Brooklyn Historical Society collections on the Canarsee (Lenape) and early land deeds

The Brooklyn Historical Society's collections include 17th- and 18th-century maps, deeds, and colonial records documenting land transactions and interactions between Dutch settlers and the Canarsee band of the Lenape, the Indigenous people of what is now Brooklyn. These archival materials are primary sources for the history of place names (such as Canarsie) and early European–Indigenous relations in the Brooklyn area. Researchers use the society's holdings to study how colonial land sales and agreements affected local Lenape communities.