Author: jeff

If you walk through Battery Park in lower Manhattan, you will find the Netherland Monument — a 1926 piece by the Dutch sculptor Hendrik van den Eijnde, and one of the many structures in New York that perpetuate the myth of the sale of this island. In all his glory, you can see Dutch colonial governor Peter Minuit “purchasing” the land with wampum beads, worth a staggering sum of $24, from a “Lenape Native” whose name no one seems to know. This Native man is wearing a headdress of the sort typically worn by Plains Natives hundreds of miles away. One doesn’t get the sense that van den Eijnde tormented himself trying to get the details right.

The only proof of the “sale” of Manhattan is a small section in a letter written by a colonist in 1626. There’s no mention of beads or trinkets, and no deed of sale, only a passage cited from the Dutch National Archives that reads: “Our people are in good spirit and they live in peace. They have purchased the island of Manhattes from the savages for the value of sixty guilders.”

The problem here is that Lenape peoples, along with most Indigenous peoples, are inextricably connected to the land as stewards, and did not share the concepts of money or land ownership as Europeans did. And so they were strategically displaced from their ancestral homelands, despite having shown graciousness to the Shouwunnok, otherwise known as salt water (read: white) people.

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This displacement of the Lenape peoples was a huge motivation for Mary Kathryn Nagle’s play “Manahatta,” which tells the story of Jane Snake, a Lenape woman who moves to Manahatta from Oklahoma during the 2008 financial crisis for a banking job — thus reconnecting with…

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On Saturday, November 18th, you are invited to the William Trent House for the premier of a compelling new project, “Native American Government and Sovereignty”. The day’s activities will begin at 1pm at the Trent House Visitor Center, located at 15 Market St, Trenton, NJ 08611. If you plan on driving, there is plenty of free parking available to guests  across from the Hughes Justice Complex. This program is free to attend, so be certain to bring the whole family for an engaging afternoon of education.

The host for the afternoon, Brianna Dagostino, is a member of New Jersey’s state-recognized Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe. Ms. Dagostino recently received her Master’s Degree in history from Rowan University, submitting “Tribal Rights Are Important Rights”: The Origins, Travails, And Impact Of The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe V. The State Of New Jersey” as her thesis. Brianna lectures throughout the east coast about her people, cultivating an appreciation of the Nanticoke Lenape people all throughout the country.

The day’s presentation, “Native American Government and Sovereignty”, is a premiere screening of a new series intended to inform teenagers ​and adults about the history, culture, and contemporary life of the Lenape people of New Jersey. This video series has been produced and funded by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. A massive asset to public education, these videos will no doubt be foundational in continuing to share the lives and cultures of our nation’s indigenous population.

This event is hosted by the William Trent House Museum, a destination for history in the Capital City. The Trent House is instrumental in telling the full story of Trenton history, sharing the perspectives of all those present at the start of this nation, including Indigenous populations, European settlers, and people of African descent, both enslaved and free. At the…

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