News Item

Notice: The Delaware Indian calendar for 2024 is now available on the tribal website https://delawaretribe.org/ or at this address:
https://delawaretribe.org/blog/2023/12/01/download-a-2024-lenape-calendar/
You can download your copy and print all the pages at once or print one month at a time as needed. For a wall calendar we suggest using 8.5 x 14 inch (legal size) paper.

Revived: The Lenape Word-a-Day calendar is a monthly calendar of Lenape names for different things. The downloadable calendar is also posted on the Tribal website https://delawaretribe.org/ and it will continue to be posted at the beginning of each month. There are sound files for each of these words which are in the Lenape Talking Dictionary: https://www.talk-lenape.org/.

What’s New – Going to the Moon

In the TV news recently they said that in the year 2024 America will once again send people to or around the moon. It might be of interest to readers of the Delaware Indian News to know that according to tribal legend there were two Lenape men who went to the moon many centuries ago. In the Lenape language the Sun and Moon have the same name, Kishux, and they are considered as Elder Brothers. There are also some special names for the Moon if you need to let people know you are talking about him exclusively. The two men had a purpose for going there and what follows is the basic story telling the reason. There are several variants of this story that had them going to the sun, or first to the sun who sent them to the moon. 

Tùkwsi Kishux òk Kitahikàn

Full Moon and Ocean

Here is a brief version of the story:

There was a monster that lived in a lake and he was killing Lenape children. Two young men said that they knew a way to kill the monster and they would have to go to the sun to get some of his ashes to put in the lake. (A version of this story can be heard in the Lenape Taking Dictionary at this address: https://www.talk-lenape.org/stories?id=41.

The two men found some sunbeams and they climbed on them to get to the sun. In one version of the story they got ashes from him and in another version the sun told them to go to the moon because his ashes would cause the Earth to burn up.

So they went to the moon and got some ashes and returned to Earth and threw them in the Lake and the water began to boil and the monster was killed. But before he died he told them, “You have killed me for nothing because there are many of my children in other large bodies of water.”

(In the tale told by Willie Longbone in 1939 a young woman gave birth to a male child that was half fish and she threw it into a lake. It grew large and began to kill children so two young men went to the sun for fire but the sun refused them saying the heat would burn the whole Earth. He told them to go to the ‘night sun’ (the moon) who gave them some ashes. They threw the ashes into the lake where the monster lived and the lake boiled and the monster was killed.)

Lenape names for the Sun and Moon and their phases:

The Sun

Kishux: Sun; Moon; Month
wipèkw / wipëko: Sunbeam / Sunbeams
Wsike: Sunset; The Sun is setting
Winkpèkw: The Sun is drawing water (What the sunbeams do)
Kwtai Kishux: Eclipse (Sun or Moon)

The Moon

Kishux: Sun; Moon; month
Piskewëni kishux: Moon
Nipahàm: Moon (an older word)
Nipaii kishux: Moon (an older word)
Mësëtchèsu kishux: Full Moon
Tùkwsi kishux: Full Moon
Wëski kishux: New Moon
Òxehëmu: Moonlight

Jacob Parks, Delaware Artist, about 1930

From the January 2024 issue of the Delaware Indian News. For more from this issue, as well as a full archive of past issues, click here.

The 59th Annual Delaware Pow Wow will be held at Fall Leaf Family Memorial Pow Wow Grounds May 24-26, 2024. Please see the flyer below for details.

The Veterans Committee is calling all veterans to come and register for the new Lenape Warriors Medal of Freedom. The Medal will be presented at the monthly Tribal Council meetings. Those that want to receive the honor before the Tribal Council can attend the appointed Tribal Council meeting to receive it. Those that cannot or that want to wait for the Pow Wow or General Council meeting, please indicate your choice on the application. Please download the application and complete the application below and send it to the Veterans Service Center at the address below, or email it to Steve Donnell at 1lenapeila@gmail.com.

Delaware Tribe of Indians
Attn: Veterans Service Center
5100 Tuxedo Blvd
Bartlesville, Ok 74006

>>>Application

The Lenape Veterans Committee has opened a new Veterans Service Center in the Lenape Wellness Center. The center will be run by tribal member Steven Donnell (Navy Veteran and American Legion Service Officer). We will perform VA claim filing through the American Legion. We will provide services for all veterans, tribal and non-tribal alike. We will have emergency services for veterans and families of veterans in distress. The center is connected to several programs and groups within the state of Oklahoma, ranging from financial and housing to women’s and men’s counseling and sobriety, along with intimate partner violence services.

Organizations we are connected with include: OKDVA-Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, Tulsa Vets Center for counseling, OK developmental disabilities council, OK DHS, Delaware prevention support services (sobriety service).

The center will be open on Tuesdays from 10-5. The center is located at the Tribal Complex at 170 Barbara St. Bartlesville, OK in the Tribal Wellness Center.

To contact us:

Email: 1lenapeila@gmail.com

Phone: (918) 337-6590 ext. Steve.

Emergency phone: (760) 401-2056 cell

Please come by and check out the center and visit. Wanishi!

Steve Donnell, head of the Veterans Service Center