By Jaimie Julia Winters
The deed describing the land that includes present-day Kearny, N.J., is among the oldest surviving New Jersey land-purchase deeds from Native Americans that still exists in its original form. It reflects one of many land transactions that occurred during the early period of European colonization in North America. The deed is preserved in the collections of the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark.
While there is no direct evidence that a specific Native American tribe permanently inhabited what is now Kearny, the area lay within the territory of the Lenni-Lenape, also known as the Delaware Indians. Their lands extended across much of northern New Jersey, including areas along the Hackensack and Hudson rivers, encompassing modern-day Kearny. The Lenni-Lenape lived in small, semi-nomadic communities, relying on hunting, fishing, agriculture, and seasonal movement throughout their territory.
The Lenni-Lenapes would not have been able to read the document
The 1677 deed is written in English, even though the Lenni-Lenape involved in the transaction could not read or write English and likely did not speak it fluently. Instead of signatures, they marked an “X” beside their printed names—a common practice at the time, often facilitated through interpreters. The Lenni-Lenape spoke the Munsee dialect of the Algonquian language family. The deed records the sale of land “about Woodbridge and Piscataway” to Philip Carteret, the first colonial governor of New Jersey, in exchange for items such as rum, blankets, axes, coats, and wampum. It also defines the natural boundaries of the land being transferred, according to the educational curriculum developed by The Newark Museum and the New Jersey Historical Society.
However, the Kearny township website presents a related but distinct account. It states that Kearny’s 9.3 square miles were part of a 30,000-acre Crown Grant issued on July 4, 1668, to Major William Sandford of Barbados. Sandford named the Kearny area “New Barbadoes Neck” after his former home and reportedly paid Chief Tantaqua 20 English pounds sterling to secure remaining Native American land rights. According to the website, these transactions position Sandford as Kearny’s first citizen and founder.
“Everything from that period has been passed down by word of mouth. We do have a document – the deed, and I would go with that,” said Barbar Toczka, former president of the Kearny Historical Committee and Museum.
New Barbadoes Neck was also a huge area, ranging from Newark Bay to Boiling Springs in East Rutherford, Toczka said.
What the deed means
These documents highlight a fundamental difference between European and Native American views of land ownership. European settlers conceived land as property that could be owned, controlled, and used to generate income. In contrast, Lenni-Lenape culture viewed land as sacred and communal, with nature’s resources meant to be shared. Because many Native American communities—including the Lenni-Lenape—migrated seasonally, the concept of permanent, exclusive land ownership held little meaning. As a result, Native Americans and Europeans often did not interpret deeds and land agreements in the same way, a misunderstanding that would later fuel conflicts for centuries.
The Lenni-Lenape were the Indigenous people of much of present-day New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and parts of New York and Delaware before European settlement. By the time Kearny was officially established as a township in 1867, the Lenni-Lenape had largely been displaced due to colonization, land sales, and treaties such as the Treaty of Easton (1758), which pushed many westward.
Over time, land purchases throughout the colonies led to the forced removal of Native peoples from their ancestral lands, eventually confining many tribes to reservations and English-language schools in efforts to assimilate them into European-based society. Today, the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Ramapough Lenape, and Powhatan Renape are state-recognized tribes in New Jersey, though their present-day communities are not located in Kearny.
