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Great Bear

Great Bear was an important chief in war and council in the Delaware tribe. These people occupied the entire basin of the Delaware River in Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New York, together with most of New Jersey or Delaware. About the year 1720 the Iroquois assumed dominion over the Delawares, forbidding them to make war or sell lands without their consent. As the whites, under the sanction of the Iroquois, crowded them out of their ancient homes, the Delawares moved farther and farther west, finally settling in and near what is now Wyoming about 1742. In this region, backed by the western tribes, they asserted their independence of the Iroquois, and also showed themselves the most determined opponents of the advancing whites. They finally incorporated with the Cherokee Nation.