Indian Hannah

Hannah Freeman (March 1731 – March 20, 1802), also known as "Indian Hannah," was a Lenape healer, artisan, and farmer who historically was thought to be the last surviving member of the Lenape in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Biography Freeman was born in March 1731 in a log cabin on Lenape ancestral lands claimed by Quaker assemblyman William Webb on Brandywine Creek. Located in Newlin Township, the property would become part of Longwood Gardens. She grew up in a close-knit matrilineal extended family of grandmother, mother, and aunts. During her youth, as early as the 1730s, her father moved to Shamokin and never returned, reportedly to escape the swelling colonial population in the Brandywine Valley. Tragedy set in and she slowly lost her support network of Lenape women when her grandmother Jane died in 1775, her aunt Betty in 1780, her mother Sarah in 1785, and her aunt Nanny soon after. As of 2021, Pennsylvania remains one of the few U.S. states with no Indian reservations and no tribes that have gained federal or state recognition.

No photographs or drawings of Freeman exist.

Freeman preserved a bean traditionally grown by her Lenape people as part of the Three Sisters companion planting technique. The bean was named "Indian Hannah" in her honor. It is grown by Truelove Seeds Farm in Glenn Mills as of 2022.

Two baskets reportedly made by Freeman are held in the collections of the Chester County History Center.