Lenape time of sustained European contact in the 1600s and 1700s the Lenape were a powerful Native American nation who inhabited a region on the mid-Atlantic coast spanning the latitudes of southern Massachusetts to the southern extent of Delaware in what anthropologists call the Northeastern Woodlands. Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Delaware roughly encompassed the area around and between the Delaware and lower Hudson rivers, and included the western part of Long Island in present-day New York. Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and
New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion to make room for a larger South Ferry Terminal. This paved the way for the creation of Peter Minuit Plaza, a plaza named after the Dutch merchant, representative of the Dutch East India Company, who is known for brokering the deal between the Dutch and the Lenape Indians to share the island. When Henry Hudson first arrived on the island in 1609 it was named Manna-Hata by Native Americans and was soon established as a desirable location for the new Dutch settlement. The first Dutch settlers arrived in 1626 and renamed it New Amsterdam. The Pavilion is geographically located at