Yesterday the 2022 Lenape Rising Nation River Journey down the Lenapei Sipu stopped at Haverford (there’s one final event at Cape May in a few days though). The visit started with smudging, then drumming, and included stories and introductions to the groups signing the treaty of friendship with […]
The previous post got me wondering how the schools in Nether Providence ended up as they are. I looked back through the newspaper records to find out. In particular, in 1958 the Chester Times did a series where they wrote a full page on each school district of […]
Every four years, one of the local Lenape groups travel down the Delaware River from Hancock, NY to Cape May, NJ to raise awareness about the native peoples of this area. Along the way they hold a variety of events for the public. Parts of the river are […]
Pennsylvania was home to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and had the most signatories of the document. As they wrote in 1776, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, […]
WHYY recently reported that tribes have acquired land in Delaware near Millsboro and Dover with support of non-profits. Money was an obstacle to land purchases for the tribe, but the state, the Mt. Cuba Center and The Conservation Fund came together to provide a path to restoring land […]
Coming up is the Meesink ceremony for the Lenape. Meesink is pronounced Me-sing as nk is pronounced as a ng. Meesink is a protective spirit (or creature) that looks after the forest and the Lenape and is often pictured as a sasquatch or bigfoot-looking figure, with a face […]
I emailed the Friends Library at Swarthmore College for resources to learn more about the history of the Lenape in the area and one of the books cited was “Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn” by Jean Soderlund. The book covers the time from when the […]
Bullens Lane Park is a small park at the corner of Bullens and Westminster in the very southeastern corner of Nether Providence. Most of its area is taken up by a little league baseball field, but there is also a playground, some benches and parking. It lies between […]
While learning the Lenape language, we’ve continued learning about the tribe and its history as well. One of the most notorious parts of that history is the 1736 Walking Purchase by which William Penn’s descendants acquired (stole might be a more accurate term) 1.2 million acres along the […]
While I was helping in Martha Burton Park recently, Nannette Whitsett told me that the school the park was once attached to was located across the street where there is now a church. In March of 1950 a news story says that local residents were renewing efforts to […]
A Garden City Chronicle 