Category: Delaware Tribe

In this period of government and fiscal uncertainty, directors of Oklahoma Tribal Head Start programs were in Washington, D.C. last week to advocate on the Hill for continued funding. Among those in attendance were Jayme Trevino, Director of the Kickapoo Tribe’s Head Start program in McLoud, and Monica Fisher, Director of the Delaware Tribe of Indians’ Lenape Early Learning Center Head Start in Bartlesville. Both programs serve 60 children (and their families). In total, Tribal Head Start programs serve close to 3,000 children in Oklahoma. Only Arizona has a higher number of children enrolled in Tribal Head Starts.

Fisher: “What’s great about the Early Head Start and Head Start programs is we create partnerships with our families in our communities, and so we take a whole child and whole family approach to serving the family and ensuring that we’re setting families up for success from the very beginning.”

Trevino: “We are, I like to say, the baseline, the foundation. Our teachers are specialized in the areas that they teach — they come in with bachelor degrees. We want to be recognized as a professional institute. And the dollars really help…they are very much worth the investment.”

For FY 2026, the White House budget request maintains funding for Head Start at its FY 2025 level of $12.272 billion. The House and Senate appropriations bills also propose funding at or close to this amount:

1. White House Request: Proposes to keep Head Start funding at the same level as FY 2025.
2. House Proposal: Also includes level funding for Head Start at $12.272 billion.
3. Senate Proposal: Includes an increase of $85 million, bringing the proposed total to $12.36 billion.

The HHS Budget proposal says this about the Head Start program:

“The Head Start Program provides grants to local public and private non-profit and for-profit agencies. The grants will provide early learning and…

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WEST CHESTER–We all know at least one word from the Lenape language – “Hea,” which translates simply to Hey.

That was just one wonderful nugget of knowledge culled from a presentation made by five Elders of the Lenape, or Delaware Tribe of Indians, at West Chester University’s Philips Autograph Library, while they recently visited their “Homeland” here.

This program was part of the Chester County History Center’s America250 programming and was funded by the  Chester County History Center’s Humphry Marshall Fund.

A Golden Eagle feather held by a Native American Lenape or member the Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma. (BILL RETTEW/MEDIANEWS GROUP)

The Lenape had been forced out of the area hundreds of years ago and many ended up in Oklahoma.

“We didn’t leave anything behind, we brought our people,” said Jana Jolynn Roth. “That’s how important our culture is to us.

“Our family died to keep our culture.”

A beautiful hand-made outfit worn by the Lenape of Oklahoma. (BILL RETTEW/MEDIANEWS GROUP)

Annette Ketchum said that 39 current Native American tribes ended up in Oklahoma where “no man or beast could survive, but we survived.”

“We have carried our traditions with us,” Angelia Franke said.

About 125 Indian gaming casinos have paid for health care, housing and education. While gambling comes with its negatives, Ketchum was quick to say, “We won.”

The Lenape of Oklahoma wearing a traditional outfit at West Chester University. (BILL RETTEW/MEDIANEWS GROUP)

John Wheelock or Apamske Oxe…

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USNS Lenni Lenape is the sixth Bollinger-Built T-ATS 

HOUMA, La. — (October 17, 2025) – Joined by senior U.S. Navy officials and more than 20 officials from the Lenape Nation at Bollinger Houma, Bollinger Shipyards (Bollinger) today officially laid the keel for the future USNS Lenni Lenape, the ninth Navajo-class Towing, Salvage, and Rescue Ship (T-ATS) and the sixth T-ATS vessel being constructed by Bollinger since acquiring the program in April of 2021. 

“Bollinger is grateful for the Navy’s continued confidence in our team to build the Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ships,” said Ben Bordelon, President and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards. “The keel laying of the future USNS Lenni Lenape marks another significant milestone in our partnership, and we are honored to support the Navy’s fleet modernization efforts through the T-ATS program.” 

The keel authenticators were the Hon. Susan Cade, Elder of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Hon. Deborah Dotson, Committee Member of the Delaware Nation, and the Hon. Shannon Holsey, President of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. 

Named to honor the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, the future USNS Lenni Lenape (T-ATS 9) will be the first naval vessel to carry the name of the Lenni Lenape tribe, which was the first tribe to sign a treaty with the United States in 1778. 

The Navajo class provides ocean-going tug, salvage, and rescue capabilities to support fleet operations. T-ATS replaces and fulfills the capabilities that were previously provided by the Powhatan-class Fleet Ocean Tug (T-ATF 166) and Safeguard-class Rescue and Salvage Ships (T-ARS 50) class ships. 

In addition to T-ATS 9, Bollinger is constructing USNS Navajo (T-ATS 6), USNS Cherokee Nation (T-ATS 7), USNS Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek (T-ATS 8), and USNS Muscogee Creek Nation (T-ATS 10). 

About the Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ship Platform 

The Navajo-class is a new…

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October is an important time of the year because it is the month that is designated for raising awareness about domestic violence. It is a time that we are reminded of the critical importance of addressing this stark and sobering problem that impacts far too many Oklahomans.

While we must work year-round to combat the evils of intimate partner violence, Domestic Violence Awareness Month gives us a chance to commit to helping survivors and holding abusers accountable, as well as thanking those who make a difference for victims. 

This month, my office awarded the 17th annual Excellence in Action Against Domestic Violence Awards. We were pleased to recognize:

• James Green, Assistant District Attorney with the Haskell County District Attorney’s Office, with the Prosecutor Award;

• Jake Carey, investigator and deputy with the Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office, with our Law Enforcement Award; and 

• Brittany Manes, lead transitional housing advocate for the Delaware Tribe of Indians Family Children Services, with the Victim Service Advocate Award.

Each of these individuals has gone above and beyond to assist victims of domestic violence and to increase awareness of the significant problem of domestic violence in Oklahoma communities. They are true champions who are making a daily impact by helping victims and their families. 

As your Attorney General, I am committed to helping implement solutions and exploring every avenue to reduce domestic violence in our state. 

The statistics are alarming: our state averages 115 domestic homicide victims per year. Even more troubling, Oklahoma has consistently ranked in the top 10 states for women murdered by men in single-victim/single-offender incidents since 1996. Overall, it is estimated that 51.5 percent of Oklahoma women and 46 percent of men will experience sexual violence, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner at some point in…

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Installation view of Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always at the Zimmerli Art Museum. Photo Credit: McKay Imaging Photography

BY CLARE GEMIMA September 29, 2025

Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always

Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University

February 01- December 21, 2025

Assembling more than one hundred works by ninety-seven artists from over fifty tribal nations, Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always—on view at the Zimmerli Art Museum through December 21, 2025—stands as both a landmark survey of modern and contemporary Native American art and a resonant elegy for its curator. Conceived over three years by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith(Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), the exhibition is not only the most ambitious curatorial project of her six-decade career, it’s also one of the largest museum presentations of Native American art ever mounted in the United States. Smith’s untimely passing, just a week before the exhibition opening, recasts the group show with a poignant, profound gravity. What was envisioned as a sweeping celebration of survival now reads as her final act of advocacy, insisting that Native art is neither vanishing nor peripheral, but a vital force within the ongoing discourse of American art history.

Organized into four guiding themes—political, social, land, and tribal—the exhibition spans generations and mediums, from acrylic paintings like G. Peter Jemison’s (Seneca, Heron Clan) Red Power, made as early as 1973, to Joe Feddersen’s (Okanagan and Arrow Lakes), woven Sally bag titled Country Road, crafted as recently as 2024. Carried forward in its final stages with the assistance of Diné curator Raven Manygoats, and the support of her own son Neal Ambrose Smith, the scope of the exhibition ensures that Smith’s legacy as artist, activist, and cultural catalyst is strongly reflected not only in her own practice, but through the many voices…

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Archaeological digging for the north Millsboro bypass turned up some pottery pieces, but no human remains or very significant finds during the years of study, design and construction. Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) archaeologists dug into the topic at an Aug. 21 lecture at the Nanticoke Indian Museum.

Throughout humanity, people followed animal trails, which were widened to become paths, then widened again and again to accommodate horses, carts, cars, trucks and modern traffic. In 1917, Delaware created a central highways department as roads were dug by hand and then by machine. By the middle of the 20th century, more research went into materials, traffic and design.

Finally, the U.S. started paying attention to what was being paved over.

“One of the things that came in the 1960s was the idea of preservation,” said Micaela Younger, a DelDOT architectural historian. She pointed to Williams Pond in Seaford as an example of the before-times. It was dammed up in the 1950s or ’60s, without any cultural studies beforehand.

“Was there an environmental damage? We do not know. Was there any cultural significance? We don’t know. Did they find anything? We don’t know. So, with that, came this whole movement to kind of preserve public opinions.”

By 1970, Congress created the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. That legislation created requirements for researching and asking the general public how projects might impact the local landscape, culture, history and ecology.

“When there is any federal involvement … the federal agency is responsible for taking into consideration the effect of the projects on the historic resources and providing a chance for there to be comment,” said archaeologist John Martin, DelDOT’s Cultural Resources Program supervisor.

A dropped pot or a potential trove?

Set to open on Sept. 22, the new bypass will wrap around the northeast side of Millsboro,…

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SCRANTON — A striking, massive mural honoring the indigenous Lenape people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley is essentially complete in Scranton as officials prepare for a formal dedication ceremony Aug. 1.

Native American artist Ben Scott Miller — a registered citizen of the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe of the Lenape — and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spanish artist known as Belin, began work earlier this month on the mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton.” A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the 8,000-square-foot piece of public art adorns the north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., owned by developer Art Russo’s ATR Properties.

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  The Lenape Mural on the Brixx Building on Washington Ave. in Scranton on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)

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  The Lenape Mural on the Brixx Building on Washington Ave. in Scranton on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)

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  The Lenape Mural on the Brixx Building on Washington Ave. in Scranton on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)

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  Students from Scranton Prep visit Tuesday, July 22, 2025 with Native American artist Ben Miller and pose for a group photo at the site of a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton” painted on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project…

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Mural artists are transforming a once-barren wall in Scranton with the goal of educating people about Lackawanna County’s native roots.

SCRANTON, Pa. — Traditional color, artwork, and flower imagery help tell the story of those who lived in what is today Lackawanna County before any county lines were drawn.

“Two years ago, they came up with an idea, coming up with a mural to represent the Lenape people, my people, who were here pre-colonization,” said Ben Scott Miller, Delaware Tribe of Indians.

Ben Scott Miller is a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians and travels across the country working as a recognized Native American Artist and Designer.

Now in partnership with the Lackawanna County Arts and Culture Department and Scranton Tomorrow Mural Arts, Miller’s newest project is taking shape along North Washington Avenue in Scranton.

“Because we’ve been missing for 280 years, so I wanted to be able to express our culture and share it with the people of Scranton,” said Miller. Despite having such a big space, the original design has been altered a few times, “There was so much things that I wanted to put in there and I had to simplify it because sometimes when you simplify it, it’s better.”

Now, as Miller and fellow muralist Belin of Spain forge ahead on their work, the piece has begun to take shape.

“The man is like dance with his hand, and the lady is dancing too with the movement with the man. And with the clothes typical clothes from Lenape tribe,” said Miguel Angel Belinchon Bujes, Muralist.

Bringing a piece of beauty and educating the public on the Lenape tribe’s roots in Scranton.

“It’s always, always nice being able to see something up and maybe even like think about it or ask the question about…

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Seneca – front row, from left: Brayden Diller, Arabella Wade, Savannah Barnes, Jameson Slifer, Ryan Burns, Aria Nelson, Lane Wilfong and Michael Friel. Second row: Boone Cassell, Mia Valach, Savana Sharp, Jaryd Wilfong, Lillie Cassell, Mackenzie White, Amelia Rogers and Adalyn Beverage. Back row: Makiya Burns, Riley Hamons, Sienna Hamons, Layla Highland, Hannah Burks, Natalie Irvine, Konrad Lowe, Grayson Barlow, Caleb Ritter, Richard White, Jaxon Cassell, Kylor Brock and Victor Dean. Cherokee – front row, from left: Ayla Fanning, Sullivan Seldomridge, Kysor Calhoun, Andrew Herold, Daisy Hefner, Alida McNeel and Brinley McLaughlin. Second row: Elizabeth Friel, Chloe Annett, William Shifflett, Jesse McNabb, Rufus Morgan, Kendyl Hummel, Rowan Lindbloom and Ava Robinson. Third row: Karis Lowe, Laelah Clendenen, Levi Hill, Ramona Hardy, Andrea Alderman, Silas Dean, Sydney Slifer, Makenna Marsh and Ailec Lindbloom-Robinson. Back row: Ezra Bond, Colton Cassell, Tyler Friel, Bayla Plaugher, George Shifflett, Joseph McClure, William Lindbloom.
Mingo – front row, from left: Jonah Mann, Natalie Sisler, Emma Pugh, Rylee Calhoun, Elijah Keatley, Blake Alderman, Anthony Burdette and Val Phillips. Second row: Bentlee Gladwell, Canden Lambert, Kya Arbogast, Mason Markl, Lydia Taylor, Jace West, Shelldon Maitland and Aubrey Evans. Third row: James Monico, Ben Workman, Erin Rider, Kirsten Friel, Caitlin Mallow, Eden Smith, Grace Beverage and Melinda Beverage. Back row: Abigail Taylor, Katelyn Stull, AJ Bauserman, Riley Pollack, Rya Barlow, Morgan Smith, Rachel Felton, Riyan Gladwell and Cora Baldwin. Delaware – front row, from left: Ariana Woody, Evelyn Simmons, Jerzie Jackson, Simon Scotchie, Annabel Swan, Owen Boggs, Owen Sattler and Bianca Arnold. Second row: Elizabeth McClure, Kaya Eves, Isabella McClure, Diamond Owens, Madelynne Wims, Aliza Hayes, Brynn Clutter and Weston Cassell. Third row: Luke Taylor, Adalee Hayes, Ahna Valach, Luke Gainer, RT Hill,…

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