Transcripts For CSPAN2 History 20240704

Website. Charter communications, along with these Television Company supports cspan2 as a public service. Hello everyone, welcome to tonights program and thank you so much for being here. My name is marsha eli, i come to you from the center for brooklyn history Brooklyn Public Library and vpl presents, which is the librarys arts and culture are that brings you so many programs and conversations like tonight as well as unicode performances family and childrens events tonights program the history of aa available as one part of a much larger and far ranging initiative that vpl is honored to be presenting in partnership with what the wisdom and leadership of aacenter titled aathis Initiative Includes new yorks first ever agape curated exhibition of monopoly Cultural Arts which is now on view at bpl screen Point Library Environmental Education center as well as many future programs eand topics like the myth of the purchase of manhattan seal emaciation poetry readings and an upcoming published anthology of essays on blowoff a history its quite ambitious. Its truly my honor to introduce tonights discussion on their behalf. In a few moments, you will hear three perspectives on history that has too edlong been overlooked misrepresented and lied about. For 10,000 years they lived in a hokey area that includes parts of what are now the states of pennsylvania connecticut new york and delaware and fairways often brutally forced migrations forced removal this first nation was dispersed to locations from oklahoma to wisconsin to parts for the north and west. Before introduce tonight speakers i have two quick notes for you. First as always, you have the option to use closed captioning tonight. That button is at the bottom of your screen. Second, i want to invite you to share your questions tonight, use the q a box which is also at the bottom of your screen. Now its my honor to introduce our speakers and turn it over to them. The multimedia experience includes writing producing directing acting narrating and confusing and traditional music. Joe baker and his artist educator curator and activist whos worked in the field of native arts through the past 30 years and enrolled member of the delaware tribe of indians of oklahoma and cofounder and executive director of the lid off a center. Is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University school of social work k and was recently visiting professor of using studies at Carlisle College and joe aaheather bruegel is indigenous historian and citizen of the nation of wisconsin and firstline defendant stockbridge muncie. In addition to her tmany speaking engagements, she had become the accidental activist speaking to groups about intergenerational racism and trauma helping to build awareness for clean water and other issues in native communities she is the former director of Cultural Affairs and stockbridge Muncie Community and now heather serves as the director of education for forge project. The moderator today doctor tibialis has been the executive director Auschwitz Institute for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities since 2000. Formatted raised in romania, doctor gals previously worked as an associate researcher for the Uk Parliament when he helped develop the uk positions on the un special advisor on the prevention of genocide. Welcome to you all, i am not going to turn this over to curtis for welcome on behalf of a¦ good evening everyone and welcome to this amazing webinar and i am a codirector of what abe center as mentioned arts and culture that man had prevailed in the beginning but now we cover the entirety of monopoly hokey, the land of the lord will not pay the original homeland which extends all the way up to the foothills of the catskill mountains and all the way down the Delaware River to include eastern pennsylvania and new jersey emptying into the dollar. Those of the original homeland so its amazing we are a part of this webinar this evening and on behalf of the what abe center and speaking as one abe man i welcome you to this place called what abe hokey and we are very glad that you are here with us this evening from wherever you are joining us. Thank you. I would like to cowelcome everyone and also recognize talking today from from the land of the original people of the landgrant speaking to you today. I would also like to start by recognizing that the organization that i have the joy to lead i would also like to recognize that the monopoly deep connection to the. As an organization dedicated to trust and would like to invite all of us to open our hearts to learning about the history of our land and history of the people of the farland. I would like to invite curtis to start us off in this discussion. Curtis, you have the floor. I was asked to write an essay about what was originally called the first migration of the day. I ended up writing a lengthy essay but my approach was to get away from the term of migration or diaspora weve been using that term but the more i reviewed and remembered our story it truly is forced relocation. In writing about our people we were the ones that encountered the europeans originally began, first it began with the italian explorer sailing for the french followed 100 years later by the hudson. Sailing for the Dutch East India Company trying to explore routes for the for trade. Upon encountering monopoly people there are numerous stories and accounts written by explorers, military leaders, missionaries and other colonia settlers that talked about the one abe people. As a strong and into people with the culture and belief system that in some ways actually were much akin to some of the aaabove all, we have a deep spiritual relationship with the land. So when we talk about being removed from the homeland, the homeland of the original copy people come up to me and my extension to so many of our people, to me its like being an orphan like someone whos been taken away from the arms of her mother and taken away far away to where we cannot see out there ryanymore. There is a long history that goes all the way from original contact in the early 16th century to the late 19th century and today the one abe people are broken up in the various groups and today their names include the name delaware. Thats the colonial name. I am a member of the delaware tribe of indians stop thats our colonial name delaware. It actually came from a British Colonial governor sir thomas west. Now the one abe people became known as the delaware throughout this historic period of time but as we encountered more and more of the europeans the hedutch followed by the british and ultimately the americans as a hunger for more land and opportunity to have a free and independent land to live on, they displace the original people who were already free and independent People Living on the land. Our stories and much of what you will see in this exhibit will tell our story of how we were forced away from our homeland and in an environment in a water if you listen to the news or watch the news and see about other countries and people being displaced in their own country in the fear of war, thats what the letter abe went through. This exhibit will not only tell that story shes a trail of force removal where today the lenape todays modern descendants known as the delaware my tribe and im an enrolled member of the delaware tribe. Were located in northeastern, oklahoma, and weve been here since 1867. There are also other communities one other in oklahoma too and southern Ontario Canada and one in, wisconsin. Collectively we are the descendants collectively, we are the descendents of the original lenape. We are like different branches from the same tree trunk but the treetrunk is rooted firmly in the homeland, and now with Lenape Center and ive been involved for over ten years now with monopoly center, i feel like that orphan child who has come back, back to new york, back to monopoly hoping, to connect with my mother, the motherland, the homeland, the original homeland lenape pickett is that deep Spiritual Connection with the land, the waters, the ancestors. Its never gone away and thanks to Lenape Center enter friendships and partnerships weve made with such institutions as the broken library and the center for brooklyn history. People are making away from the lenape to return to her homeland, and in doing so and by telling our story people learned that we still exist. There was so much erasure of our history and our culture and our language and our presence in trying to come erasure done by centuries, by decades the people who took over the land, most often times by force or by fraud. And basically wrote the lenape out of the history. But monopoly center and her friends with the Brooklyn Library, we are here to tell you we never died out. We are still here and we are grateful that weow can come back to the homeland now and connect with the spirit of our homeland. End in doing so we continue to generation, the generational connection, after all of these centuries back with the homeland, and that is extremely gratifyingit, ever culture and language and we pay honor to the sacrifices of our ancestors. And gift of the culture and language which we still have and that is passed down to us, and we will continue to grow back in lenaphoking and assert our presence and assert a claim to her homeland that we never willingly gave up. I hope you all will earn more about the Lenape Center but we do have a website called the Lenape Center. Com and you will find a lot of incredible information about the growth and development of our organization, not only the work weve done, we are an arts and Cultural Organization the. We also are very much engaged in Environmental Protection and care for the land because again that land has a spirit. So i share with you this sense of the monopoly people are no longer orphans. We have returned to our mother, and her mother is opening her arms and welcoming us back. And we also, by working with various organizations in lenapehoking, we are taking our place back at the table of power, and we bring traditional knowledge and at incredible culture and language that only enriches the entire fabric of that which is lenapehoking, that which is new york city, that which is theok Brooklyn Library, and all of our partners and all of the wonderful people that we have gathered together with. So with that, there are some other folks here representing lenapehoking. I want to share this time with them to provide additional perspectives, and i encourage you to look throughout all of the activities thats going on here with the greenPoint Library of brooklyn, the center for brooklyn history, and you will only see much more bigger and better presence of the Lenape Center in the years to come. So with that, i say thank you spirit and now we will turn to heather and joe, and after that we will open the discussion based on the questions that you all in the audience are sending as we are starting the conversation. Now i would like too invite heather to join the discussion here heather. Hi, thank you so much. My name and our language is sunflower in full bloom. I had my naming ceremony in the middle of the pandemic in septemberer of 2020. Im very honored to be part of this panel thiss evening. Thank you to joe and curtis for the continued learning. Thank you to the Brooklyn Public Library and to the center for brooklyn history. Im so honored to be here. I am coming to you from the homeland of the people of the waters that were never still. Today there known as the Monthly Community and they are in wisconsin. Im very honored to be able to be coming here from the homeland spirit i moved here in october of last year from wisconsin here prior to that i was living on the homelands in southeastern michigan. I work for number of years for the community and now im here in upstate new york. Actually i met in upstate new york trip and technically i guess that in the middle apparently i was wrong the whole time but thats okay. Just you know in the homeland you and if so honored to be part of this panel. I wanted to start with this, this is one of my favorite quotes. Lakota activist john trudell were not indians and were not native americans. Were older than both concepts. Where the people where the human beings . I think thats a really powerful to stop and think about that. Were older than both of those concepts. We are the human beings. When i hear that i think about how wouldnt be originals where the ogs, you know, where where the people who were here from the beginning when creator created this beautiful Turtle Island and placed us upon here. We were here first and this is our homeland and through forced removals time and time again, we were forced into different areas. Im a first line descendant of the stockbridge amc community now located in northeast, wisconsin through the treaty of 1856 from land that was seated from the ho chunk and menominee nations. Other nations gave up pieces of their home. So that my ancestors. And ill include the oneida and this as well because i am an enrolled citizen of the oneida nation, but other nations gave up their homelands so that we could have a place to call home. And the reason we needed that place to call home was because of colonialism. We were forced out from the start mohican nation first encountered in explorers in 16 09. And that was with henry hudson as curtis mentioned earlier. From that moment on from the moment that colonialism collides with the indigenous. Lives of this land things change forever your life changes forever and i sit now that im in the homelands now that ive had the opportunity to come home. I cant help when im out in the land to stop and think about what my ancestors went through in order so that i could sit here and talk to you about them today. Famine disease loss of land forced removal wars death conversion to christianity loss of self lost of culture loss of tradition loss of language they did all of that so that i can now tell you their story. And contrary to popular belief mohegan nation is older than colonization and were older than the tales told by james bentmore cooper. He got it very wrong. Its a very beautiful movie. Im not gonna lie to cinematography is great, but its not accurate and its history. Mohegan nation the mahikaniac the people in the waters that are never still settled along the makana talk, which is the river that flows both ways. You know, it has the hudson river. I dont call it that river. Its the mahikhana attack because thats its name. From removal from our homelands into new york to settling in the western part of massachusetts, which was also part of our homelands. A great conversion happened there and that conversion doll with christianity. I had the opportunity last summer to come to the homeland for the first time and walk walk the grounds in stockbridge, massachusetts and think about the history that i was there the history that happened there in that place and one of the places that i stopped in was the Mission House, which is located in stockbridge and knowing what happened at that Mission House that Mission House was set up so that John Sergeant who was a missionary and a priest at the time. Can help convert Indigenous Peoples to christianity. So you had mohicans there you had oneida and mohawk and narragansett and pequot and brotherton and all these other nations kind of come together. And what happens there is not only is there a loss of that traditional ceremony and religions, but what happens is our identity starts to be stripped away from us because were no longer mohican. Were no longer pequot. Were no longer narragansett. Were no longer one night up because for some reason its too hard to remember all of those names. The english then daba stockbridge indians so they start by taking away their land and then they start to strip our identity and who we are so from that moment on. We became the stockbridge indians or the stockbridge mohican indians. And that kind of stuck with us, you know, we consider ourselves mohicans mohican nation or lunape, you know, lenape indians, but yet weve got that colonized name coming with us that stockbridge name. And we what happens next is the American Revolution starts, right . This is a war for independence. Im not gonna lie to you. I love early colonial history. I find it very fascinating. Im like the worlds biggest nerd when it comes to this and i can receive it word for word. But what we dont talk about is that the mohican nation and other indigenous nations including those in the holden ashone or the iroquois confederacy, which would have been the oneida on the tuscarora fought on the side of the colonists, right . We served under george washingtons, you know banner we were there. And what happens when we come back from war . Is rather than forced out of our homelands again, we find that when we were all fighting for the freedom to form the United States. We were helping everyone we come back and our lands been taken. So then we move off again. This time were in indiana. Let me get to indiana and the land we were that we were supposed to help settle on. Which was going to be with some of our lenovo brothers and sisters. They had been forced into selling. We had no place to stay. So then were moved again and this time were moved even further from our homelands removed to wisconsin first into the southern part of the state where we settled in what is now stockbridge, wisconsin and then kaukauna, wisconsin and we set up a home there. Finally. There was a place for us to be but again, it was long a river the fox river and that river became a major waterway used for transportation of goods moving products around and settlement was sprouting. Nonnative settlers were coming into the area. They needed the space. We had to move again. And so it was because of the menominee nation and the whole chunk nation. Giving up their homelands. We finally moved further north and had a place to call home. It was also while our time that would be were in wisconsin now a group of our lenape brothers and just came and joined us the muncie lenape. And thats when we became known as the stockbridge Muncie Community. We embraced both those. For example, you know we learned both languages at least you can in the community. You can learn lanape. You can also learn muncie. My naming ceremony happened in muncie. So i am in ownida woman with mohican ancestry with a muncie name. So i feel very honored that im able to represent all parts of the culture that i carry. But when we moved up to the homelands or our homelands in wisconsin in 1856, the land was beautiful. It was covered in forests. Wasnt that great for farming, but it had great for us. But lumber barons came in and they clear cut the land. What were we going to do for an economic base . Again, we were in a position where we were going to be losing a lot of land. And we were going to be losing our livelihood. But there were some great Leaders Within that community who fought very hard was stuck to their guns and were able to reclaim some of that during the passage of the indian reorganization act 1934. We were able to form tribal governments again. We were able to have our leadership. The rockrack tradition culture and in recent years language this is all very important. Friends, what we also started doing is we started making those trips home. Back to the homelands back to the you know, the eastern parts of new york. Massachusetts, connecticut, vermont new jersey pennsylvania people started coming home. And when i have to tell its its such an amazing feeling when you step on these lands. I again made my first trip out here last last summer and as we crossed over the mahikana tech number one, i hate bridges. I dont like bridges. Theyre too high. I dont like them and i never looked down. But as we were crossing over the river for the first time, i looked down. I looked down. And i wasnt nervous and i wasnt scared. I look down and i saw. I saw my ancestors. I saw the villages and i saw the canoes. And there was this calmness that came over me. And it was so unbelievably amazing. And then after that calmness and happiness went away. The anger started to set in the anger of knowing what happened here . Understanding the history of it some historian first ideal in facts. And i i let that anger get a hold of me a little while. Because why you know my ancestors removed off of this land for progress. And thats something that we have to talk about. We have to have a reckoning with that. We have to understand that and i feel so honored and so excited that you know, this will not be hoking exhibit is up. Because its going to be truth. Its putting truth into spaces that truth wasnt always in and that is really important and i feel so lucky that im able to be part of this and talk about our history and i want to just finish with a quote from one of the greatest diplomats leaders that i think mohican nation had that was john quinney. And he gave a speech and reedsville new york 1954 on the fourth of july and his speech has been equated a lot of times to the Frederick Douglass douglas. Speech. What is the fourth of july to a black man . Same concept . What does the fourth of july mean to an indigenous person . So john quinney gives this great speech and i want to leave you with this and i want you to think on it and i want you to meditate it meditate on it because it means so much. My friends your holy book the bible. Teaches us that individual offenses are punished in an existence when time shall be no more. And the animals of the earth are equally instructive that national wrongs are avenged National Crimes atoned for in this world to which alone the confirmation of existence adapts them. These events are above our comprehension and for a wise purpose. For myself and for my tribe i ask for justice. I believe it will sooner or later occur. And may the great good spirit enable me to die in hopes. Thank you very much for including me. I look forward to your questions and i turn this over to my next elder joe baker. Thank you. Thank you very much heather joe. Hello, everyone. Its a great pleasure for me to join those conversation this evening. I want to express my gratitude to the Brooklyn Public Library the center for brooklyn history and my fellow tribal members Curtis Zuniga and heather burgle. You know my story and my thoughts tonight are really informed by the idea of both past and present and the idea that colonization while it has a historical thread and trajectory is still very much alive and present in todays experience. As a tribal elder and a vietnam era veteran. Ive made a conscious choice to return to the lenape homeland to do the work of building a platform for the return of our people to this incredible. Place that is our home. Growing up in oklahoma. I was inspired by the the stories of tribal elder Nora Thompson deed when she described her return trips to the homeland back in the 1970s and that instilled me a curiosity to know more about this place that we come from. So what i want to share with you tonight is how the past also informs the present and how some of these historical moments in time have found expression in the real life experiences. Of my life today in manhattan so my story begins with my family the white turkey family simon white turkey who is first his first begins to appear in publications in the in the mid 1800s from the last Federal Reserve of the lenape people in and around, lawrence, kansas. Simon white turkey was prominent in the successful term. Turn away of quantrells rate on lawrence. So we should mentioned in that publication and that was an 1863 but as kurt as curtis and heather have mentioned these places we were removed to that were going to become our permanent home. Were shortlived and with the advance of the railroad into kansas. We once again, were forced to relocate into indian territ. In 1867 and at that time. The main body of delawares who had and by that definition. I mean those delaware those linuppy people who had stayed together throughout all of the removals and removals and found themselves once again, being removed to indian territory. We numbered 25 30 families about 900 people who were on wagon trains moving into indian territory. And one person grandma mahoney who was in the care of our family the white turkey family was the keeper of it all which is a traditional ceremony of the lenape that ensures the health and wellbeing of the community the Community Health that was 1867. And 2021 through the efforts of Lenape Center they descendants of the mahoney grandma mahoney family the half family. Was reunited again with the white turkey family. Rebecca haflower who lives in san diego and david half who lives in the phoenix area again joined with us here in new york for Lenape Center and doing the good work of returning our presence here. From that place in oklahoma or before the before the arrival into indian territory in 1867. We have to think about that period of time because it was the result of the indian removal act of 1830 and it forced over 60 different tribal nations into one area indian territory. So people coming into indian territory from different regions with different cultures and different beliefs and different languages all living in close proximity to one another and living with the purposeful goal of survivors. How do we survive this place and time . And then along comes the daws act in 1887, and i want to share with you. A moment of two weeks ago when i was outside of new pauls new york, and i was at the mohonk mountain. Its actually resort and there i was learning more about the history of that particular place. And the history there was it was established by a quaker family and and the 1870s. Its it began a resort the resort began in 1870, but in 1883 to 1916 the family decided to open their doors and invite conversations inviting the bureau of Indian Affairs and the both the house and Senate Representatives of the Indian Commission to that resort to discuss. Policies that would affect indian communities across this country and two weeks ago i was there in the exact place the parlor its called where the dawes act was created. So that was a moment on a very its a very personal thing to be standing in the exact place. Where laws and policies were created in visioned that would remove millions of acres from the hands of native people. And and would open up those surplus called surplus lands to White Settlement and that specifically struck a personal chord with me because it impacted my family then. And it impacts my family today. So these acts of colonization that we we like to neatly think of as things that occurred in the past. I think we have to really understand that they still are active today. So i want to talk about the daws act and my my Family History with that. My family was awarded over just under 700 acres in Washington County. 160 acres to the individual head of household and 80 acres of per adult children, so that impacted my grandmother stella why turkey frugate and her allotment was consisted of 80. 995 acres in Washington County all of that land. Soon became well with the discovery of oil it became. An asset another land mass that was open to development for the extractive industries, so indian families were descended upon by entrepreneurs and the oil industry and all sorts of legal maneuverings were occurring within that area of oklahoma to gain, access to those lands in 1924. My grandmother died suddenly a poisoning. In 1934 my uncle Wilbur Wright who was scheduled to testify and it forgery case. Was murdered the 1960s through water flood in 1950s that particular allotment was flooded with water for a remedy of to refresh the oil supply at that time, and there a great environmental damage. So there were attempts to mitigate that damage through Environmental Resources and the 1950s 1960s and in 1970. The wealth have been capped the the tanks have been removed and there seemed to be a certain level of peace that felt over that land. But by 19 by the 2020 2004 the allamerican Pipeline Company suddenly appears and there is a movement underfoot to bring a pipeline diagonally across the allotment which at that at this time in history is is being farmed. My mother was in the courts protesting and fighting this pipeline access just before her death. And of course the courts decided in favor of the Pipeline Company based on the 1904 access to a pipeline. Historic pipeline by the prairie Pipeline Company so so often we we think of these acts of colonialism has acts of the historical past when actually they play out in daily life today. And so i would offer that their indian there are many stories family stories of resistance that continue within our communities and that are worthy of a greater visibility that are worthy of an airing a public hearing that we we desperately need in terms of our society and our progress into the future. Its interesting that. This time that we find ourselves in and lets speak directly of the experience in new york city. That before the creation of Lenape Center some 13 years ago. There was an almost complete erasure of our history here. No institution had stepped forward to make available an exhibition of lenape art and culture that was celebrate our existence and our homeland our participation and vital participation in in the art and culture of this region and and so, you know we continuously fight against that erasure and we do that through opportunities of partnership and collaboration with organizations that are really making their assets and their Resources Available to us so that we can tell our story and share our experiences and i think that is very important and for anyone who was in the audience wondering what can be done today to you know to to help support a more truthful telling of a very complex history i encourage you to reach out to Lenape Centering encourage you to reach out with other partners and participate in an open discussion about better ways of living which i think are essential for all people regardless of where youre coming from. And so with that i passed this back to tibby. Thank you very much. Curtis had a job for for sharing your thoughts sharing stories of removal suffering and through the assays that you have written curtis and how the the details of suffering endured by communities. I would my Organization Works to prevent the trustees to prevent genocide to prevent crimes against humanity among which force transfer of population force removal. When people speak these days about to trustees they focus on the killing hearing you share the stories of removal the stories of continued continuing colonialism and continuing crime. I wanted to ask you from the perspective of the Lenape Community and i dont see mohican community. That we severing the relationship with model lands through removal. How does that play in the sense of continuing crime committed against the communities . Do you have any thoughts on that . Had there please. Yeah, um, well, i mean, its something thats still happening right . So it didnt just stop when we removed off of the land that continuously slow genocide continues to this day and i know that that sounds harsh and this is not going to be like a very eloquent or happy answer but, you know, we were removed off of the land under reservations reservations were supposed to be temporary. They were supposed to be holding places for us and why because we are in 2022. We should not exist according to what the plan was going to be right because as long as there are Indigenous People around there are sovereign nations around treaties still have to be upheld which means the government the federal government is still responsible for their end of the treaty and i will also note that there is never been a treaty made between the United States and a native nation that has been 100 upheld on the side of the federal government. They have never never upheld their end of the bargain and so because of that. They dont want to up they dont want to do that. So youve got to institute ways to get rid of quote the population and one of those things that was introduced was the concept of blood quantum, right . Were the only group that has to have documented. You know, how much quote indian blood that we have the only other groups that i can think of that have to do that are dogs and horses. And Indigenous People right . Were the only people that have to do that because the minute that quantum dips below whatever the requirement is the tribes start to disappear and when the tribe start to disappear, they dont have the federal government doesnt have to uphold those treaty rights anymore. Reservations were supposed to be temporary. Because we are not supposed to be here. And i mean so that that genocide from the start from that removal just continues and perpetuates today. Its 2022, you know, theyre still trying to find ways to solve the quote indian problem. So it is something you know, it started with the removal of the land, but then there were so many other things that added on top of that in order to help get rid of us. Another aspect of that heather and thank you for that perspective is the ongoing psychological trauma. That is inflicted as a result of colonialism. You know and and im speaking to the spirits that exists just outside the parking lots and the darkness of indian bars. Im speaking about the Domestic Violence that plagues our communities im speaking. About the atrocities theres the secrets that are held within families the lateral violence the still a part of our communities. These are all. Results of a people a society who has been removed from their original place through trauma after trauma after trauma. And i think that the challenge today. Is defined a positive way of of responding to this brutal and oftentimes violent history that we continue to hold within our beings. And i think joe hit on it very well that there is generational trauma historic trauma that is oftentimes acted out in todays lenape or delaware people. Todays indian communities. They are feeling the residual effects of colonialism. Which began and this is the tough part of examining the truth in history that Lenape Center is presenting. That colonialism is based on the Christian Doctrine of discovery . And this concept of manifest destiny. That the christian europeans sent to this land to take dominion over it to that in all of the language whether it was written in latin or other languages. The indians were referred to as the savages and the directive was to convert them into christians who would become the working class to extract the resources from the land and send that back to the kings and queens and the popes and of everybody back in europe and then also all of that land then would be a made available to this wave and wave of people coming to this new land. And there was this idea that that indians were savages so you either convert them or you can kill them and its all right to kill them because royalty and the pope said i sanction this in the name of christ. Its okay. If you do that, dont feel guilty about it. And they did. Scalp bounties to kill lenape to remove them from their homeland the introduction of smallpox infected blankets given to learn up a indians these these kinds of old tactics push the lenape away and we became erased. From the history books from the conscience of the people and its part of the reason why not base center is combating this erasure. Telling the truth because in a way it helps people wake up and realize that were still here. We are still a living thriving people with a culture and a language and we deserve to be welcome back in the homeland and a loud to connect with the homeland and the spirit of the homeland and take our place rightfully at the table of all power whether its political religious economic. Artistic, whatever it may be the lanape people collectively and our efforts as the directors of Lenape Center and our other friends. We want to bring these issues forward and find ways of changing and affecting Public Policy today so that were not still dealing with the vestiges of colonial. And historical trauma one of which were actively involved in and thats the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous Women and children and now its in just all Indigenous People theyre in to date in 2022 many people still look at indian people and the lenape a much like they did 500 years ago much like they did in 1776 when Thomas Jefferson called us merciles savages when he wrote the declaration of independence combating the erasure. Is more than just dealing with the past . Its laying a path for the future so that when the lenape take our place back in our homeland. We can bring traditional knowledge. Practices and traditions that will only strengthen. The the existing Community Today and were ever so grateful for people like the Brooklyn Library and other institutions that are welcoming us back and giving us a place at the table. That is what we are hoping will be and an important emphasis on our mission as Lenape Center in the years to come. Thank you very much for responding to my question. Maybe. Heres the right moment to speak a bit right our experience at the ashfords institute. We embarked with the help of the Lenape Center on a process of developing our living land acknowledgment to engage with the history and to engage with the present of the history of our land and of the crimes committed on our lands and i cannot tell you in the audience how grateful we are to do in our Business Center for the guidance provided to us for us to understand as an institution working with human rights how we can contribute to engaging with with the consequences of the history of our land and to contribute to dismantling. Hope of the legacies that we live today of the colonial separate colonial genocide. I encourage everybody in i encourage everybody in the audience to reflect individually on how they can develop their own approach to engaging with the consequences of the forced removal, of the genocide, and develop their own living plant acknowledgment practices that will make us a better society. Now i would like to go to our questions. Ins will Group Questions two by two because some of them are more information requiring and some of them are asking our speakers to reflect. First question comes from an anonymous participant, asking what do you mean by try to just as opposed to lenape . The second question, what efforts are in place with a history of lenapehoking entered new york state curriculum for elementary and secondary schools . [inaudible] joe . Joe, your muted, sorry. Thank you. Okay. Now i have a voice. So im happy to share with you regarding new york state curriculum. There have been great outreach efforts made by individual teachers to Lenape Center requesting a more truthful and honest and thorough history of lenape present in the homeland. Other than that cursory curriculum that exists today. So there seems to be a new openness for the expansion of the curriculum, and it is being driven not by the new York State Department of education so much as its being driven by the individual and courageous efforts of individual teachers. If i may, im looking at the chat bar over here. There are so many questions that i think we only have a limited amount of time left on this webinar. I would encourage people to take their questions and email them either to the library or, ill give you the email address for Lenape Center which is simply lenape a center gmail. Com, all e word, Lenape Center gmail. Com. Many of his questions, they are great ones we just dont have enough time to cover it all. Reps if you send those in, and we can write more essays, we can create more exhibits, we can address these things in the months and actually used to come because they are the same questions we asked ourselves asa we begin to return back to the homeland. Thank you, tibi. Indeed excellent questions and it would be not fitting to engage in an. I would suggest given that the audience is Still Holding for us to attempt to answer a few more questions, if you dont mind. Are you okay with that . The question comes from just. I would like to know what is the best way for people or settlers in lenape to support the efforts towardmi reclaiming the life and offer reparations. I am a plant worker Building Collective my practices and believe i owe a debt to the land and to the lenape people. Question number four, how are the munchies related to the lenape . Related to the lineup question. Anybody would like to reflect on these two . Spirit heather, do you want to mention about differential between whats known as muncie and whats known as lenape . Both the language and community identity. I sometimes get them confused but you will correct me if im wrong. So muncie is a part of the lenape, but its language dialect. And within that there are other dialects, like theres i forget them but theres other dialects so like when i refer to muncie, i refer to the language. When talking about the people i say the lenape. Thats my clear understanding. Thank you very much put on the spot right there, but thats okay. This just really quick. To the person who mentioned there are a black person working in the land, thats awesome, thank you so much. I would encourage you to reach out to the sulfite farm which is a farm here in the Hudson Valley that they are an afro indigenous farm to do some really amazing work and lived in really good aboutt making sure that they are paying homage and respect of the land. You can find them, i think it is literally soul fire. Com but if you put it into google you will find them. I think thats really a cool. I just wanted to say i see you and acknowledge you and thank you so much for that. I acknowledge your past and your ancestors hardships and so thank you for honoring mine as well. Thank you very much. And let me just say that we at Lenape Center are working on the land in partnership with farm hub on the Hudson River Valley to return ancestral seeds to the ancestral land. We are in our third season, and this upcoming programming that will be a part of the exhibition lenapehoking thatin will reallye very specific to address those topics of land and farming that are the foodways not only the lenape but other Indigenous People of the area spirit and for the Africanamerican Community, the origins of your story and colonialism are very similar to the lenape enter the Indigenous People here in the homeland. Because that Christian Doctrine of discovery also excluded to the african continent and many of the native or Indigenous People of the african continent were taken into slavery and brought to the americas here and im talking about north, south, central america, to become again a working slave class of people. So i think the Africanamerican Community and the native American Community collectively cannot only share stories of the effects of colonialism, but what we are doing today to revive our identity and address racism and colonialism that still exists in Public Policy. We cannot deny that it ison stil going on and, therefore, we can work collectively to change thinking and institutions in the decades to come and try to overcome what is t happened in e past, is an ongoing effort. Thank you. And our final two questions if you dont mind, the following. The first one fromm rosemary. Would you speak a little bit about the reclamation process of lenape languages . What do you feel are the prospects for those languages to become live languages are spoken daily currently in communities . And the last question is asking what lenape history would you recommend yourselves . Well, i can address that last question regarding what books. Theres a lot of information available, not, not all of it is accurate or can be recommended, but what i do recommend for everyone in this audience to be sure and watch for the publication of this anthology, which should be published during the month of june which will become a very Rich Resource for the public and for educators. And its really one of the first publications that include community voices, voices directly from the community, not the recommendations of a scholar but community voices. So thats going to become an important resource that we can recommend at Lenape Center. And with regards to language, let me just say this. Language is the foundation of all things culture. And many people believe that the lenape or modern delawares have lost their culture. They have lost their language. Weve lost a lot of traditional knowledge about we have not lost our language here and o thanks o the efforts of so many people, some of whom are still living today. A website called talk lenape. Org. And on that is language stories the voices of now deceased tribal elders pronouncing words telling stories. We have classes going on with the delaware indian tribe right now in oklahoma. We are learning. We are learning from is like a trail of breadcrumbs our ancestors and elders left for us to go back and follow that trail and we now have a group of young people here using our language website bringing back our cultural gatherings. As long as we have our language, but the foundation promoting our culture in aob robust effort to keep that going more in the northern tribes. They still have traditional speakers and elders but a growing group of young people taking over all basin speaking their language so we dont have have a we we used to are on this path of reclaiming to strengthen our identity and commitment to return to the homeland and return of her identity t, i am speaking passionately because it is a sacred endeavor we do as a gift of appreciation for the sacrifices of our ancestors and give it to us in spite of the conditions and you can learn more about it in this anthology joe spoke about but also visiting the center and see our ongoing efforts. Theres nothing right being able to speak on the land that knows that language, its powerful. And it connects the generations. One thing going on with me, im texting my 16yearold granddaughter and she replies in the language. Thats awesome. I would like to thank our wonderful speakers for sharing your knowledge and passion with us today. I like to a think the audience will being so engaged. I apologize for not having the opportunity to ask questions. Reaching for the phone and writing emails to continue conversation. I would like to thank our titters host and think the library for hosting us today. I want to thank all of you for this spectacular way too brief beginning. After ever seen so much engagement and questions that come in. I want to tell everybody because the questions that have come in about what was mentioned, the anthology is in process now in the best way to know when it will bee published, visit the website pages on Brooklyn Public Librarys website which will go into the chat and you will get updates and you will be able to explore the programs. Some have already, and it will be about missing and intuitiveness women. There is a conversation coming about this. We have poetry performances and many other conversations so join us for those but most importantly thank you for engaging and thank you heather, joe and curtis for a moving and powerful launch. I wish everybody a wonderful night. A healthy democracy doesnt just look like this. Americans can see democracy at work. Get informed straight from the sources in the Nations Capital to wherever you are, this is what democracy looks like. Play cspan radio. Cspan, power by radio. Points of interest markers appear on the righthand side of your screen. This makes it easy to get any idea of what was debated and decide to wash. Scroll through and spend a few minutes on points of interest. Weekends on cspan2 our intellectual peace. Sundays book tv brings the latest nonfiction books and authors