Editing Shamong Township, New Jersey (section)

==History==
This area, along with much of present-day southern New Jersey, was inhabited by [[Lenape]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] at the time of European encounter. They spoke ''[[Unami language|Unami]],'' one of the three major dialects of the Lenape language, which belonged to the [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian language]] family. The Lenape territory ranged from the New York metropolitan area and western Long Island, extending into New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania along the Delaware River, and Delaware.

By the mid-18th century, English colonists had displaced the local Lenape of southern New Jersey onto what was previously known as the Brotherton Indian Reservation. This reservation was in the area of present-day [[Indian Mills, New Jersey|Indian Mills]], which was named after mills built and operated by the Brotherton people, who were converted Christian Indians. Some of them were relocated in 1765 from [[Cranbury, New Jersey]].<ref>[http://brotherton-weekping.tripod.com/id29.html "Tennent's Account of Move from Cranbury (Bethel) to Brotherton"], ''Brotherton & Weekping Indian Communities of NJ''. Accessed July 18, 2012.</ref> With sustained pressure following the [[American Revolutionary War]], the Brotherton Indians of New Jersey migrated to New York. They accepted an offer by the [[Stockbridge–Munsee Community]], also Christian converts, to settle on their reservation in the central part of the state, where they had been allocated land by the [[Oneida people]], one of the Iroquois nations.<ref>[http://brotherton-weekping.tripod.com/id22.html "Removal to New York, 1793 - 1803"], ''Brotherton & Weekping Indian Communities of NJ''. Accessed July 18, 2012.</ref> Some of the [[Munsee language|Munsee]]-speaking Lenape from the northern part of their territory also migrated there. These remaining communities were attempting to reorganize after years of disease and conflict with colonists and major powers. The Brotherton Indians sold their last property in New Jersey in 1818 and had essentially been absorbed by the Munsee.<ref>[http://brotherton-weekping.tripod.com/id21.html "Petition of the Indians, 1817"], ''Brotherton & Weekping Indian Communities of NJ''. Accessed July 18, 2012.</ref>

Following the Revolutionary War, settlers from New England flooded into New York, encroaching on Indian territory. Ultimately, the Stockbridge and Munsee were relocated to Wisconsin in the 1820s and 1830s, forced out along with the Oneida by the United States [[Indian Removal]] policy, which sought to relocate Native Americans to the west of the Mississippi River. Today, the [[Stockbridge–Munsee Community]] is a federally recognized tribe, with a {{convert|22000|acre|adj=on}} reservation in [[Shawano County, Wisconsin]].

In 1992, a non-binding referendum gave voters the opportunity to consider renaming the township to Indian Mills, the name of an unincorporated community within the township.<ref>Harbach, Louise. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150919171421/http://articles.philly.com/1992-10-21/news/25997817_1_ballot-settlers-indian-village "On The Ballot, Shamong Will Find That Its Very Name Is On The Line"], ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'', October 21, 1992. Accessed October 2, 2015. "Shamong is a Leni-Lenape name meaning 'place of the horn,' for the abundance of deer there. Now, 140 years later, some present-day settlers say Shamong just doesn't have the snap to it that Indian Mills does, and they say that's what folks call Shamong anyway.... A nonbinding ballot question Nov. 3 might settle the argument, which residents of the Burlington County community say has been going on since 1852."</ref>