Tag: Lenni Lenape

The streetwork being done on one of Topeka’s steepest hills is aimed at replacing failed concrete, not reducing its slope.

“Road closed” signs currently block motorists from using Baker’s Hill, located on S.E. 21st Street just east of S.E. Wittenberg Road.

Bettis Asphalt & Construction of Topeka is working under contract with the city to replace 275 feet of failed concrete on S.E. 21st, beginning about 140 feet east of Wittenberg, said Taylor Bugg, interim co-communications director for Topeka’s city government.

“We expect work to be complete by early April,” she said.

This photo was taken about two months ago looking eastward up Baker’s Hill, just east of S.E. 21st and Wittenberg Road.

S.E. 21st is the boundary between the city of Topeka and unincorporated Shawnee County in the area involved.

Members of the Topeka and Shawnee County News & Police Scanner Facebook group in December identified Baker’s Hill as one place drivers should avoid in particular when streets get slick. They shared that information in response to a query from The Capital-Journal.

Some know it as “Bigger’s Hill,” one group member said.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Project aims to replace concrete on one of Topeka’s steepest slopes

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Image via Tessa Marie Images.

In his book, Michael Weilbacher offers nature lovers 25 field trips to parks, preserves and natural areas, all neatly organized by season.

Mike Weilbacher, a Merion Station resident, and author, has dedicated his life to finding creative ways to teach people about nature, writes the staff of Main Line Today.

Wild Philly is available on Amazon. Check the price. (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

And now all his experience has culminated in his first book, Wild Philly: Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around Philadelphia.

Weilbacher is the executive director of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Roxborough and is known as the “All-Natural Science Guy” on WXPN-FM’s Kid’s Corner.

In his book, he offers nature lovers 25 field trips to parks, preserves, and natural areas, all neatly organized by season. He even added illustrated maps.

To provide the most in-depth and enriching information, Weilbacher created an eight-member “Naturalist Advisory Team” to advise his research process.

He explained that the extra insight added rich layers to the book.

He said, “The chapter on the Lenape, for example, was based on new scholarship that shows that they actively managed the land. They were burning parts of the landscape to keep certain plants, like nut trees, around…”

The book also has a chapter on how people can become citizen scientists simply by using their cell phones to contribute data to ongoing scientific studies.

Read more about Mike Weilbacher and the many ways he celebrates nature around the Main Line in Main Line Today.

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History is full of enterprising sales and screaming bargains. One of the most notorious, legend has it, took place in Manhattan, when the island’s Native residents sold it to the Dutch for a handful of beads and the equivalent of $24 in cash.

Or did they? Here’s how Manhattan really ended up in European settlers’ hands—and why the transaction itself remains a historic mystery.

Manhattan’s Native residents 

By the time European colonists made their way to the Hudson River region, the area had long been settled by the Lenape people, who named the verdant island along the Hudson Manahatta, or “hilly island.” The Lenape, who spoke an Algonquian language and traded with a variety of other Indigenous Americans, lived a seasonal existence on the island with rich natural resources and abundant animals.

Those animals—particularly beavers—attracted the attention of the first Europeans to encounter the Lenape and Manhatta beginning in the 1500s. In fact, much of North America’s appeal to early Europeans had to do with animal pelts, which were used to produce fashionable hats and luxury items for European consumers—particularly as Europeans had hunted fur-bearing animals on the their own continent almost out of existence.

Lured by the region’s plentiful beaver furs, Dutch merchants began trading with the Lenape and soon claimed land running from what is now Delaware to Rhode Island on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, which developed a monopoly on Atlantic trade. The company established New Netherland in 1621, extending Dutch rule across the Hudson River region. By 1624, Dutch people were living on Manhatta—eventually renamed Manhattan—in a settlement called New Amsterdam.

The Dutch West India Company’s charter enabled its members to make contracts with “princes and natives” of the region, trading goods and currency for the “peopling of these fruitful and unsettled parts”—places that already served…

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hailed a package of six government funding bills on Sunday as “good news” that prevents a government shutdown “without cuts or poison pill riders.”

Schumer and congressional leaders unveiled the long-awaited package Sunday afternoon, with hopes to get the set passed before a March 8 partial government shutdown deadline. Congress made an extension to the previous week’s funding deadline in order to introduce and pass the package.

“It’s good news that Congress has finally reached a bipartisan agreement on the first six government funding bills that will keep the government open,” Schumer said in a statement. “We are proud to be keeping the government open without cuts or poison pill riders.”

The six spending bills focus on funding the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Justice, Commerce and Energy through this fall. In total, the bills will allocate about $450 billion.

Both Democrats and Republicans responded to the package by taking victory laps on certain inclusions. GOP members touted cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the funding package, while Democrats hailed protections for certain welfare programs.

A number of conservative Republicans have urged Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to throw out the negotiations and instead pursue a one-year funding measure with universal budget cuts.

The funding bills are expected to be introduced and voted on this week in the House, where they will likely need bipartisan support and are likely to pass the Senate.

“The clock is now ticking until government funding runs out this Friday,” Schumer said. “Between now and the end of the week, the House must quickly pass and send the Senate this bipartisan package.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming…

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This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

Temple University Professor Adam DePaul, Doctoral Candidate in Cultural and Mythical Studies, will share past and present insights into the significance of the Lenape Nation during this free program. DePaul is focused on raising awareness of Lenape culture and correcting a lot of the misinformation that is often taught about Lenape history.” DePaul has stated, “I have always had a personal passion to tell stories. I thoroughly enjoyed this role because it embraces both my academic life and cultural life.”  Pre-registration requested at:  friendsofdoylestownlibrary@gmail.com

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