Delaware

DELEWARE was one of the original Thirteen Colonies and is known as the "First State", officially referring to the fact that it was the first to ratify the United States Constitution. Even though the states were already known as such prior to the Constitution, the motto itself is still historically accurate, as Delaware was indeed the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, the first document legally naming the new American political entities as "states" (although the Declaration of Independence also refers to them as "States"). Commemorating Delaware's ratification, Constitution Park (one block from where Dover's Golden Fleece Tavern once stood) features a four-foot cube upon which is inscribed the entire document as it has evolved.

Other nicknames

"The Diamond State": Thomas Jefferson gave this nickname to Delaware, according to legend, because he described Delaware as a "jewel" among states due to its strategic location on the Eastern Seaboard.

"Blue Hen State": This nickname was given to Delaware after the fighting Blue Hen Cocks that were carried with the Delaware Revolutionary War Soldiers for entertainment during Cockfights.

"Small Wonder": This nickname was given to Delaware due to its size, the contributions it has made to the country as a whole, and due to the state's beauty.

Native Americans

Before Delaware was settled by Europeans, the area was home to the Eastern Algonquian tribes known as the Unami Lenape or Delaware throughout the Delaware valley, and the Nanticoke along the rivers leading into the Chesapeake Bay. The Unami Lenape in the Delaware valley were closely related to Munsee Lenape tribes along the Hudson River. They had a settled hunting and agricultural society, and they rapidly became middlemen in an increasingly frantic fur trade with their ancient enemy, the Minqua or Susquehannock. With the loss of their lands on the Delaware River and the destruction of the Minqua by the Iroquois of the Five Nations in the 1670s, the remnants of the Lenape left the region and moved over the Alleghany Mountains by the mid-18th century.