Walking Purchase
The Walking Purchase (or Walking Treaty) was a 1737 agreement between the Penn family, the proprietors of Pennsylvania, and the Lenape (also known as the Delaware Indians). By it the Penn family and proprietors claimed an area of 1,200,000 acres (4,860 km²) and forced the Lenape to vacate it. The Lenape appeal to the Iroquois for aid on the issue was refused.
In Delaware Nation v. Pennsylvania (2004), the Delaware nation (one of three federally recognized Lenape tribes) claimed 314 acres (1.27 km2) of land included in the original purchase, but the US District Court granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss. It ruled that the case was nonjusticiable, although it acknowledged that Indian title appeared to have been extinguished by fraud. This ruling held through the United States courts of appeals. The US Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
William Penn enjoyed a reputation for fair-dealing with the Lenape. However, his heirs, John Penn and Thomas Penn, abandoned many of the elder Penn's practices. In 1736, they claimed a deed from 1686 by which the Lenape promised to sell a tract beginning at the junction of the Delaware River and Lehigh River (modern Easton, Pennsylvania) and extending as far west as a man could walk in a day and a half. This document may have been an unsigned, unratified treaty, or even an outright forgery (Encyclopædia Britannica refers to it as a "land swindle"). The Penns' agents began selling land in the Lehigh Valley to colonists while the Lenape still inhabited the area.
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