Category: Delaware Tribe

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Biden protects Native American site, boost safety

President Joe Biden signs a “long overdue” order improving public safety and offering justice to Native Americans, along with seeking a 20-year ban on oil and gas drilling on Chaco Canyon, in northwestern New Mexico. (Nov. 15)

AP

An Oklahoma tribe will require employees to become vaccinated against COVID-19 “without exception,” its chairman announced in a terse, one-page letter to employees. 

“The Citizen Potawatomi Nation no longer chooses to allow unvaccinated employees to touch and breathe on our children in the daycare, prepare food and serve it to our elders or cough and sneeze infected mucus and snot at work,” longtime Chairman John “Rocky” Barrett wrote. 

The tribe operates several businesses near its home base in Shawnee, east of Oklahoma City, including the Grand Casino Hotel and Resort and Firelake Discount Foods. It also has extensive government offices and two clinics.

Land vote:After decades of tension, Citizen Potawatomi, city of Shawnee pledge new start 

In his letter sent Tuesday, Barrett said workers at the tribe’s health care facilities must become vaccinated by Dec. 4. Other employees have until Dec. 31. Those who opt not to get the shots will “face termination,” he said. 

Barrett said in a statement that it was his responsibility “to make decisions…

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[]Oklahoma tribes to receive over $7 million from HUD for COVID relief | KOKHPlease ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes ofwebsite accessibility Continue reading

November is Native American Heritage Month, a time for appreciating, recognizing and paying tribute to the Indigenous people whose land this country was wrongfully founded on.

The history of the relationship between Native Americans and the European settlers who landed on their shores has been notoriously white-washed. Over time, many attempts have been made to erase not only their plight at the hands of the settlers but also their contributions to America’s progress.

Despite the inextricable relevance of Indigenous presences in America, many people know next to nothing about the history of the specific tribes who live in their region.

The Lenape people, also known as the Delaware Tribe, lived and still do live in the area that now encompasses New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Pennsylvania and New York. But when colonists began to arrive in the early 17th century, the Lenape were tricked out of their land by white settlers and forced to leave their homes, ending up displaced thousands of miles away in an allocated area of Kansas. Despite this, almost all of the eligible Delaware men voluntarily enlisted in the Union effort during the Civil War, even as white trespassers stole from them and unlawfully occupied their land.

This is obviously admirable, but Native Americans should not need to be heroes to be celebrated and acknowledged. It is enough that they were here first, as sovereign nations, and still they have not been given the attention or respect they deserve.

Montclair State University has a somewhat turbulent history when it comes to its relationship with Native American heritage and culture. During the 1930s, Montclair State’s athletic logo was changed from a simple red “M” to a stereotypical profile of a Native American chief, and the team name was changed in…

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Longform

The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania is fighting for governmental recognition — despite pushback from other Lenape tribes — raising big questions about who gets to call themselves Native and how the state views its history.

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Lenape tribal member Rick Quiet Hawk Welker, photographed at a powwow at Mauch Chunk Lake. Photograph by Kevin York

It’s a muggy mid-September Sunday, and kayakers and vacationing families are taking in the calm waters of Mauch Chunk Lake, a small reservoir in the southern Poconos. While beachgoers lounge on the sand and watch eagles cruise above the trees, another group is gathered a few hundred yards up the shore for an even more traditional lakeside activity: a Native American powwow. The reverberation of drumbeats, along with the smell of burning sage and barbecue, hangs in the humid air, floating across the parking lot between the powwow and the beach.

Many of the people dancing, chatting and celebrating at the powwow claim ancestral connections to the Lenape (leh-NAH-pay), the Indigenous people of the Delaware Valley. Some are dressed in full regalia, wearing head-to-toe beads and painted feathers, attracting stares from those who came to Mauch Chunk Lake for swimming or a hike. They gawk, open-mouthed. Some take pictures. It’s as if the last thing they expected to see on their weekend trip to the Poconos was the people who lived here first.

It’s a common belief that there are no longer any Lenape (sometimes called Delaware Indians, the name given to them by European colonists) in Pennsylvania. It is widely presumed that every single Lenape person was forcibly relocated to…

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State student organizations and units at campuses across the commonwealth will be holding events in honor of National Native American Heritage Month, celebrated during the month of November. Here’s a look at some of the events taking place at the University’s campuses. Please check back, as additional events may be added throughout the month.

According to the Library of Congress Native American Heritage Month website, Native American Heritage Month, also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month, celebrates the rich and diverse cultures, traditions and histories of the Native people and recognizes the significant contributions of the first Americans. 

This recognition began as American Indian Day on the second Saturday of each May. The day was established through a proclamation by the Congress of the American Indian Association’s president on September 28, 1915, and was the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens. In 1990, then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.”

Acknowledgement of Land

This past summer, in collaboration with the Indigenous Peoples Student Association (IPSA) and the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance (IFSA), Penn State’s Office of Educational Equity and Office of the President developed a land acknowledgement, a formal, institutional statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous peoples as the original stewards of this land and the enduring relationship between Indigenous peoples and their historic territories, which reads:

The Pennsylvania State University campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie, Haudenosaunee (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora), Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, Stockbridge-Munsee), Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma), Susquehannock, and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations. As a land grant institution, we acknowledge and honor the traditional caretakers of these lands and strive to understand and model their responsible stewardship….

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An opportunity to learn more about the Lenape people through the eyes of cultural experts and members of the Delaware Tribe is coming soon during a live, free Facebook event @BartlesvilleAreaHistoryMuseum. 

Special guests including Delaware Chief Brad Killscrow and Delaware Tribal Princess Morgan Messimore will be on hand as Curtis Zunigha, Delaware Cultural Center director, Anita Mathis, archivist, and Jim Rementer, language program director, will take guests on a virtual tour of the “Delaware: The Faces of Lenape” exhibit in Pioneer Gallery at 7 p.m. on Nov. 16. 

Museum coordinator Delaney Williams said that tribal members will add nuance to the experience and more information than already exists in the exhibit. On display since September, the exhibit has attracted a lot of interest and visitors have made a special trip up to the 5th floor of City Hall at 401 S. Johnston Ave.  

“It’s been a lot of fun to get to talk to people,” Williams said. “We’ve actually had a lot of people who are descendants to some of these people who have bios on the panel.”  

The exhibit was a collaboration between museum staff and Delaware Cultural Center with items on loan from the cultural center and Woolaroc. It includes 21 panels of carefully researched information that highlights key points in the history of the Delaware Tribe from the 1500s to today. 

More than 70 objects are on display including musical instruments, traditional clothing and the original Charles Journeycake stained glass from the Journeycake Memorial Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church Dewey).  

Debbie Neece, collections manager, said the exhibit is a “must see” cultural experience for all ages. 

“Washington County has a rich and diverse history,” she said. “This exhibit will show you the world of the Lenape tribe as they left their Pennsylvania homeland, transitioned to Indian Territory and their cultural foothold as experienced today.” 

The live event will stay on the museum’s Facebook page so anyone who does not have an opportunity to see it in person will be able to experience the virtual tour.  

Williams said they will be taking down the exhibit the last week in November so visitors who want to see it…

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“Our ancestors are still here, their footsteps are still here, their voices are still here, and I want to thank you for being here for us and for them.”

During a reception to mark the opening of a new permanent exhibit at the Pike County Historical Society, Larry Heady of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, based in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, addressed local residents gathered on the steps of the Columns Museum on the evening of Oct. 6.

The exhibit, “The Lënape, Original People Reconciling The Past, Embracing The Future,” tells the story of the Indians native to our region and the diaspora that took them far from their homelands in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It includes the obelisk for Tom Quick that once stood in Milford Borough and explains the story and controversy behind it.

Bonney Hartley, of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community based in Bowler, Wisconsin, began her remarks in the Lenape language to honor and acknowledge her ancestors. She spoke of the importance of the exhibit, especially for the school children that will come through, and who “will be able to learn about our history and who we are today, and know that the Lenape people are still here and still engaged in our homeland.”

She continued, “It really respects what our ancestors have painfully endured but also celebrates our continued existence and resiliency.”

Daniel StrongWalker Thomas, the Traditional Chief of the Delaware Nation based in Anadarko, Oklahoma, said he appreciated the friendship that has been forged. Referring to the land Pike County residents enjoy today, he said, “As you admire this beauty, remember us and keep us in your hearts.”

Lenape and Quicks meet in friendship

The exhibit was created from a partnership between three Lenape tribes, the Quick family, Milford Borough and the Pike County Historical Society. The Columns…

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As the caravan arrived, Miller gave the agents a full tour. He took them into the basement, where Archer saw the collection he’d been imagining for months. It made him dizzy. Then they entered the other buildings on the property. They started finding boxes of artifacts that appeared to have been sitting around for decades. Some were covered in dirt, others infested with mice, rats, insects, feces.

Then Miller took them into a locked room underneath the white farmhouse. Archer saw a brown shopping bag. Inside were eight skulls. Three more sat on a shelf. They found a garbage bag full of bones, and as they looked inside, a raccoon came flying out. Miller ushered them through a tunnel full of standing water that led to the Wyman Research building, where agents saw dozens of blue and green tote bins. They were full of human remains, many haphazardly thrown together. Some were infants and toddlers. On one shelf, a dozen skulls sat lined up, impacted with red soil in various states of repose. Miller said he’d excavated them five years earlier in New Mexico from an unmarked burial site. “He was so proud of those,” Carpenter said. It was his last dig, he told them. Carpenter noticed Miller only had the skulls and asked where the bodies were. We left those there, Miller said.

In the barn, agents found more bags of bones and skulls, some that had sat there for 50 years, never opened. Inside the main residence, in a basement closet, were two dozen more skulls on shelves, some with arrowheads sticking out of them. They also found a skeleton in a display case Miller said was Crazy Horse, the Lakota Native American who was buried in an unknown location. “He didn’t want anyone touching it,” Carpenter said. “It would…

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Operation Clean House (OCH) has served as an environmentally-friendly beacon in Washington County for 32 years, and 2021 was no different.

Operation Clean House was held on Saturday, Sept. 18 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Liz Campbell, the Lead Director of OCH, says they collected a ton of hazardous waste and electronic waste at their Bartlesville and Dewey locations this year. Campbell says they took in 14,600 pounds of hazardous waste such as household chemicals and pesticides. She says they collected 38,000 lbs. of electronic waste (i.e. computers, televisions, VCRs, etc.) and over 650 gallons of oil as well.

The oil was re-used at the Washington County District Two barn two miles to the east of Dewey on West 1500 Road.

Almost 100 gallons of anti-freeze was collected during OCH. Campbell says there were even three dump trucks full of appliances that were properly disposed of as well. She says it was amazing to see how much material they prevented from being taken to the landfill this year.

Since 1989, Operation Clean House has collected 367,000 lbs. of hazardous waste. A total of 765,000 lbs. worth of electronics and 11,069 gallons of oil have been taken in over the years as well. These numbers include this year’s totals.

A total of 927 vehicles made their way to the two OCH locations this year. Campbell says there were just over 680 cars that came to drop off waste at the Phillips 66 parking lot in Bartlesville. She says they saw 245 vehicles come through the Dewey location.

A significant number of Washington County citizens participated in the event. Campbell applauds the volunteers that came out to help make our neck of the woods cleaner and safer for all to enjoy….

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BUCKHANNON — West Virginia Senator Bill Hamilton, a Buckhannon native and Buckhannon-Upshur High School graduate, presented the Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) Grant Award of $5,000 to the Upshur County Commission Thursday morning, for the Warren District Community Building.

“It’s a privilege to be here with you all today,” Senator Hamilton began. He noted that it has been a rough year on everyone, but especially community centers. When Senator Hamilton spoke with individuals from the Warren District Community Building, he was reportedly informed they recently had to replace part of their HVAC and septic systems.

According to Senator Hamilton, this check was presented on behalf of Governor Jim Justice, Senate President Craig Blaire, Finance Chair/Senator Eric Tarr, Senator Robert Karnes and himself.

He noted that he will be bringing another check soon to help support the Upshur County Youth Camp. “Of course, that’s pretty close to my heart because I am an old 4-Her from Upshur County—Delaware Tribe, I might add,” he laughed.

Cary Smith and Norman Rohr, board members of the Warren District Community Building, were present to receive the check on behalf of the community building Thursday morning.

Commission President Kristie Tenney expressed gratitude and appreciation for the check presented. “We truly appreciate it,” she commented to Senator Bill Hamilton.

County Commissioners also discussed a plan of action for the Hampton Community Building. County Administrator Carrie Wallace explained to Commissioners that in May of 2001, this property was deeded to the Hampton Community Church trustees for use as a community building. Wallace referenced Senator Hamilton’s statements regarding the financial load some of these community buildings are carrying, and said the Hampton Community Building is no exception. Earlier this year, one of the United Methodist trustees corresponded with County Commissioners, letting them know they would like to turn the property back over to the Commission.

According…

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