Delaware Nation at Moraviantown
Moravian 47 is an Indian reserve located in Chatham-Kent Ontario with an area of. It is occupied by the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown First Nation, a part of the Munsee branch of the Lenape, and is commonly known as Moravian of the Thames reserve. The resident registered population is 457, with another 587 band members living off the reserve.
A group of Munsee became converted to Christianity by Moravian missionaries in Pennsylvania. They moved to Gnadenhutten, Ohio, under pressure from European settlers in the east. Many were killed by American colonial militia in the Gnadenhutten massacre on March 8, 1782, during the American Revolutionary War. That day a group of surviving Christian Munsee left that area led by Moravian missionary David Zeisberger. They eventually reestablished their community in what is today southern Ontario. At first temporarily settling near present-day Amherstburg, Ontario, in 1792, Zeisberger obtained permission from the British colonial authorities for the community to inhabit a site on the Thames River, near where it is located today.
During the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, the Battle of the Thames took place near the community. The Shawnee leader Tecumseh, an ally of the United Kingdom, was killed by invading United States forces. Following the battle, before the US cavalry left the area, it burned the entire Munsee community to the ground. They rebuilt on the south side of the Thames in their present location. For information about other Munsee Lenape band governments, see Munsee-Delaware Nation and Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation.
