Repatriations and Culture Camp Planned for 2015

By Brice Obermeyer, Delaware Tribe Historic Preservation Office

As 2014 draws to a close our office is pleased to share with you our progress on several important projects and upcoming events for the new year. Although the year has seen many significant achievements and day-to-day consultation, we are particularly pleased to announce the completion of our cultural affiliation studies which will pave the way for our upcoming repatriation and reburials for two very large cemeteries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Over the past several years we have focused our efforts on the larger collections that are housed in the State Museum of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The single largest collection of Delaware human remains were excavated from a large Delaware occupation site known as the Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark. It is located in the lower Delaware Valley near where Trenton, NJ is today. Over 100 individuals have been excavated and removed from the site over the past 100 years. The second very large collection comes from a historic Delaware cemetery associated with the historic Delaware village of Kuskuskies in western Pennsylvania. The cemetery is known archaeologically as the Chambers Site and at least 80 individual graves were identified during the excavation of this site in the 1960s.

18th-century map showing the Kuskuskies village.

Our first step was to identify all of the museums that hold a portion of these collections and those are listed in the paragraph above. The second is to document that these individuals were Delaware. Documenting the so-called cultural affiliation of the collection is a necessary step before the tribe can repatriate the collection under NAGPRA. We are pleased to announce that we completed the cultural affiliation of the Chambers site in January and we completed the Abbott Farm cultural affiliation report in November. Our next step is to submit these reports to the museums and potentially affiliated tribes so we can move on to the next step of repatriating these very large and significant collections.

Our next step in the coming year then is to move forward with the repatriation of the Chambers and Abbott Farm collections. We have identified the sites at which these collections will be reburied as both are very near the places where the graves were originally located and offer secure locations for the reburied remains to be placed. We have identified the Schoenbrunn Historic Village in Ohio as the place where we will rebury the Chambers collection and Pennsbury Manor near Philadelphia, PA will be the place for the reburial of the Abbott Farm burials.

Schoenbrunn.

Schoenbrunn is a reconstruction of the Moravian Mission village that was originally established for the Delaware while they lived in the Ohio country. There is a cemetery there on the site that houses Delaware graves that would have been contemporary with the Chambers site graves. We plan to expand this cemetery to include the graves of the Chambers collection. We anticipate this reburial to take place in the summer of 2015 and we are currently applying for funding to assist with the repatriation.

Pennsbury Manor.

Pennsbury Manor is the reconstructed home of William Penn, the Quaker founder of the Pennsylvania colony and original negotiator for Delaware lands in the lower Delaware valley. This property also holds a small cemetery that is reported to have a Delaware buried there as well. Similar to the Schoenbrunn plan, we anticipate expanding this cemetery to include the individuals from Abbott Farm as well. With the Chamber repatriation in 2015, we anticipate the Abbott Farm repatriation to take place the following year.

Along with the planned repatriations, we are equally excited to announce that plans are in place to establish a cultural preservation camp that will be held next summer at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in northeastern Pennsylvania. This camp will be open to a limited number of high school aged members of the Delaware Tribe, Delaware Nation, and Stockbridge-Munsee, and will provide an educational experience in which students will learn more about Delaware culture and history while living in the Delaware homeland. The camp will be jointly run and led by representatives from the three Delaware tribes, Park staff and local professionals. The camp will be supported by NPS funds that are available for such activities but space will be limited based on how much funding is made available. Please contact Brice Obermeyer at bobermeyer@delawaretribe.org if you are interested in having your high school-aged child participate in the upcoming culture camp.