On this indigenous day, I’d like to acknowledge the Lenni-Lenape, who for thousands of years, prior to European colonization, inhabited the land I call home.


Here’s to those who could once be found fishing crystal clear river and stream, hunting the forests of old chestnut, oak, pine, and hickory, picking berries where the woods met meadow, plucking flowers, leaves, and bark for food and medicine, weaving baskets and floor mats from branch & twig, crafting jewelry from stone, shell, and animal teeth & bone, tanning and sewing animal fur & feather into clothing and bedding, saving seed of “wild” edibles, corn, squash, and bean to sow in the spring, who enjoyed games of ball and ceremonies of dance and song. Here’s to those who solely lived on and with the land, honoring the cycles, and striving to live in balance with the seasons. The Lenape wished to exist peacefully on their homeland, Lenapehoking.

There are three clans of Lenape; the Wolf (Munsee, or Minsi), Turkey (Unalachtigo) and Turtle (Unami).
Their territories stretched from present day states of southeastern New York, all of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, down to northern Delaware. I reside in the area of the Munsee Wolf Tribe.

The Lenni Lenape were known to be peaceful peoples, but did have quarrels with the Iroquois nation, and were most notably deceived by the Walking Purchase. Descendants of William Penn inaccurately resurrected an old deed, which forced the Lenape to reside only on the area that some of their tribe could walk within one and a half day. This lead to over 750,000 acres of their homeland to be fraudulently taken away. Those remaining on their lands, were eventually driven off by violence and threat. The Lenape were dispersed to Canada, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Kansas, where there are still tribes of them. To this very day, almost all of the history of the Lenape has been lost in Pennsylvania. There is little to no recognition (specifically by the commonwealth), as if the history along with the people have been removed entirely from the landscape of a place which they once wholly tended to as their home.

I am not of Lenape blood, nor do I claim to understand their ancestral ways of living nor their history. I do however look back to the natives for guidance on how to walk these lands which I call home. I yearn to learn how they interacted with the ecosystem, and I often find myself envisioning what it all looked like. A feeling I cannot fathom to imagine, yet one which beckons me to revisit time and time again. 🙏 🪶