Category: Lenni Lenape

Kimberly Anne (Harms) Spruill of Moorestown, NJ, formerly of Mt. Laurel, Medford, Southampton and Marlton, NJ, passed away peacefully at her home on Saturday, June 18, 2022. Born in Newport, RI, on January 15, 1970, she was the first, and much anticipated child of a young Naval officer and his wife, Stephen and Patricia (Kerlin) Harms. Kim was the first child in the next generation of both families. Throughout her life she was a beloved daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin, wife, Mother and friend. Kim was a graduate of Lenape High School, Class of 1988, in Medford, NJ, and Kutztown University, Class of 1992, in Kutztown, PA. Seeking adventure, her first job after college was a flight attendant for a charter airline, World Airways, based in Philadelphia. During her employment she traveled the world. Her favorite destination was Paris, France. Her employment there ended after she met a handsome young man who would later become her husband, and she could not bear to leave him for Paris or any other destination. She was predeceased in death by her precious son, Scott D. Spruill, Jr., and grandparents, Frank and Clare Harms and Raymond and Constance Kerlin. She is survived by her two beautiful daughters whom she dearly loved, Brooke E. Spruill and Ava R. Spruill, her ex-husband, Scott D. Spruill, her parents, her beloved brother, Stephen, her loving sister, Melissa Harms Liggett and husband Andrew, many special aunts, uncles, cousins, and a few very close friends, namely Theresa, Melina, and Stephanie. When her children were young Kim loved being involved in their activities. She was frequently room Mother as well as cheerleading coach for several years. Her kids were her world. Her contagious laugh is legendary among family and friends. As a young athlete, she was an excellent gymnast and was…

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China’s influencers will now be required to prove they are qualified when giving medicinal, financial or legal advice on their social media.

On Tuesday, China’s State Administration of Radio and Television and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a joint statement outlining a new “code of conduct.”

The new mandate requires any influencer livestreaming content that calls for a “higher professional level,” to be qualified in the area.

Streaming platforms will now be responsible for reviewing a streamer’s qualifications and approving the content before broadcast.

More from NextShark: 40 More Women Come Forward Against Columbia University Doctor After Evelyn Yang Breaks Silence

Also included in the code of conduct are rules against criticizing the Communist Party or traditional Chinese culture and the prohibition of posting content that threatens national security.

No livestream can show “excessive” horror or be too sexually provocative, and livestreamers cannot promote smoking or drinking, participate in activities that show excessive food waste or engage in scandals or gossip.

Failure to abide by the code could lead to becoming permanently banned from livestreaming as well as being featured on Beijing’s public shame list of violators.

More from NextShark: One of the World’s Most Famous Indian Chefs Dies of COVID-19

The news comes amid China’s recent efforts to tighten regulations on online content.

Earlier this month the country’s cybersecurity regulator, Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), unveiled its new initiative to counter cyberbullying and illicit, online content featuring pornography, suicide and violence.

Last month, China announced its ban on children under 16 years old from buying online gifts for influencers and watching live streaming content after 10 p.m.

More from NextShark: What Chinese Clubhouse Users Talked About for the 12 Hours Before the App Was Banned

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Carl LaVO  |  Special to the Bucks County Courier Times

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Bucks County hosts its 39th annual senior games

Bucks County hosted its 2022 Senior Games from June 1 to 17 to help ages 50+ stay active and healthy.

Ella Castronuovo, Bucks County Courier Times

Where can you take flight in a glider or an antique biplane in Southeastern Pennsylvania? Tinicum Township, How about lifting off into the blue in a Boeing 737? Also Tinicum Township.

True — but in two different Tinicum townships.

The former is home to Van Sant Airport and glider field in Bucks County; the latter home to Philadelphia International Airport in Delaware County. Confusing — at least to me from Florida, where there is no such duplication in 411 incorporated towns.

It got me to wondering how Tinicum-times-two came about in Pennsylvania. The answer can be found in the Native American term for “island” – tennakonk.

Colonists of the future Delaware County disembarked in 1643 on a large island in the river where they founded the first recorded European settlement in Pennsylvania. The Swedish settlers spelled their new community “Tinicum,” approximating what the natives seemed to be saying was the name of the island.

Many years later and 63 miles upriver, English colonists came ashore on another island. Again,…

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RINGWOOD, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey officials sued Ford Motor Co. on Thursday, alleging that the automaker contaminated the ancestral homeland of a Native American tribe by dumping paint sludge and other pollutants into a former mine.

The action in state court seeks unspecified damages to restore the land, and to compensate the state and local communities for losses they sustained when natural resources were damaged.

The suit accuses Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford of dumping contaminants at the former Ringwood Mine site, a 500-acre site that encompasses the homelands of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, a tribe formally recognized by the state.

Tribe members attended Thursday’s news conference and spoke of years of illnesses and deaths they attribute to contamination of their land.

“Can you promise my community a future?” tribe member Angel Stefancik asked New Jersey officials during the news conference. “I’ve lived on contaminated land my whole life. I want the kind of land where my ancestors grew up, where you can walk barefoot. I want my rabbits, my toads, fruit trees.

“I lost my grandmother to cancer,” she said. “I’m 22 and I have a long list of chronic conditions. It’s so hard living in that area, but this is my land. I was born there and I will die there.”

The state’s lawsuit alleges that Ford purchased Ringwood Mines in 1965 to use it as a landfill where it could dispose of hazardous waste generated by its auto assembly plant in Mahwah, which was one of the largest auto assembly plants in the U.S.

Between 1967 and 1974, the lawsuit asserts, Ford disposed thousands of tons…

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RINGWOOD, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey officials sued Ford Motor Co. on Thursday, alleging that the automaker contaminated the ancestral homeland of a Native American tribe by dumping paint sludge and other pollutants into a former mine.

The action in state court seeks unspecified damages to restore the land, and to compensate the state and local communities for losses they sustained when natural resources were damaged.

The suit accuses Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford of dumping contaminants at the former Ringwood Mine site, a 500-acre site that encompasses the homelands of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, a tribe formally recognized by the state.

Get more from the Citrus County Chronicle

Tribe members attended Thursday’s news conference and spoke of years of illnesses and deaths they attribute to contamination of their land.

“Can you promise my community a future?” tribe member Angel Stefancik asked New Jersey officials during the news conference. “I’ve lived on contaminated land my whole life. I want the kind of land where my ancestors grew up, where you can walk barefoot. I want my rabbits, my toads, fruit trees.

“I lost my grandmother to cancer,” she said. “I’m 22 and I have a long list of chronic conditions. It’s so hard living in that area, but this is my land. I was born there and I will die there.”

The state’s lawsuit alleges that Ford purchased Ringwood Mines in 1965 to use it as a landfill where it could dispose of hazardous waste generated by its auto assembly plant in Mahwah, which was one of the largest auto assembly plants in the U.S.

Between 1967 and 1974, the lawsuit asserts, Ford disposed thousands of tons of toxic paint sludge in the forests and on the grounds within the Ringwood Mines, as well as in its abandoned mineshafts and pits. Other pollutants were…

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State authorities on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company for dumping automobile paint sludge in former iron mines and on Native American land in Ringwood, marking another chapter in what has become more than half a century of corporate and government failures to clean up harmful toxic waste.

The Ringwood mine area is the only contaminated site in the United States to be placed on the federal Superfund list twice. It also sits precariously close to a reservoir that supplies drinking water to millions of New Jerseyans.

Now, the state Department of Environmental Protection is suing in state Superior Court for natural resource damages — a form of compensation that seeks to fund restoration projects to bring contaminated land as close to its pre-pollution state as possible.

The mine area is home to about 200 residents, including many members of the state-recognized Ramapough Lenape Nation, who for decades have complained of cancers, respiratory diseases, skin ailments and other health problems.

On Thursday, some of them grew emotional describing the loss of family members and what was once fertile land for hunting, fishing and foraging. Powerful people had stood behind lecterns and made promises before, only for them to fail to come to fruition.

“What’s to say, when you’re out of office, the next people aren’t going to say, ‘Oh, throw it to the back of the line’ because there are so many people ahead of us?” Marcey Langhorn, a member of the tribe’s Turtle Clan, asked acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin and DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette during a press conference at Ringwood State Park.

“For me, to trust the state is very hard.”

A spokeswoman for Ford said the company “takes its environmental responsibility seriously.”

“We understand this has affected the community and have worked cooperatively with (local, state and federal…

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Ford Motor Company is being sued by New Jersey state officials for contaminating hundreds of acres of land, with a large population of Ramapough Lenape people, that the company used for the waste disposal for its largest assembly plant that was built in 1955.

The lawsuit accuses the automobile company of contaminating the water, soil, groundwater, vegetation, and the air in the area in Ringwood, New Jersey, as well as selling part of the land to the state without disclosing to them the damage that they had caused there.

The lawsuit is pursuing action on eight counts, including negligence and trespassing.

According to the lawsuit, in 1965, Ford purchased 400 acres of Ringwood Mines for the purpose of disposing of its waste from the automobile plant built a decade previously.

The Ringwood Mines area has nearly 50 residential units and about 200 residents.

Starting 1967, for seven years the company used the space to throw away “tons of toxic paint sludge and drummed waste and other non-liquid hazardous waste”.

Meanwhile, around 1970, the company sold off parts of the land to numerous entities including a non-profit and other government institutions, without disclosing the full extent of the damage they had caused on the land.

“Bottom line is that Ford demonstrated little to no regard for the environment,” said the acting attorney general, Matt Platkin, when announcing the lawsuit on Thursday.

“They turned a blind eye to the risks that their actions have imposed on the lives of 200 residents who live here, which includes Native Americans who are historically and disproportionately exposed to environmental harms,” he said, according to a video of the announcement shared on Facebook.

Vincent Mann, chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation’s Turtle Clan, and New Jersey’s commissioner of environmental protection, Shawn M LaTourette, were also present at the announcement.

“Today is one…

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Three New Jersey governmental agencies/officials filed suit against the Ford Motor Company (Ford) in the Superior Court of New Jersey-Bergen County on Thursday claiming that Ford is liable under New Jersey environmental statues and common law for pollution at its 500-acre site known as Ringwood Mines that Ford used to dump waste from its Mahwah, New Jersey, assembly plant from 1967 to 1974.

The three plaintiffs are: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); The Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; and The Administrator of the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund (Administrator). As noted in the complaint, Ford Motor Company is sued “individually and as successor” to other Ford-related entities, all defined as “Ford.”

According to the complaint, the Ringwood Mines site is “encompassed by the historic homeland of the Ramapough Lenape Nation (the ‘Tribe’) Turtle Clan, a Native American tribe recognized by the State of New Jersey.” The plaintiffs state that many of the approximately 200 residents living within the Ringwood Mines are members of the Tribe. The plaintiffs note that the “cultural and spiritual traditions of the Ramampough Lenape Nation are inextricably interconnected with the land” and members of the Tribe rely on the land for food and medicine.

As a result of the purported pollution, harmful substances like arsenic and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found at the site affecting the environment including the “groundwater and surface water, sediments, wetlands, soils, air, and biota.”

The plaintiffs allege a long history of state and federal regulatory action and remediation efforts relating to the site. In particular, the plaintiffs note that the site was placed on the CERCLA “National Priorities List” in 1983, but removed in 1994 “based on Ford’s representation that Ringwood Mines had been adequately remediated.” Notwithstanding that, the plaintiffs further allege…

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NJAC-National

First team: Dante Marinello, Morristown Beard sr.; Jacob Michalski, Morristown sr.; Ian Plott, Morristown sr.; Adam Wood, Sparta sr.; Ryan Rossi, Sparta sr.; David Votapek, Morristown sr.; Tim Larosa, Mendham jr.; Jack Lavere, Lenape Valley sr.; Tristan Aitkenhead, Mendham sr.; Jack Wadley, Mendham sr.; Joe Buono, Sparta jr

Second team: Will McDonald, Morristown Beard jr.; Charlie Guida, Morristown Beard jr.; Gavin Timoney, Mendham jr.; Greg Peters, Sparta so.; Jack Suchanek, Mendham jr.; Eric Perez, Lenape Valley jr.; Troy Brennan, Lenape Valley jr.; John Holtz, Mendham jr.; Sean Duthaler, Sparta sr.; Paul Gennat, Sparta sr.; Liam Kelly, Lenape Valley jr.

Honorable mention: Luke Fehnel, Mendham sr.; Chase Geer, Sparta sr.; Andrew Down, Morristown sr.; Charlie Gibbs, Morristown Beard jr.; Braden Coles, Lenape Valley jr.

Division champion: Mendham

Sportsmanship award: Lenape Valley

NJAC-United

First team: Ryan Beller, Morris Knolls jr.; Anthony Skawinski, Roxbury so.; Caedon Jones, Kittatinny jr.; Adam DeCristofaro, Mount Olive so.; Max Morosoff, Vernon sr.; Jayson Horowitz, Montville sr.; Luke Denison, Madison sr.; Anthony Moscatello, Mount Olive jr.; Thomas Gioioso, Morris Knolls sr.; Jeremiah Carfello, Vernon sr.; Chris Kolaritsch, Montville jr. 

Second team: Gianni Graziano, Montville jr.; Nick Reda, Mount Olive sr.; Andrew Knutelsky, Kittatinny jr.; Will Clifford, Madison jr.; Nick Forgione, Morris Knolls jr.; Sean Biakowski, Morris Knolls sr.; Tyler Hoste, Kittatinny sr.; Cooper Anderson, Mount Olive sr.; Owen Lally, Vernon so.; Michael Murphy, Roxbury sr.; Nick Gomez, Montville sr.

Honorable mention: Joseph Bubay, Morris Knolls sr.; Aiden Toupet, Roxbury sr.; Max Machado, Mount Olive sr.; Mike Colaiacovo, Montville fr.; Aiden Van Wingerden, Kittatinny sr.; Joseph Carfano, Madison sr.; Jacob Mann, Vernon sr.

Division champion: Mount Olive

Sportsmanship award: Morris Knolls

NJAC-American

First team: Joe Leone, Delbarton sr.; Nick Faccone, Delbarton jr.; Stefan Swedlund, Randolph jr.; Ryan Boyd, Chatham sr.; Connor Herraiz, Pope John sr.; Jack Sakowski, Pope John jr.; Caz Kotsen, Mountain Lakes sr.; Gavin Ananian, Mountain Lakes jr.; Matt Sentowski, Mountain Lakes jr.; Ryan McLaughlin, Mountain Lakes sr.; David Link,…

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Written by RuthAnn Purchase

One huge change that has come to our region recently is the increasing desire to honor ancient ways of living together well. Land acknowledgements are one of many ways to do this and improve our relationships with all living things, including plants, animals, and people, a group that some, like the Lenape, call “All Our Relations.  

Indigenous protocol on every continent requires the acknowledgement of one another’s ancestors, their ancestral rivers, and their sacred lands.

This protocol sounds a lot like equity or equal rights. We need trees to breathe; we relate to trees even if we forget to thank them; therefore, trees are our relations and deserve our respect.  If trees are our relations, do local Indigenous trees have the right to live?  Do local rivers have the right to thrive?  If humans need trees and clean water for Life on Earth, humans must re-learn honor for “All Our Relations.” 

Naming is part of that honor.  If I call you by a name that insults you, you might not want to live with me.  So it is for our relations.  The term “Delaware” comes from De La Warre, a military title given to General Thomas West from the British Army, who decimated the lands and peoples he was sent to colonize.  

Before Thomas West named them after himself, the Tribes were not called “Delaware Indians”.   They were Lenape, grouped in three Tribes: Wolf, Turkey and Turtle, each with their own dialect.  

In the Philadelphia region, Unami was the prevalent dialect.  In Unami dialect of Lenape, this river valley we live in is called Hakesena Sipu Pahseyunk – the Mother River Valley. And Wawa was not a store on a highway, but the name of the geese who sang many songs as they migrated together. 

Philadelphia…

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