Archived News Item

Applications are available for the George Clifford Newbold Scholarship Fund dedicated to the memory of Cliff Newbold, an outdoorsman, raconteur, naturalist and gentleman who treasured his native background.  The fund is set up to award an annual scholarship of $2000 a year for four years to qualified students of Native American heritage who evidence a desire to further their education in the fields of business or education and use this education for the benefit of their native community. It will be a renewable grant based on demonstrated achievement in your studies and the ongoing recommendation and evaluation of your professors. Preference will be given to those students of Lenni Lenape heritage and to those who are current New Jersey residents, however these factors are not a restriction to application. All will be considered, however the foundation believes students whose tribal heritage includes communities operating gambling facilities should turn to those organizations for assistance.

For more information, go to their web site at http://newboldscholarship.org/.

New members of the Trust Board were sworn in at the last Tribal Council meeting.

Results of the Trust Board election were as follows:

Chairman:
   Wayne Stull

New Members:
   Verna Crawford
   DeAnn Ketchum
   John Sumpter

Adopt the Budget?:
   Yes

Tribal Judgment Funds Question?:
   Yes

Official results of the November 5, 2011 Trust Board election (PDF)

Official results of the November 5, 2011 Trust Board election.

BOLD = Elected/passed.

Certified copy (PDF)

Photos from Delaware Days 2011, held on September 23-24 at the Fall-Leaf Powwow Grounds northeast of Copan, OK. All photographs by Jim Rementer.

Members of the Cultural Preservation Committee greet friends and visitors.	Go-Get-‘Em Dance.
Councilwoman Janifer Brown makes grape dumplings.	Chief Paula Pechonick, elder honoree.
Kenny Brown, veteran honoree.	Chief Greg Peters from Moraviantown.
Former Chief Curtis Zunigha displays the wampum belt from the Grand Council before passing it on to the Munsee-Delaware First Nation.	Preparations for passing of the wampum belt.
Mark Peters from Munsee-Delaware First Nation, Ontario.

The Lifeline and Link Up programs help to provide telephone service to low-income consumers living on Tribal lands for as little as $1 a month. Lifeline and Link Up, run by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), help eligible low-income consumers establish and maintain telephone service by discounting services provided to them by wireline and wireless providers. These programs are part of the Federal Universal Service Fund, or USF.

For more information, go to http://www.fcc.gov/guides/lifeline-and-link-affordable-telephone-service-income-eligible-consumers

Letter with Additional Information

Haney Designs Statue, Chickasaw Nation Donates Garden

OKLAHOMA CITY —A dedication ceremony for the Chickasaw Garden was held at Oklahoma City University Sept. 6.

The garden was built over the course of the summer to provide an appropriate setting for a statue that was donated to the university by Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby. The statue, titled “Chickasaw Warrior,” was designed by prominent Native American artist Senator Enoch Kelly Haney, an OCU alumnus who also designed the statue that tops the Oklahoma Capitol building.

OCU President Robert Henry said careful planning went into the garden in the center of campus that will encircle the statue.

“This will be a place where students and campus visitors can relax, study or just think in peace while surrounded by beauty,” Henry said. “Every little detail from the color of the walkway to the layout of the garden was carefully considered in order to create a space that is fitting for this great work of art.”

The statue was installed on a pedestal to raise it slightly above ground level. A walkway and other features are intended to mimic the American Indian medicine wheel with an unbroken circular form.

The four quadrants within the circle represent the four cardinal directions, the four seasons of the year and the four seasons of life — birth, adolescence, adulthood and death.

The design uses regional materials like pink granite and sandstone along with native plants to reflect the colors and textures of Oklahoma.

The dedication ceremony included a Cedar blessing by Steve Littleman of the Kiowa tribe, a prayer by Chickasaw elder Lee Frazier and a flute performance by musician Me-Way-Seh Greenwood of the Chickasaw, Ponca and Otoe tribes.

Steve Littleman performs the cedar blessing during the dedication of the Chickasaw Garden at Oklahoma City University on Sept. 6. Looking on are OCU President Robert Henry, OCU alumnus and Native American artist Senator Enoch Kelly Haney and Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby. Haney designed the Chickasaw Warrior statue donated to OCU by Anoatubby.	Rev. David Wilson, superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of the United Methodist Church; landscape architect Brent Wall, designer of the Chickasaw Garden; Native American artist Senator Enoch Kelly Haney; Bud Sahmaunt, former OCU athletic director and professor and prominent member of the Kiowa tribe; Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby and President Robert Henry look at the Chickasaw Warrior statue designed by Haney and donated to OCU by Anoatubby.
The designer of Oklahoma City University’s Chickasaw Garden, Brent Wall, plants grass during the dedication ceremony for the new garden and Chickasaw Warrior statue at OCU on Sept. 6. Rev. David Wilson, Native American artist Senator Enoch Kelly Haney, Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby and former OCU athletic director and professor Bud Sahmaunt look on during the dedication ceremony for the statue designed by Haney and donated by Anoatubby.

The VISIONS program is a nation-wide program dedicated to assisting Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian families who have children (0-26) with special needs. VISIONS may provide many things–available resources to help families become better advocates so their children receive the services they need to get the best education they can, a sounding board for families struggling with the trials of having a child with special needs, sample letters to use for conflicts with school teachers, principals and administrators, training on your rights and what the law requires children be provided as far as their education, training for professionals on how to provide services in a culturally-relevant and sensitive manner, and much more.

Brochure (pdf)

In September 2011, the Delaware Tribe of Indians was awarded an ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) grant for 2010-14 Child and Family Service Plan IV-B. In the grant application, prepared by Shirley Moore, it was stated that the grant had the following purposes:

1. To provide our tribal members and children with awareness and information to build a safe family environment;
2. To reduce family stress and improve family functioning to prevent family breakup; and
3. To develop and promote effective prevention strategies to address social problems that increase child abuse such as substance use, family violence and economic issues.

The objective of the grant is to strengthen connections among families and promote healthy well being without substance use; to prevent child abuse and neglect by training programs that address the risk factors that can lead to child abuse/neglect and foster placement; and to enhance the continuum of services for parents and children by linking families to service opportunities.

ICWA gives tribal governments a strong voice concerning child custody proceedings which involve Indian children, by allocating tribes exclusive jurisdiction when the child resides on, or is domiciled on, the reservation, or when the child is a ward of the tribe; and concurrent, but presumptive, jurisdiction over non-reservation Native Americans’ foster-care placement proceedings.

The Delaware Tribe of Indians submitted an Indian Community Development Block Grant through HUD for infrastructure that includes the enlargement of the retention pond, the expansion of the Elder Nutrition kitchen and the construction of parking lots and roads on June 15, 2011. Sherry Rackliff and Jade Johnson are going to oversee the administration of the project.

The City of Bartlesville held a City Zoning and Planning Meeting during the month of April. During this meeting, it was determined that the Delawar Tribe of Indians were not able to build any more structures on the property until the current retention pond is expanded.

The committee also mandated that the main road going into the Lenape Addition be expanded per the original platting to allow through access of emergency vehicles because of the increased number of residents and clients that will be using the property.

The parking lots and roads will be necessary for clients to be able to access the community services offered by the Delaware Tribe of Indians. These services include assistance with utilities, prescription medications, eyeglasses, dental assistance, scholarships, school supplies and other educational needs for students and access to the Elder independent Living Community.

The project was awarded to the Delaware Tribe of Indians on September 6, 2011. The amount of the award was $800,000.

Former Chief Curtis Zunigha offered an opening prayer at the “Ribbons of Hope” ceremony in Battery Park in New York City to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. The event was organized by Prepare New York, a coalition of New York based interfaith organizations that promotes healing and reconciliation in anticipation of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. The event, which featured 50,000 hand-written ribbons from people of all ages and backgrounds, took place along the Gardens of Remembrance in Battery Park, which is a short walk from Ground Zero.

According to an article in Newsday, “The panel of ribbons will travel throughout the city and will allow people to interact with each other and express their feelings,’ said Robert Chase, founding director of Intersections, which helped organize ‘Ribbons of Hope.’ Curtis Zunigha, 58, of Oklahoma, a member of the Delaware tribe of Native Americans, offered an opening prayer. ‘We turn to the Creator and ask from our own hearts and minds and pray that we may honor those who died and those who are working to make life better,’ said Zunigha, wearing traditional cultural clothing of his Lenape group. He said Americans will never forget 9/11 and reminded those at the ceremony that ‘our greatest vulnerability is ignorance.'”

For more information, please see http://www.newsday.com/911-anniversary/ribbonscalled-symbolic-and-emotional-1.3164545.