seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Lenapes. As Schöenenberger argues, in Lenape villages, authority was “dispersed, genderless, and negotiable” and it depended on “the person’s ability, capacity or competence in certain areas that were crucial for the survival or recreation of the community.”20 Authority flowed from a person’s aptitude in creating spheres of influence without the threat of violence or coercion. It was based on one’s

“ability to produce or distribute resources, to initiate or maintain social groups, to have special knowledge in the field of medicine/herbs, or in the field of ritual/religion.”21

Lenapes valued two types of healers: nentpikes who provided herbal cures for wounds and diseases and medew (or meteinu) who were also adept at diagnosing and treating illnesses of spiritual origins. Female herbalists and midwives tended to be nentpikes.

However, these roles overlapped, and both demonstrated spiritual power.22 For Lenapes, healing authority flowed from specialized healthcare knowledge and skills that allowed female healing adepts to wield noncoercive medical and spiritual influence, which contributed to the wellness of their communities.

Iroquois groups shared this model of female healing authority. Between 1676 and

1753, the Lenapes were a client nation of the Iroquois League, which increased their mutual tensions but offered opportunities for health information transmissions.23 In

20 Regula Trenkwalder Schöenenberger, Lenape Women, Matriliny, and the Colonial Encounter: Resistance and Erosion of Power (c. 1600–1876) (Bern, Switzerland, Peter Lang, 1991), 93–4. 21 Schöenenberger, Lenape Women, 93–4. 22 Herbert C. Kraft and John T. Kraft, The Indians of Lenapehoking, 3rd ed. (South Orange, NJ: Seton Hall University Museum, 1988); Herbert C. Kraft, The Lenape: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography (Newark, NJ: New Jersey Historical Society, 1986), 178–82; Jane T. Merritt, “Cultural Encounters along a Gender Frontier: Mahican, Delaware, and German Women in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania History 67, no. 4 (2000): 508. 23 Gunlog Fur unpacks the relationship between Lenapes and the Iroquois League in A Nation of Women: Gender and Colonial Encounters Among the Delaware Indians (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

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