|PIC1|One of the oldest Protestant churches in the US has apologised to the Lenape tribe for their suffering at the hands of Dutch settlers 400 years ago.

The Collegiate Church was the first Protestant church to be established in New York, built in the Dutch settlement of ‘New Amsterdam’ in southern Manhattan in 1628.

Relations were initially good between the settlers and the tribe as the American fur trade took off but later conflicts broke out with the Europeans and the Lenape were gradually pushed off their lands, mainly to Oklahoma.

The formal apology was made by Rev Robert Chase at a reconciliation ceremony in which a young girl from the Collegiate Church and a Lenape boy exchanged beaded necklaces.

“We consumed your resources, dehumanised your people, and disregarded your culture, along with your dreams, hopes and great love for this land … We the Collegiate Church recognise our part in your suffering,” said Rev Chase.

Lenape Indians, many of them now living on reservations, travelled from across the US to watch the ceremony in front of the Museum of the American Indian in lower Manhattan.

Ronald Holloway, the chairman of the Sand Hill band of Lenapes, and Rev Chase embraced during the ceremony.

"After 400 years, when someone says 'I'm sorry,' you say, 'Really?'” Holloway said before the ritual, according to the Associated Press. "There was some kind of uneasiness. But then you've got to accept someone's sincere apology; they said, 'We did it.' We ran you off, we killed you.' "