Description
The Acquackanonk were a Lenape group whose territory was on the Passaic River in northern New Jersey. It may mean a place in a rapid stream where fishing is done with a net. Alternatively, at the lamprey stream from contemporary axkwaakahnung (spellings include Achquakanonk, Acquackanonk) Lastly it may mean where gum blocks were made for pounding corn. Ackquekenon was spelling used by European explorer Jasper Danckaerts in 1679. Part of the territory which they inhabited came into the possession of the Surveyor General of New Netherland Jacques Cortelyou, some "12,000 morgens at Aquackanonk on the Passaic, purchased by himself and associates of the Indians."
Language
They spoke the same dialect (Unami) and shared the same totem (turtle) as the neighboring Hackensack, Tappan and Rumachenanck (later called the Haverstraw).
Culture
The tribe practiced companion planting, in which women cultivated many varieties of the Three Sisters: maize, beans, and squash. Men hunted, fished, and otherwise harvested seafood. In the 17th century, the Lenape practiced slash and burn agriculture. They used fire to manage land. Controlled use of fire extended farmlands' productivity. According to a settler, who observed them, they planted their primary crop, maize, in March. Eventually used European methods of hunting and farming with metal tools. The men limited their agricultural labor to clearing the field and breaking the soil. They primarily hunted and fished during the rest of the year, they mainly hunted deer, but from winter to the spring planting, they hunted anything from bears and beavers to raccoons and foxes.