Both the national park and surrounding preserve — with a planned Lenape cultural center — would utilize federal lands that make up the national recreation area now.
“We would divide it up with 10% or 15% of the land becoming the national park, which would run like an emerald ribbon of green along the Delaware River and other attractions in the watershed, including some of the waterfalls and things like that,” Donahue explained.
While several Lenape tribes and nations told PA Local they have no objection to the proposal in theory, none knew enough about it to be certain.
“This is the first I’m hearing of it,” said Chief Brad KillsCrow of The Delaware Tribe of Indians in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, one of three federally recognized Lenape tribes in the U.S. that were forcibly removed from homelands in and around the Delaware River and water gap and driven west.
“If somebody’s going to talk about our tribes, our ancestors, and our history, it’d be nice to be involved in that.”
Representatives of another tribe — the Delaware Nation in Anadarko, Oklahoma — told PA Local that while their Historic Preservation Office has a vague recollection of being approached about the project some time ago, they’ve heard nothing since.
Adam Waterbear DePaul, a tribal council member with the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, which is not federally recognized, said they haven’t heard from organizers either.
“It came to our attention through backchannels,” he said. “We have not been involved at all.”
A release from the Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter trumpeting the project — formally dubbed the Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve by organizers — touts the “informal endorsement from many tribal leaders” and upcoming “formal endorsement” from several tribal nations.
Donahue was less definitive, saying, “I didn’t put that out.”
He added: “A member of our steering committee has reached out to…
Sport marketing students at Mohegan Sun Arena. 
