Indigenous Space

Typesetting is the process of assembling individual letters into words, sentences, and paragraphs that form a body of text. For many of us who practice digital typesetting on our phones and computers, it is quite an experience to understand how type was set before the digital era. 

In letterpress printing, individual letters made of metal or wood are placed along a line of leading in a composing stick ¹. The formation of language becomes a physical, material process as you hold a small piece of metal that is the space between words between your fingers. In your composing stick, you see how much physical space a word made of metal letters occupies and feel how much it weighs.

The text of the first edition of the Declaration of Independence, printed over the night of July 4^th 1776, is composed of 1,320 words and more than 300 spaces. The size of spacing between words and letters is very inconsistent throughout this letterpress printed document. These irregularities suggest that the printer John Dunlap was rushing to finish the overnight print job and spread the news of this treasonous statement. On the Library of Congress’ copy of the Dunlap Broadside, seen below, you can see the uneven spaces around the A’s in “A DECLARATION” and in many other places throughout the body of text. 

Human Space

Beyond the physical spaces between words and letters, we can examine the Declaration of Independence for the uneven space that was afforded for people in the document. Of the 1,320 words in the Declaration, there is space offered for 2 large categories of humans: the masculine (“He”, “Mankind”, “Men”) and the words “merciless Indian Savages”. 

These are Thomas Jefferson’s words written in response King George III’s attempt to curtail violence between Indigenous tribes and newly arrived European immigrants ²³. The grievance reads: “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” 

This framing of Indigenous People, the original inhabitants of the space newly called “The United States of America” was decidedly outside the conception of “the People” ⁴. 

Lënapehòkink

For thousands of years prior to 1776, the land where these words were typeset and printed was occupied by the Lenape people. They called the land Lënapehòkink, (Lenapehoking, meaning “the land of the Lenape”), and this area stretched over what is now southern New York, parts of Western Connecticut, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania and Northeastern Delaware ⁵. The area around Philadelphia, specifically, was known as Cuwequenáku (Coaquannock), which means something close to “Grove of Tall Pines” ⁶.

In 2026, our knowledge of the first people to be stewards of this land, this space, is far from our day-to-day consideration. Lenape people have lived on this land for generations. They did not use written language or printing to record their culture and history, instead keeping tradition and memory alive through oral tradition, physical media such as beaded belts, and rich community ⁷. Because they did not view themselves to be the owners of the land they lived on, there were no titles or deeds. 

In 1681, an important document of ownership for this land was designed across the Atlantic Ocean when King Charles II (who never placed a foot on this continent) granted a royal charter of 28 million acres to William Penn. The charter was perhaps in payment for a debt Charles owed William Penn’s deceased father, Sir William Penn. The land was named Pennsylvania, meaning Penn’s woods, in honor of the late Admiral ⁸. William Penn laid out plans for the new city of “Philadelphia”, taking the name from an ancient city mentioned in the Bible as one of the seven churches of Asia. ⁹¹⁰

Before Penn

As historian Marian (Molly) Leech has written for Monument Lab: “...many non-Natives remain unaware of the depth of Native histories where they live, and the complexities of colonial erasures that have obscured these pasts as out of reach, seemingly situated someplace else. This is especially so in Pennsylvania, where, due to histories of relocation, there are no resident federally-recognized or state-recognized Indigenous nations. In the absence of Native presence, the meanings contained by place-names….are decontextualized, representing histories severed more than memories preserved.”¹¹ 

Leech further outlines spaces in Philadelphia where Lenape words remain in official Anglicized place names: 

“Manayunk (from mëneyung, “place to drink,” the Lenape name for the Schuylkill River)

Passyunk (from pahsayung, “in the valley”)

Pennypack (from pënëpèkw, “where the water flows downward”)

Tacony (from tèkhane, “cold river” or tèkene,“woods or forest”)

Some Lenape toponyms—such as Cohocksink (“pine grove”), Wingohocking (“choice land for planting or cultivating”), and Wissinoming (“where we were frightened, put to flight”) representing the names of now-buried creeks—have since been borrowed to designate nearby street signs, parks, and community centers.” ¹²

Almost two hundred and fifty years ago, when John Dunlap typeset Thomas Jefferson’s words about equality (“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”) in the late evening hours of July 4^th, he was working from his print shop at the intersection of 2^nd and Market Street just down the street from Independence Hall. 

We don’t know if he or the writers of the Declaration considered that the Delaware river, just a block away from the printshop, had relatively recently been known as Lenapewihittuck, “river of the Lenape” or Lënapei Sipu, “Lenape river” ¹³¹⁴. The name Lenape itself means “the people”¹⁵, so  Lenapewihittuck can be translated as “the river of the people”.

As we approach the 250^th anniversary of The Declaration of Independence, we invite you to consider who has space in your definition of “the people”, and to investigate and question the history and changing populations of the spaces you frequent. 

Here are a few suggested resources to explore:

Penn Museum’s new Native North America Gallery was developed in partnership with eight Indigenous consulting curators and explores self-determinations of Native peoples across the United States. The Penn Museum is open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-5:00 

Native Land is a project that maps Indigenous lands, treaties, and languages. The project is organized by Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led not-for-profit organization based in Canada. Browse their interactive maps or search by address and place to learn some histories of spaces you inhabit. 

See upcoming events presented by the Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Initiative at Penn – including the upcoming 15^th annual Powwow at Penn on April 11^th, sponsored by Natives@Penn

Endnotes: 

^{1. Joseph Moxon, Herbert Davis and Harry Carter, eds, Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (1683-4), 204.↩}

^{2. “Jefferson and Native Americans,” Thomas Jefferson Foundation, https://www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/american-indians#president-jefferson-and-native-american-nations.↩}

 ^{3. Colin G. Calloway, “The Indians’ War of Independence,” History Now 21 (2009): https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/indians-war-independence↩} 

^{4. John R. Wunder, “‘Merciless Indian Savages’ and the Declaration of Independence: Native Americans Translate the Ecunnaunuxulgee Document,” American Indian Law Review 25, no. 1 (2000): 65–92, https://doi.org/10.2307/20070651.↩} 

^{5. Curtis Zunigha, “Mapping Lenapehoking,” at 1:33.↩} 

^{6. Amy Cohen, “Coaquannock Map Shows Lenape Land Before William Penn.”↩} 

^{7. Andrew Newman, On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory, 9-14.↩}

 ^{8. Andrew R. Murphy, William Penn: A Life, 139-140.} 

^{9. Ron Avery, “Friend Penn Peddles His Plan,” in A Concise History of Philadelphia, 19.↩} 

^{10. Timothy Beal, “Introduction,” in The Book of Revelation: A Biography, 10.↩} 

^{11. Marian (Molly) Leech, “Place-Names as Monuments: The Entangled Histories of Coaquannock and Philadelphia,” Monument Lab, October 4, 2022, https://monumentlab.com/bulletin/place-names-as-monuments-the-entangled-histories-of-coaquannock-and-philadelphia↩} 

^{12. Marian (Molly) Leech, “Place-Names as Monuments”.↩} 

^{13. Jean R. Soderlund, “Introduction,” Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn, 1.↩} 

^{14. Lenape Language Preservation Project, “Delaware River,” Lenape Talking Dictionary, https://www.talk-lenape.org/detail?id=13166↩} 

^{15. Newman, On Records, 10.↩} 

^{Bibliography:} 

^{Avery, Ron. “Friend Penn Peddles His Plan.” A Concise History of Philadelphia. Otis Books 1999.} 

^{Beal, Timothy. “Introduction.” The Book of Revelation: A Biography. Princeton University Press, 2018.} 

^{Calloway, Colin G. “The Indians’ War of Independence.” History Now 21 (2009): https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/indians-war-independence.} 

^{Cohen, Amy. “Coaquannock Map Shows Lenape Land Before William Penn.” Hidden City Philadelphia, November 26, 2021. https://hiddencityphila.org/2021/11/coaquannock-map-shows-lenape-land-before-william-penn/}

^{Leech, Marian (Molly). “Place-Names as Monuments: The Entangled Histories of Coaquannock and Philadelphia.” Monument Lab Bulletin, Monument Lab, October 4, 2022. https://monumentlab.com/bulletin/place-names-as-monuments-the-entangled-histories-of-coaquannock-and-philadelphia.} 

^{Lenape Language Preservation Project. “Delaware River.” Lenape Talking Dictionary. https://www.talk-lenape.org/detail?id=13166} 

^{Moxon, Joseph, Herbert Davis and Harry Carter eds. Mechanick exercises on the whole art of printing (1683-4). Second edition. New York : Dover Publications, 1978. https://archive.org/details/mechanickexercis0000moxo_j6c3/page/n5/mode/2up} 

^{Murphy, Andrew R. William Penn: A Life. Oxford University Press, 2018.} 

^{Newman, Andrew. On Records: Delware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory. University of Nebraska Press, 2012.} 

^{Soderlund, Jean R. "Introduction" In Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn, 1-11. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2026. https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.9783/9781512829167-003}

^{Thomas Jefferson Foundation, “Jefferson and Native Americans.” https://www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/american-indians#president-jefferson-and-native-american-nations}

^{Wunder, John R. “‘Merciless Indian Savages’ and the Declaration of Independence: Native Americans Translate the Ecunnaunuxulgee Document.” American Indian Law Review 25, no. 1 (2000): 65–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/20070651.} 

^{Zunigha, Curtis. “Mapping Lenapehoking.” Dispossessions in the Americas Project. Video posted September 17, 2025. https://dia.upenn.edu/en/content/BruchacM002/}