2015

First sung in Lucy Parks Blalock’s Lenape Language Class in 1993. This was Lucy’s translation working with Jim Rementer. It is found in the Lenape Talking Dictionary http://talk-lenape.org/.

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» http://talk-lenape.org/story.php?story=54

Annual Delaware calendar produced by Jim Rementer.

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by CeCe Biggoose

A trip to the Delaware Water Gap National Park came to life in July when five Delaware teens, ages 14 to 17, embarked on a 12-day journey of their lifetimes. The trip made possible by the tribal leaders of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, including the help of Greg Brown and Brice Obermeyer, Delaware Nation of Anadarko, Stockbridge Munsee of Wisconsin, the National Park Service, Cultural Preservation committees, archeologists, professors, many elders, leaders, volunteers and so many people behind the scenes who envisioned, discussed, planned, set aside funds, wrote grants for this special event. The vision of this event spanned a decade or more.

This Summer Youth camp made it possible for our future generation of tribal leaders to see through their eyes, learn through their hearts and minds, experience hiking through their original homelands. An experience the youth never envisioned possible, none of the youth groups had ever flew on a plane or traveled so far from home!

The trip attendees from our tribe included Cece Biggoose as the chaperone. Youth ambassadors were Tiana Long, Shu-Day Johnson-Biggoose, Hopie Thicknail, Kamren Pisachubbe, and Michaela Provence. They were joined by the Delaware Nation and the Stockbridge Munsee youth groups at the Pocono Environmental Education Center, where the groups were provided yurts to stay in and daily meals and snacks. PEEC and their staff provided the youth with educational environmental hikes throughout the trails surrounding their youth camp facilities. It was a very busy place! Check out the Facebook pages and websites for both the PEEC and Delaware Water Gap National Park (www.peec.org and www.nps.gov/dewa/).

Linda Poolaw, an elder of Delaware Nation, flew up for the first day to pray and smudge all with our sacred cedar. She explained the importance of this trip to everyone who participated. She provided us with spiritual guidance. She was one of many elders, including our own leaders, who envisioned this event. She explained to us why we were there. She took us to the reburial site and we prayed.

National Park Service (NPS) employees were our personal guides throughout entire the visit. We were treated like royalty and given the red carpet treatment. More than once we were told, “You are the very reason we love the jobs we do to preserve and protect your history.” The NPS employees were so enthused to share their experiences with us and learned from our youth as well. The youth groups said it made them very proud to hear how much our visit meant to the NPS. Our youth presented the Superintendant of NPS at Delaware Water Gap a gift, our Tribal Flag.

A castle called Grey Towers was an impressive visit due to the origins and history of National Parks. We were the honored guests at an ice cream social, set up like an extravagant affair, specially prepared for the youth on the first day touring the area in a chartered bus!

The groups camped on the river, canoed 18 miles over a two-day journey down the beautiful Delaware River, stopping along the way at various important sites where our ancestors lived many, many years before anyone else inhabited the area, rich in natural beauty, plentiful in food and water. Understanding, sadly, that was the very reason we were killed, forcibly removed or fled our homelands.

So many learning experiences made possible, including a field trip to an important archeological dig site conducted by Temple University students and archeologists. The youth received hands on experience. The teens actually found arrowheads, tools, points, and items! They were so focused, to see them was amazing. All finds were logged and placed in bags with other archeological finds, tools our ancestors made by hand hundreds and hundreds of years before any other people invaded our original homelands. They learned the basics of pottery making and shown pottery our ancestors made. They will ship the pottery the teens made back soon.

The groups swam and fished thanks to the NPS guides. They visited the Historic Preservation archives and viewed items donated, found, protected in climate controlled buildings, not available to the public for viewing. A night hike to a beautiful waterfall and viewed stars through telescopes was fun. They hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail to an overlook. They met with biologists researching turtles affected by disturbed natural habitat due to the huge power lines overhead.

NPS set up a Career Day to show all the different roles they have in protecting our natural resources and the wildlife and the many people who visit the area. They encouraged our youth to check out opportunities such as internships for youth in the park. They want Delaware youth to return and work in their original homelands for the National Park Service.

In return, the youth took pictures of all their experiences with GoPro cameras provided to each groups by NPS. The youth collaborated together and made a short picture presentation of their own for the NPS. Tiana Long brought her Delaware clothes to wear during the presentation. The trip ended with a smudging and prayer ceremony conducted by Cece Biggoose, Shuday and WeeKah, who built the fire, burned cedar and fanned all who attended before our journey home. Many good words, handshakes, hugs, feelings expressed, a special prayer by Larry Hilaire, tears flowed from youth and adults alike. That is how awesome this trip was. Lifetime friends were made and history was made once again. We brought back gifts of heirloom Indian corn, tobacco seeds, beans and earth from our homelands.The youth presented items at Tribal Council and shook hands with their Delaware leaders thanking them for this wonderful experience.

A planning committee is working together with the chaperones to plan and prepare for next summer’s Youth Camp. I hope this event is the first of many for our future, our Delaware youth.

Wanishi!!
CeCe Biggose
cbiggoose@delawaretribe.org

Great group of Delaware youth headed out to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area with their fearless Leader, Cece Runnels. (l-r) Cece, Hopie Thicknail, Kamren Pisachubbe, Kayla Provence, ShuDay Johnson Biggoose, Tiana Long.

Cayla Magee

Note: this story was written by Delaware tribal member Cayla Magee, age 9, who was part of a tribal delegation attending “Maawehlahtiit” (Gathering of Our Relatives) on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in Wisconsin. The delegation was led by Chief Chet Brooks and included elected leaders, elders, veterans, and youth.

On Tuesday 7/21/15, my grandad Curtis Zunigha, Paula Pechonick, Anna Pechonick, my mom Erica Magee, and I left the tribal center at 9:30 am in a tribal van. We drove to Albert Lea, MN. Along the way, we beaded on some earrings. We also learned some Lenape words. Lenape Ni means ‘I am Lenape’ and Lenape hach ki means ‘Are you Lenape.’ That was the first time I went through 5 states in one day. We stopped and ate a wonderful dinner. We were full, we went to our hotel, the Motel 6. It wasn’t that nice of a hotel but I still had an ok time.

On Wednesday 7/22/15, the group and I left our hotel in Albert Lea, MN around 9:45 am, after breakfast at Perkins. We crossed the Mississippi river into Wisconsin around 11:30. It was Anna and I’s first time at the Mississippi River. There were a lot of farms with big silos and barns along the way. Finally, we arrived at the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans reservation. We checked into the North Star Casino and Hotel around 1:00 pm. We unpacked and I immediately knew that it was going to be a great trip. After the group got changed, we all went to the powwow grounds and checked into the Gathering. We went to the hotel and it was hard to fall asleep because I was so excited for the next day!

On Thursday 7/23/15 we ate breakfast at the hotel buffet. The food was so yummy! We went to the powwow grounds and watched the color guards bring in all the flags. The Eastern communities talked about their history that morning. After lunch Anna, mom, Paula, and I set up a teaching tent. While Paula and mom displayed Lenape regalia and stomp dance cans, Anna and I went swimming in the West Branch Red River. We met one of the local girls, Lorretta, who showed us around the campgrounds. Around the arena was a road that lead to the swimming hole. Across the road was camping spots. There were over 200 people who came to the gathering. Each community sponsored a meal. That night we had Indian tacos. Our group led the evening program of social and stomp dances. My mom wore turtle shells and I wore the cans and shook a lot of the stomp dance songs. A few of my favorite social dances from that night were the Bean Dance, the Go Get ‘Em Dance and the Duck Dance.

On Friday 7/24/15 after breakfast, our group went to the grounds. The Stockbridge-Munsee and the Canadians spoke then we had lunch. We met several other kids from the reservation and even got to visit with some close friends that came from Green Bay for the Gathering. After lunch we helped work the booth. Anna and I rigged up 12 or more girls with cans during the stomp dance workshop. Mom and I got interviewed for a documentary. Anna and I helped serve supper. I tried to wear the turtle shells for the stomp dance that night, but they were too heavy, so I let my Auntie Martina wear them. At the end of the night Bruce Stonefish and his daughter showed us the stick dance. The drum was a deer hide with several long sticks around it. The men tapped it with special drum sticks and sang special songs. The songs got faster and faster. It was fun!

On Saturday, 7/25/15 our chief Chet Brooks talked about our history that morning. Anna and I slept in that day. My mom came back and got us and Paula before lunch. We stopped at the museum and learned about the medicine wheel, dugout canoes and a basket weaving. Each of us kids read about one of the displays. Next we went to the gift shop general store. It was owned by the tribe. We all played in the creek all day until supper.

Bonnie Jo, Kay, Martina, John, and a few other of our Oklahoma group cooked fry bread, corn soup, and grape dumplings for the big supper that night. Bella, my friend from Green Bay, and I helped serve supper.

We dressed for powwow in Delaware clothes. My grandad was proud of me. At the powwow Anna and I were recognized by the elder women. I was given a really cool pair of beaded earrings. My grandad was recognized too, by the committee.

On Sunday 7/26/15 after breakfast at the casino, again we went to the grounds for a healing ceremony. Each of us took cedar in each hand and put it into the fire. One was forgiveness of self and one was forgiveness of others. We all took a big group photo. It was sad to leave, but I was excited to see my daddy and brother again.

We drove to Albert Lea MN. and stayed at the same hotel and the same restaurant!

Sunday 7/27/15 we left the motel that morning and went to go eat breakfast around 8:00 am, we crossed state lines into Iowa around 10:00 am, we crossed state lines into Missouri 2:00, Kansas 5:00, Oklahoma 8:00 I was glad I was home.

Heading to the Gathering (Curtis, Erica, Cayla, and Anna)
Rez Casino.
Molly, Erica, Tammy, and Sheila; Curtis leads the Bean Dance.
Lacrosse game; social songs.
Dugout canoe.
Erica, Cayla, and Curtis; Lloyd and Molly Miller.
Gathering group photo; finally returning home!

A Delaware Tribe of Indians member has been selected as a part of the inaugural class of the George Kaiser Family Foundation’s Tulsa Artist Fellowship.

According to Stanton Doyle, senior program officer at George Kaiser Family Foundation, tribal member Nathan Young, son of Delaware Tribal Council member Nate Young and Carol Chapman Young, is one of 12 artists who will comprise the Tulsa Artist Fellowship’s inaugural class.

» View Story from Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise