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…
Artist Marianela Fuentes grew up in the state of Coahuila in northeast Mexico, an area rich in dinosaur fossils. (Emma Lee/WHYY) 
The sculpture, created by Mexican artist Marianela Fuentes, is covered in tiny beads depicting Native American themes. The designs on the head represent the universe. (Emma Lee/WHYY) 
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The Sand Hill Lenape Indians made tremendous contributions to the development of the state of New Jersey and the U.S States. An ex-mayor of Neptune Township, New Jersey, said, “It is a shame what some people in the State have done to the Sand Hill Lenape Indians.” Then he went on to say, “the Sand Hill Lenape Indians and the Reevey family are the people who made the state of New Jersey possible.” 
