939 – Charlotte Creech Simmons, daughter of Arthur Albert Creech is born in New Plymouth, Idaho.
1941 – Otelia Eveline Fent dies in Payette, Idaho.
1942 -1944 – Charlotte Simmons is taught the Lenape Language using peyote tea by her grandfather, Chief Leander Creech and her uncle, Bruce Creech. She was taught to write the language using a stick in the dirt outside the house on Birdies Island. They used peyote tea because it helped children retain the language. There were very speakers of the language because the children would be ridiculed if anyone found out they were Indian. There was a lot of prejudice still in America towards natives.
1943 -1946 – Clyde Wesley Creech joined the US Marines and participated in 4 invasions. He was wounded on Iwo Jima and returned to Idaho.
1945 – The Creech family home on Birdies Island burned down and the tribe was forced to move.
1947 – The surviving elders moved to Basin, Wyoming while a few stayed in the Payette Valley.
1951 – Chief ‘High Pockets’ Leander Louis Creech dies in Basin, Wyoming. Leander’s Obituary says he is survived by his widow, Pearl, one brother, Fred Creech, Fruitland, Idaho; three sons and three daughters: Viola Hobson, Payette, Idaho; Bruce Creech, Basin; Grace Kankaras, Pendleton, Ore.; Arthur Creech, Basin; Gilbert Creech, Emmett, Idaho; Elsie Coates, Boise, Idaho, and 23 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and two nephews, residing in Basin, Clinton Watches and Grover Creech. (Certificate of Death, No. 571, State of Wyoming Bureau of Vital Statistics, Cheyenne, WY, Apr. 30, 1951, on file at the Wyoming State Archives, Cheyenne, WY). Bruce Leander Creech is named Chief.
1952 – Chief Bruce Leander Creech dies in Basin, Wyoming. Arthur Albert Creech, now being the eldest, is named Chief White Antelope. Chief Arthur Creech and Clyde W. Creech move back to Boise, Idaho after a member of the tribe discovers Tungsten near Mountain Home, Idaho. Bruce Creech Obituary – 1952.
1954 – Chief Arthur Creech founded the Big Eight Mining Corporation in Elmore County, Idaho during Idaho’s Uranium boom. Other partners were Frank and Viola (Creech) Hobson, Tex Ax and Gene Ax from Boise, Clyde W. Creech from Basin, Wyoming, Dale Chamberlin from Greybull, Wyoming, and Grace Kanakaris from Walla, Walla, Washington. The Creech families mined Uranium, Tungsten, and Turquoise near Mountain Home, Idaho. (57th Annual Report of the Mining Industry of Idaho (1955), by the Idaho Inspector of Mines) Big Eight Mining Corporation
1955 – Chief Arthur Creech founded the [[Sunset Uranium Corporation]] in Elmore County, Idaho. (57th Annual Report of the Mining Industry of Idaho (1955), by the Idaho Inspector of Mines)
1960 – Idaho Fish and Game purchased Birdies Island and turned it into a Wildlife Management Area. It is now known as Birding Islands.
1963 – The Big Eight Mining Corporation and the Sunset Uranium Corporation were forfeited after ore prices plummeted. (1963-1964 Idaho Inspector of Mines Annual Report)
1969 – Chief Arthur Creech told his daughter, Charlotte Simmons ‘Suke Ana – Cake Mother’ , about his older sister Viola Creech’s story. Chief Arthur Creech directed her to investigate. Genealogical Research was began by Charlotte Simmons, Great Granddaughter of Otelia Fent Creech.
1976 – Charlotte Simmons completed the genealogical research proving Otelia Fents statement in 1911, that we are Delaware Indians.
1978 – Delawares of Idaho, Inc. is founded by Chief White Antelope (Arthur A. Creech)
1978 – The BIA sends a letter to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs and Public Lands stating that we appear to be Delaware Indians and should be included in HR 8674 (The Delaware Judgement Fund Act). BIA Letter to Subcommittee regarding HR 8674, May 1978
1979 – The Delawares of Idaho, Inc. filed a letter of intent to petition for federal recognition as a tribe of Delaware Indians on the grounds of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, also called the Wheeler-Howard Act. Petition for federal recognition was filed soon afterward.
1979 – Dr. Patricia Ourada, Professor of History from Boise State University endorses our federal recognition petition. Letter BSU Professor of History 1979
1979 – Senator Frank Church and Senator Landon Kassebaum requests hearings on bill S. 1466, refering to us as Idaho Delawares. The bill becomes the Delaware Judgement Fund Act. United States Senate letter 1979
1980 – Delaware Judgement Fund Act signed into law by President Carter on August 1, 1980 that proved the Delawares of Idaho are direct lineal descendants of members of the Delaware Nation as listed on Pratts Registry of 1867. Regulations Governing Delaware Judgement Fund Rolls, BIA
1986 – Chief White Antelope (Arthur A. Creech) passes away. Clyde Wesley Creech, Sr. is named Chief Eagle Eye.
2008 – Supplement to petition sent to BIA regarding Federal Recognition.
2010 – Chief ‘Eagle Eye’ Clyde Wesley Creech, Sr. dies. Alan Louis Coates, Jr. was named Chief.
2011 – Members of the Delawares of Idaho meet with the tribal council of the Delawares of Oklahoma on June 6, 2011 to request to rejoin the Delaware Nation. A vote was cast but it was not successful.
2012 – Charlotte Simmons was elected as Heritage Chief. Lanay Creech is named Chief Big Buffalo.
2019 – Charlotte Simmons makes recordings of the Lenape language as taught to her on Birdies Island when she was a child around 1944.
2022 – Chief ‘Big Buffalo’ Lanay Bruce Creech dies. Peter Kingston serves as Chairman.
2024 – Peter Kingston steps down from Chairman. Andrew Gildersleeve serves as Interim Chairman.
2025 – Heritage Chief Charlotte Simmons, the last known speaker of the lenape language within our tribe passes away. Ken Sereduk, grandson of Charlotte Simmons is appointed as Heritage Chief.
2025 – Andrew Gildersleeve steps down as Interim Chairman. Vice Chairman Lanay Creech II is named Chairman.
2026 – Archive records are in the process of being digitized and merged with Oral History to produce this narrative.
For more information about the dynamics of our tribe, some of our oral history, and culture, please read this thesis written by Jack Large from Boise State University. History by Jack Large (Jack Douglas Large, “The Delawares of Idaho,” M. A. thesis, University of Idaho, 1987)
The Creech & Fent Delawares
Our Ancestors spent several years in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. They moved from Kansas to Oklahoma in 1894, and lived near Coffeeville, Oklahoma. they were issued 160 acres of land from the Cherokee’s. (The Bureau of Indian Affairs paid the Cherokee Tribe for land for the Delaware Indians to settle.)
Leander Louis Creech and Otelia Eveline Fent married on October 5, 1889. In addition to being a cattleman, and a hunter for the army, they lived at a stage relay stop. On more than one occasion when they would get up in the morning they would find 15 to 30 men sleeping on the floor. They were the Jesse James gang, who would stop in and sleep for a little while, get fresh horses and go on their way. They never offered to pay, but as grandma cleaned-up after them, she would find little bags of gold, here and there in the room. (If the authorities had ever heard about it, they would have been in serious trouble.)
While living at Coffeeville several children were born. One of them was Bruce Leander Creech, who was born in 1893.
In 1902 the Cherokee Indians got a bill passed which gave them the right to remove all Intermarried and Freedman Indians from the Delaware Indian Rolls. They were told if they did not agree with the decision, that they would have to go to the area Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Billings, Montana to protest the action.
It was 1907 that they went to Billings, Montana to protest. Grandpa & his son (Bruce) worked in the Heating Plant in Billings, Montana.
Bruce married Viola Emma Sherwood in 1917, and one son – Clifford Creech was born. They were divorced in 1919, and Bruce in 1920 then married Martha Elizabeth Johnson. They had three children, Clyde W. Creech (July 11, 1921), Lawrence E. Creech (Sept. 22, 1922), and Vera E. Creech-Cox (June 14, 1924).
Shortly after Vera’s birth the Creech’s moved to Ontario, Oregon. It was about 1925 that Bruce and Martha moved there also.
From there Leander & Bruce (and Families) moved to Payette, Idaho. Next they moved to New Plymouth, Idaho and bought a farm. He raised grain and watermelons, some stock, and cut firewood, too. Many of the family lived there, and made their home there. That area was called ‘The Islands’, and people for miles around came to buy wood.
(More than one individual referred to the Indians who lived there, and some still remember about it today.) Bruce trapped in the winter, and had a summer fruit route and sold fruit all over the state of Idaho. (Many times Clyde accompanied his dad on the route.)
Clyde went on his own in September of 1935, going all over the United States. Clyde married Dorothy E. Curtis on August 1, 1942 at Modesto, Calif. It was in 1943 that he entered the Marines, and served his country for 2 1/2 years. During that time he was 4 invasions, and wounded in the right shoulder, while on Iwo Jima.
There are six surviving children of this marriage. Shirley ? Creech (Musgrove), Marlene R. Creech (Menges), Beverly D. Creech (Jenkins), Rosmarie S. Creech (Kingston), Clyde W. Creech Jr., and Carl B. Creech.
It was in 1946 that Clyde learned the Masonry trade. He worked in the trade for about 28 years, and it was shortly after Beverly was born that they moved back to Idaho, and then on to Montana. Over the next period of years, they lived in Wyoming, Idaho, California, and Idaho again.
It was 1969 that research was started to prove Otelia Fent – Creech’s statement that we were in fact Indian. From 1969 to 1976 researching was done to prove their Indian Heritage. We filed to share in the Delaware Judgement Funds which was going to be released to the Cherokee-Delawares in Oklahoma. We were told at this time that we did not qualify to receive funds, and advised by our attorney to form a Corporation. It was in January of 1978 that the ‘Delawares of Idaho’ was incorporated. It was after much correspondence with officials in Washington, D.C.; Muskogee, Oklahoma; and with the Cherokee-Delawares in Bartlesville, Oklahoma that 2 delegations went to Washington, D.C. They testified before a Senate Select Committee, and before the B.I.A.
They got a bill passed, which gave them the right to share in the Delaware Judgement Funds. This was passed and signed into law on August 1, 1980, by President Jimmy Carter.
Interview with Charlotte Simmons