Tag: Lenni Lenape

To the editor:

There is a proposal to create a new National Park only 70 miles from New York City. Sounds fantastic right? So, why so much opposition? Well, the proposal to turn the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area into the Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve turns out to be a mind-boggling debacle of negatives.

Proponents claim there would be increased environmental protections, but the 70,000 acres of land in question is already a federally protected National Recreation Area owned and managed by the National Park Service. In fact there is not a single additional protection proponents point to that is needed or listed to be implemented.

Meanwhile proponents point out that as many as 1 million new visitors would be expected in the first year of the change. Environmental groups like the Delaware Riverkeeper Network point out that these new visitors and the infrastructure upgrades required to support them would have a significant negative environmental impact on water quality, sensitive riparian habitat, and the surrounding ecosystems.

Next, proponents claim that the change would lead to increased funding for the currently under-funded Recreation Area, but when pressed do admit that whether the land is designated as a Recreation Area, or a National Park has zero effect on the funding the area receives from Congress and the Department of Interior.

Proponents also have stated that creating a new National Park is a diversity, equity, and inclusion issue despite the reality that National Park status would risk limiting recreational activities and limit access to the remaining recreational activities through the requirement of entrances fees, permits, and the like—the Recreation Area is currently free to enter, and most activities are completely free to enjoy with the limited exception of specific use fees at life-guarded beaches and some boat launches. Low-income…

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This year we will have the opportunity again on Saturday, Sept. 17, in person, to collaborate with many different environmental and tourism supporters. Held at Centenary College in the beautiful Lackland Center, the conference allows many different ideas from varied viewpoints to flow freely between the participants. It’s a rare opportunity to incubate collaborative partnerships and cross pollinate proposals.

The leynote speaker this year will be New Jersey’s Secretary of State, the Honorable Tahesha Way. One of the great ideas being discussed at the conference is the proposed elevation of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA) to a National Park and preserve.

The proposal is sponsored by the Alliance for the Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve which is a group of citizens and 23 organizations concerned about our environment, outdoor equity, and the local economy.

The proposal would take the existing federally owned lands in the National Recreation Area (NRA) and divide them into a National Park section of 9,700 acres and a preserve of 56,000 + acres. You can see all the details at the website www.delvalpark.org.

The National Park is envisioned as an emerald, green ribbon along the Delaware River and includes two waterfalls at Dingmans Falls plus the tallest waterfall in Pennsylvania, Raymondskill Falls. On the New Jersey side, the National Park will start above Worthington State Forest and trace Old Mine Road and the river to just below the Dingmans Bridge. A map is available at: https://tinyurl.com/bdfk9yty.

Virtually all present uses will continue uninterrupted, except that hunting will not be allowed within the National Park section. However, the legislation will allow the traditional hunting to be enshrined more completely in the preserve and minimize National Park Service discretion on hunting rights. There will be no impact on state lands, private lands,…

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By Cindy Kunnas

On Friday, Aug. 12, representatives from the Delaware River Greenway Partnership and Lower Delaware Wild & Scenic joined the Rising Nation River Journey. With Sarah Bursky of the National Park Service Wild and Scenic Rivers Program they paddled from Milford, N.J., to Frenchtown, N.J. to speak and sign the treaty.

Richard Dodds, Lower Delaware steering committee chair, and Marion Kyde, steering committee vice chair, joined later in the day and spoke about the Wild and Scenic River program. Dr. Kyde, one of the authors of the “Delaware River Scenic Byway,” presented a signed copy to Lenape Chief of Education and Language Shelley DePaul and Tribal Council Member Adam Waterbear DePaul.

Bursky said of the event, “The Rising Nation River Journey was a powerful experience, an opportunity to support the Lenape on their ancestral lands and waters at their own event, to recognize the pain of past histories but move together in a positive way. It was a personal chance to experience their music and traditions, and a great step forward in improving relationships as we work together on this Wild and Scenic River.”

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The journey began in Hancock, N.Y., on July 30 and ended on Aug. 20 in Cape May, N.J. The journey includes a partial paddling of the Delaware River and the signing of the Treaty of Renewed Friendship between the Lenape and individuals and organizations along the…

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Carl LaVO  |  Special to the Bucks County Courier Times

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How these history buffs found a cave believed to be a Doan Gang hideout

Hear how these Doylestown history buffs found a cave they believe was a Doan Gang hideout and how they will turn their journey into a documentary.

Nur B. Adam, Bucks County Courier Times

There’s this side chair in an upstairs bedroom in William Penn’s reconstructed estate in Falls. It’s about as close as you’re likely get to Pennsylvania’s founder at old Pennsbury Manor. He owned the chair. I like to imagine him tuckered out, plopping down on the seat next to a window at the end of a long and weary day managing his 13-square-mile estate and meeting with Lenape Indian chiefs he befriended and from whom he bought the land 341 years ago.

Downstairs in the Great Hall, you get another taste of the real deal. Freshly cooked game and vegetables once were heaped on a large pewter charger engraved with the initials of William and first wife Gulielma. Dinner guests would pass around the platter at the hall’s elongated dinner table. Thieves in 1996 obviously knew the charger’s historic value. They broke in one night and made off with it and 50 other…

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In 2019, my adult child, River, and I visited our Lenape tribal homeland together for the first time. We are enrolled citizens of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and descendants of the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma, one of three Lenape bands in the United States. Our Lenape ancestors and people were forced from our Eastern Woodlands homelands over two centuries ago and pushed halfway across the continent to Oklahoma, where my father was born. Like many Lenape’ok (Lenape people), we’d never had the opportunity to lay eyes on the homeland that holds the spirits of our ancestors, and the plant and animal nations that nourished our Lenape family for countless millennia.

Our Indigenous homelands are a central part of our identities and cultures. Epigenetic research shows that our relationships with our homeland ecologies are literally part of our DNA, as is the trauma of our separation from them. Living disconnected from our homelands feels like someone carved an empty space where an integral part of my existence used to be. This has affected every aspect of my life, including my artistic and storytelling practice.

The following words and images are memories from four trips to visit Lënapehòkink, our homeland. Having finally reconnected that dangling thread to its source, I feel as if I can start weaving back together some of what has unraveled within my family. I was finally able to begin to understand what it means to be remembered by the land as a Lenape person. My memories of the land are now part of the land, like the memories of my ancestors before me.

Nem kitahikàn ènta ika a…

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Editor’s note: The below “State We’re In” dispatch from Alison Mitchell, co-executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, relates to several recurring themes in the pages of U.S. 1.

One is the notion of ancient rituals, which Dan Aubrey explores as part of his foray into Morris dancing in this issue’s story. The other is the Delaware River, whose environs and many bridge crossings have been the subject of many stories, including several in the August 3 issue.

The mighty Delaware River flows for 330 miles, from its source in the Catskill Mountains of New York to its mouth in the Delaware Bay between New Jersey and Delaware. It provides drinking water for 13 million people, abundant scenic beauty, a corridor for trade and commerce, and habitat for diverse wildlife.

Many people love the Delaware, but perhaps none more than the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, the descendants of the original people who lived along the river for thousands of years before European settlement.

“The river is very sacred to us; we say it’s our lifeblood,” said Barbara Bluejay, secretary of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, which draws members from all four states along the river and beyond.

Every four years, the Lenape Nation celebrates its ancestral lands and seeks peace and healing through a unique tradition: a month-long canoe paddle down the Delaware, with stops along the way for public signings of a ceremonial friendship treaty.

This year’s “Rising Nation River Journey” began on July 20 in Hancock, N.Y., on the upper Delaware, and will wrap up on August 20 in Cape May. Treaty signings are scheduled in 10 locations, including Milford, Frenchtown, Lambertville and West Cape May in New Jersey.

Alison Mitchell is co-executive director of the NJ Conservation Foundation.

The river paddle emphasizes…

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Turkey A National Men’s Volleyball Team, 2023 CEV European Volleyball Championship Qualification in his last game, at home AzerbaijanHe made his mark in the European Championship finals by beating . Nationals will compete in the European Championship for the 9th time in a row.

NOTES FROM THE MATCH:

LIVING ROOM: Burhan Felek Vestel
REFEREES: Sinisa Ovuka (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Vladimir Simonovic (Switzerland)
TURKEY: Mirza, Bedirhan, TextBurak, Faik SamedLion, Berkay (L) Volcano (L) (Arda, kaanAhmet)
AZERBAIJAN: Gurskii, Aghazade, Baranov, Melnikov, Bayramov, Mammadov, Abdullayev (L), Allahverdiyev (L) (Hasanli, Suleymanov, Bunyatov, Vasilenko)
SETS: 25-15, 25-16, 25-19
DURATION: 63 minutes (20′ 20′ 23′)

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Published: 5:10 am EDT August 15, 2022Published: August 15, 2022Updated: 2:39 pm EDT August 16, 2022

Image via Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania Cultural Center

The Lenape Nation’s event seeks to bring recognition to their storied history in the Bucks County area.

The Lenape Nation made stops in Bucks County this weekend as part of its Rising Nation River Journey that aims to bring attention to its quest for official recognition. Damon C. Williams wrote about the Nation’s endeavor for the Bucks County Courier Times.

The journey started in New York. From there, the Lenape Nation members paddle and hike through and along the Delaware River. istThe quest culminates with the Lower River treaty signing in West Cape May, New Jersey.

“(The River Journey) brings so many important things together,” said Lenape Nation member Adam Waterbear DePaul. “First, it raises awareness about the Lenape people, which is so important to us because we’ve been so erased here.”

The journey also “brings together commitments to serve as good stewards for the environment, our homelands, and the Delaware River,” he added.

Pennsylvania is the only commonwealth that does not officially recognize indigenous people, including the Lenape Nation.

Unlike the state, Bucks County has officially recognized the Lenape people as being the first inhabitants of the lands that currently make up its boundaries.

Read more about the Lenape Nation in the Bucks County Courier Times.

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A committee of the Sierra Club in PA and NJ chapters is pushing to re-classify the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area as a National Park.

DELAWARE WATER GAP, Pa. — The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area hosts millions of people every year, and now, even more people may look to come as the Alliance for the Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve, a committee of the Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania and New Jersey chapters, looks to re-classify it as a national park.

John Donahue is the former superintendent of the National Recreation Area and a spokesperson for the New Jersey Sierra Club.

“This place is very special. It’s a sacred place for the American people, and it deserves to be one of our American cathedrals and a larger part of our American backyard,” Donahue said.

This map shows how the more than 70,000-acre national recreation area would be broken up.

Donahue says 56,000 huntable acres would be the Lenape Preserve.

The remaining 9,700 would be The Delaware River National Park.

The park would straddle the river and include Dingman and Raymondskill Falls.

But Joel Penkala, who lives on the New Jersey side, doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

“Mr. Donahue wants to bring prestige to the area. But prestige means people, and people means a million people. You know, we’re talking about a large number of people coming to the area. The environmental impact of that alone is distressing,” Penkala said.

Those who oppose the idea believe the way you use the park could change.

“I see it kind of as a diversity and equity issue. Right now, you can do the most different activities in this park at the least cost,” Penkala said. “I look at it and say if it becomes a park, there’s going…

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