Transcripts For CSPAN3 History Of Lenape Forced Removals 20221010

Tonights as well as musical performances, family and childrens events, literary and philosophical discussions and so much more. Tonights program, the history of lenape forced removals, is one part of a larger and far ranging initiative that we are honored to be presenting with the wisdom and leadership of the Lenape Center. This Initiative Includes new yorks first ever lenape curated expedition which is now on view at bpls as well as many topics such as the myth of the purchase of manhattan we will have poetry readings. Theres an upcoming anthology of essays on lenape history. I am humbled to represent my bpl colleagues, who have led this ambitious effort. It is truly my honor to introduce tonights discussion on their behalf. In a few moments, you will hear three perspectives on a history that has too long been overlooked. Misrepresented, and lied about. For 10,000 years, the lenape lived in an area that includes parts of what are now the states of pennsylvania, connecticut, new york and delaware. And through ways of often brutal forced migrations, forced removals, this first nation was dispersed two locations two s content, two parts for the north and west. Before i 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. And second, i want to invite you to share your questions tonight. Use the queue and a box, which is also at the bottom of your screen. Now, it is my honor to introduce our speakers and turn it over to them. Curtis zunigha is an enrolled member of the delaware tribe of indians and codirector of the Lenape Center, based in new york city, which promotes the history and culture of the lenape people through the arts, humanities, social identity and environmental activism. His multi media experience includes writing, producing, acting, narrating, composing and performing traditional music. Joe baker is an artist, curator, and activist, who has worked in the field of native arts for the past 30 years. He is an enrolled member of the delaware tribe of indians and cofounder and executive director of the Lenape Center. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University school of social work and was recently visiting professor of and joe curated the lenape exhibition i mentioned earlier. Heather bruegl it is a citizen of nation of wisconsin and first line descendant in addition to her many speaking engagements, she has become the accidental activist, speaking to different groups about intergenerational racism and trauma and helping to build awareness of our environment, the fight for clean water, and other issues in the native community. Shes the former director of Cultural Affairs and now heather served as a director of education for the project. Our moderator tonight, doctor tibi galis, has been the executive director of the Auschwitz Institute for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities since 2006. Born and raised in previously worked as an associate researcher for the uk parliament, where he helped developed the position on the uns special adviser on the prevention of genocide. Welcome. Welcome to you all. Im not going to turn this over to curtis for a ward of welcome on behalf of lenape [speaking nonenglish] good evening, everyone. And welcome to this amazing webinar. I am Curtis Zunigha, a codirector of Lenape Center, as mentioned, and arts and Culture Organization that but now we cover the entirety of lenape, the land of the lenape, the original homeland, which goes up into the foothills of the catskills mountains and all the way down to eastern pennsylvania and new jersey and into the delaware bay. That is our original homeland. It is amazing that we are part of this webinar this evening. And on behalf of the Lenape Center and speaking as a lenape man, i welcome you to this place called lenape and we are very glad that you are here with us this evening from wherever you are joining us. Thank you. Thank you very much, curtis. I would like to welcome everyone and also recognize that i am talking to you today from the land of they oneida, the original people of the land where im speaking from today. I would also start by recognizing that the organization that i have joined, the Auschwitz Institute, is not in the land of the lenape and i would also like to recognize that lenape have a deep connection to an organization dedicated perpetrated in this community and the resilience of the lenape, who still today, continue to resist erasure. I would like to invite all of us to listen to this very important discussion today. And to open our hearts to learning about the history of our land and the history of the people of our land. I would like to invite Curtis Zunigha to start us off in this discussion. You have a floor. Thank you. All right. I was asked to write an essay about what was originally called the first migration of the lenape. I ended up writing a lengthy essay, but my approach was to get away from the term of migration or diaspora. We have been using that term, but the more i reviewed and remembered our story, it truly is forced relocation. And writing about our people, we were the ones that encountered the europeans. Originally, it began with the italian explorer sailing for the french, verrazano, followed 100 years later by henry hudson, an englishman, but he was sailing for the dutch east india company, trying to explore routes for the free trade. Upon encountering the lenape people, there are numerous stories and accounts written by explorers, military leaders, missionaries, and other colonial settlers that talked about the lenape people as a strong and ancient people with a culture and a belief system that, in some ways, actually was i can to some of the british quakerism. Above all, we had and still have a deep spiritual relationship with the land. So, when we talk about being removed from the homeland, the homeland of the original lenape people, to me, and by extension, to so many of our people, to me, it is like being an orphan. It is like someone who has been taken away from the arms of our mother and taken away, far away, to where we cannot see our mother anymore. And 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 lenape people are broken up into various groups and today, their names include the name delaware. That is our colonial name. Again, i am a member of the delaware tribe of indians. That is a colonial name, delaware. It actually came from a British Colonial governor, sir thomas west. Now, the lenape people became known as the delaware throughout this historic period of time. But as we encountered more and more of the europeans, again, the dutch, followed by the british, and then ultimately the americans, as they hunger for more land and opportunity too have a free and independent land to live on, they displaced the original people, who were already free and independent People Living on that land. That is the lenape. Our stories and much of what you will see in this exhibit well tell our story of how we were forced away from our homeland in an environment in a theater of war. After a while, we became war refugees. If you listen to the news or watch the news and you see other countries and people being displaced in their own country in a theater of war, well, that is what they lenape went through. So, this exhibit will not only tell that story, and my essay that i wrote, i take us through that trail of forced removal, where today, the lenape, todays modern descendants, known as the delaware, my tribe, and i am an enrolled member, we are located in northeastern oklahoma and we have been here since 1867. There are also other communities, one other and oklahoma, two in southern ontario, canada, and one in wisconsin, collectively, we are the descendants of the original lenape. We are like different branches from the same tree trunk. But that tree trunk is rooted firmly in the homeland. And now, with Lenape Center, and ive been involved for over ten years now with the center, i feel like that orphan child, who has come back, back to new york, back to lenape to connect with my mother, the motherland, the homeland, the original homeland. It is that deep Spiritual Connection with the land, the waters, the ancestors. It has never gone away and thanks to Lenape Center and our friendships and partnerships that we have made with such institutions as the Brooklyn Library and the center for brooklyn history, people are making a way for the lenape to return to our homeland. And in doing so and by telling our story, people learn that we still exist. We there was so much erasure of our history and our culture and our language and our presence in lenape erasure done by centuries, decades of people who took over the land. Most often times by force or by fraud. And basically, they wrote the lenape out of the history. But Lenape Center and our friends with the Brooklyn Library, we are here to tell you that we never died out. We are still here. And we are grateful that we can come back to the homeland now and connect with the spirit of our homeland. And in doing so, we continue the generation, the generational connection, after all of the centuries in the homeland. And that is extremely gratifying. It roots us more in our culture, and our language, and we pay honor to the sacrifices of our ancestors and the caliphate of the creator for our culture and language, which we still have. And that is passed down to us. And we will continue to go back to our homeland and assert our presence and assert a claim to our homeland that we never willingly gave up. I hope you all will learn more about the Lenape Center. We do have a website called the Lenape Center dot com and you will find a lot of incredible information about the growth and development of our organization, but all of the work that we have done, we are an arts and Culture Organization. Again that land has a spirit. We are very much engaged in environmental protection, and care for the land. That land has a spirit. So i share with you loom this sense of the limb of eight people are no longer orphans. We have returned to our mother, and our mothers opening her arms, and welcoming us back. And we also, by working with various organizations and will not be hokie, we are taking our place back. And at the table of power, we are bringing traditional knowledge, culture, and language that only enrich is the entire fabric of that which is low not pay hooking, that which is new york city, from that which is the Brooklyn Library, and all of our partners, and all the wonderful people that we have gathered together. With that, we are some other people 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 going on here with the green Point Library in brooklyn, the center for brooklyn history, and you will only see much more bigger and better presence of the loan of a center in the years to come. With that, i say one easy, thank you. When you see, curtis. And now we will turn to heather and joe. And after that, we will open a discussion with based on the questions that you in the audience are sending, as we are starting the conversation. Now, i would like to invite heather to join the discussion. Heather . Hi, thank you so much. If i remember my language correctly. My name more language is sunflower in full bloom. I had my naming ceremony, in the middle of the pandemic, in september of 2020. I am very honored to be part of this panel this evening. Thank you to joe and curtis for the continued learning. Thank you to the Brooklyn Library and to the center for brooklyn history. I am so honored to be here. I am coming to you from the homelands of the that is the people of the waters that are still. Today, they are known as the community, and the centralized in wisconsin. Im very honored to be able to come here from the homelands. I moved here in october of last year, from wisconsin. Prior to that, i was living on the home lines of three fires consul in southeastern michigan. I worked for a number of years for the community. Now, i am here in upstate new york. Actually, i just learned, im not in upstate new york. I guess i am in the middle, apparently. I was wrong the whole time, but thats okay. But i am in the home lines here, and i am so honored. I want to start with this. This is one of my favorite quotes, i guess. It was from lakota activist john trudeau. We are not indians and we are not native americans. We are older than both concepts. We are the people, we are the human beings. I think thats really powerful, to stop and think about that. We are older than both of those concepts. We are the human beings. When i hear that, i think about how we are the originals, we are the og. We are the people who were here from the beginning, when creator created this beautiful Turtle Island and placed us upon it. We were here first, and this is our homeland. And through forced removal, time and time again, we were forced into different areas. I am a first line descendant of the community now located northeast wisconsin, through the treaty of 1856, from land that was seated from the nations. Other nations gave up pieces of their home so that my ancestors, and i will include the oneida in this as well. Im also a citizen of the oneida nation. 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 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 changed forever. Your life changes forever. And now that i am in the homelands, now that i have the opportunity to come home, i cant help when i am out in the land to stop and think about what my in sisters 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 christiane 80. Loss of self, loss 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, mohican nation is older than colonization. And we are older than the tales told by he got it very wrong. Its a very beautiful movie, im not going to lie. Cinematography is great. But its not accurate, it is not history. The mohawk kania, the people of the waters that are never still settled along the river that flows both ways. You know it is the hudson river, i dont call it that river, it is the ma he contact, because that is its name. From removal in our home lens in new york to settling in the western part of massachusetts, which was also part of our homelands, a great conversion happened. That conversion dealt with christiane at a. I had the opportunity last summer to come to the homelands for the first time, and walk the grounds in massachusetts. And think about the history that was there, the history that was happening there in that place. And one of the places i stopped and was the Mission House, which is located in stop ridge. And knowing what happened at that Mission House, that Mission House was set up so that john sargent, who was missionary and a priest at the time, could help convert Indigenous Peoples to christiane adi. You had mohicans there, you had oneida and mohawk and an arrogance it, and brother ten, and all of these other nations coming together. And what happens there is not only is there a loss of that traditional ceremony and religion, but what happens is our identity starts to be stripped away from us. Because we are no longer mohican. We are no longer narok and sit, we are no longer oneida. Because for some reason, its too hard to remember all of those names. The english then term must stop bridge indians. They start by taking away our land and then stripping away our density, and who we are. From that moment on, we became the stock bridge indians. Or the stock bridge mohican indians. And that kind of stuck with us. We consider ourselves mohicans, while he can nation, or the lana pay. Will not pay indians, but yet weve got that colonized name coming with us, that stock bridge name. And what happens next is the American Revolution starts. This is an award for independence. Im not going to lie to you, i love early colonial history, i find a very fascinating. I am the worlds biggest nerd when it comes to this. And i can recite it word for word. But what we dont talk about is that the mohican nation and other indigenous nations, including those in the haudenosaunee, or the iroquois confederacy, which wouldve been the oneida, the tuscarora, fought on the side of the colonists. We surged under George Washingtons banner. We were there. And what happens when we come back from war . We are then forced to leave our home lens again. We find that when we were off fighting for the freedom to form the United States, we were helping everyone, we come back and our land has been taken. So then we move off again. This time we are an indian. And we get to indiana, and the land that we were supposed to help settle on, which was going to be with some of our will not be brothers and sisters, they have been forced into selling. We had no place to stay. So then we are moved again, and this time we are moving even further from our homelands. We are moved to wisconsin. First its the southern part of the state, where we settled in what is now stop bridge, wisconsin. And we set up a home there, finally. There was a place for us to be. But again, it was along a river, the fox river. And that river became a major waterway, used for transportation of goods, moving products around. And settlement was spreading. Not native settlers were coming into the area. They needed the space, we had to move again. And so it was because of the giving up their homelands, we finally moved further north and had a place to call home. It was also while this time that we were in wisconsin that a group of our will not be brothers and sisters came and joined us. And that is when we became known as the we embrace both of those. For example, we learn both languages, at least you can in the community. You can learn one of, you can also learn monsey. My naming ceremony happened in monsey, so i am and oneida woman with mohican ancestry with a monsey 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 in wisconsin in 1856, the land is beautiful. It was covered in forests. It wasnt that great for farming, but it had great forests. But lumber barons came in, and they clearcut the land. And what we were 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 in that community who fought very hard, who stuck to their guns, and were able to reclaim some of that during the passage of the indian reorganization act in 1934. We were able to form tribal governments again, we were able to have our leadership. We brought back tradition and culture, and in recent years, language. This is all very important. Also what we started doing is we started making those trips home. Back to the homelands, back to the eastern parts of new york. Massachusetts, connecticut, vermont, new jersey, pennsylvania. People started coming home. And it is such an amazing feeling, when you step on these lands. I made my first trip out here last summer, and as we crossed over the mohican at a. I hate bridges, i dont like bridges, they are 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 looked down and i saw my ancestors. I saw the villages, and i saw the canoes. And there was a calmness that came over me. And it was so unbelievably amazing. And then after that calmness and happiness went away, the anger started to sit in. The anger of knowing what happened here, understanding the history of it. Im a historian first, ideal and facts. And i let that anger get a hold of me for a little while. Because why . My ancestors were moved off of this land for progress, and that is something 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 this line of a hooking exhibit is up. Because it is going to be truth. It is putting truth into spaces, that truth wasnt always in. And that is really important. And i feel so lucky that i am able to be part of this and talk about our history, and i wanted to finish with a quote from one of the greatest diplomats, leaders that i think the mohican a shunt had. That was john he gave a speech in new york, 1954, on the fourth of july. His speech has been quoted a lot of times. What is the fourth of july to a black man . The same concept. What does the fourth of july mean to an indigenous person. John quincy gives this great speech, and i want to leave you with this. I want you to think on it, and i want you to meditate on it. 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 annals of the earth are equally instructive that national wrongs are avenged, National Crimes atone 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 made 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. It is a great pleasure for me to join this conversation this evening. I want to express my gratitude to the Brooklyn Public Library, the center for brooklyn history, and my fellow tribal members. My story and my thoughts tonight are really informed by the idea of both past and present, and the idea that colonization rehas a historical thread and trajectory. It is still very much alive and present in todays experience. As a vietnam era veteran, ive made a conscious choice to return to full and not be a 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 stories of the tribal elder, nora thompson, when she described to return trips to the homeland back in the 1970s. And that instilled in me a curiosity to know more about this place we come from. So what i want to share with you tonight is how the past also informs the president , and how these historic moments in time have found expression in the real Life Experiences of my life today in manhattan. So my story begins with my family. They first began to appear in publications in the mid 1800s, from the last Federal Reserve of the land of a people in and around lawrence, kansas. Simon white turkey was prominent in the successful turn away of he is mentioned in a publication. And that was in 1863. 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 territory. In 1867. At that time, the main body in delaware, and by that definition i mean the line of people who had stayed together throughout all the removals, and found themselves once again being removed to indian territory. We number 25, 30 families. About 900 people. We were on a wagon trains, moving into indian territory. And one person who was in the care of our family, the white turkey family, was the keeper of the dolls. Which is a traditional ceremony of the land of pay that ensures the health and wellbeing of the community, the community health. That was 1867. In 2021, through the efforts of the land of a center, the descendants of the grandma mahoney family was reunited again with the white turkey family. Rebecca have flower in san diego, and david half. Again, they were joined with us here in new york from the land of a center. And doing the good work of returning our presence here. From that place in oklahoma, and before the arrival to indian territory in 1867. We have to think about 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 survival. How do we survive this place and time . And then along comes the dawes act in 1887. And i want to share with you a moment of two weeks ago, when i was outside of new poll, new york. I was at the mohawk mountain. It is actually a resort. And there, i was learning more about the history of that particular place. And it was established by a quaker family in the 1870s. The family decided to open their doors and invite conversations. And both the house and the Senate Representatives of the Indian Commission were invited to that resort. Two weeks ago, i was there the exact place, the parlor where the dawes act was created. That was a moment its a very personal thing to be standing in the exact place where laws and policies were created and envisioned, that would remove millions of acres from the hands of native people. And what would open up these surplus lands to white settlement. And that these acts of colonization that we like to neatly think of as something occurring in the past, we have to understand they are still active today. So i want to talk about the dawes act and my Family History with that. My family was awarded just under 700 acres in washington county, 160 acres to the individual household, and 80 acres per adult. So that impacted my grandmother, stella white turkey. And her allotment was consisted of 88 point 95 acres in washington county. All of that land soon became with the discovery of oil, it became an asset, another land mass that was open to development for those districts. And all sorts of legal maneuverings were occurring within that area of oklahoma. In 1924, my grandmother died suddenly of poisoning. My uncle wilbur who was scheduled to testify in a forgery case was murdered. In the 1960s, through the 1950s, that particular allotment was flooded with water. To refresh the oil supply at that time and there was great environmental damage. There were attempts to medicate that with Environmental Resources in the 19 50s, 19 six days, and in 1970, the welsh had been kept, with the tanks had been removed. And there seemed to be a certain level of peace that fell over that land. But by the 2004, the all American Pipeline Company suddenly appears. And there is a movement underfoot to bring a pipeline diagonally across the allotment which at this time in history is being farmed. My mother was in the courts, protesting this pipeline access. Just before her death. And of course, the court decided in favor of the company, based on the 1904 access to the historic pipeline by the prairie pipeline company. So often, we think of these acts of colonialism as acts of the historical past. Actually, they play out in our daily life today and i would offer that there are many 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 airing that we desperately need in terms of our society and our progress into the future. It is interesting that this time that we find ourselves in and let speak directly of the experience in new york city. Before the creation of the lenape the 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 would celebrate our existence and our participation and vital participation in the art and culture of this region. And so, 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 is in the audience, wondering what can be done today, too how support a more truthful telling of a very complex history, i encourage you to reach out to the Lenape Center and to reach out with other and participate in open discussion about better ways of living, which i think are essential for all people, regardless of where you are coming from. And so, with that, i pass this back to tibi galis. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts, sharing your stories of removal, suffering, and through the essays that you have written, the details of suffering injured by communities. My Organization Works to prevent genocide, to prevents crime against humanity when people speak these days about atrocities, they focus on the killing. Hearing you share the stories of removal, they stories of continuing colonialism and continuing crimes, i want to ask you from the perspective of the lenape community, suffering the relationship with the motherland through removal, how does that play in that the sense of do you have any thoughts on that . However . Well, it is something that is still happening, right . So, it did not just talk when we are moved off of the land. That continuous slow genocide continues to this day. And i know that that sound harsh and not very eloquent or happy, 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. Because as long as there are Indigenous People around, there are sovereign nations around, treaty still need to be upheld. That 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, never upheld their end of the bargain. So, because of that, they dont want to do that. So, they need to institute ways to get rid of, quote, the population. And one thing that was introduced was the concept of blood quantum. We are the only group that needs to have documented how much, quote, indian blood that we have. The only other groups that i can think of that need to do that our dogs and horses. And Indigenous People, right . We are the only people that need to do that. Because the minute that quantum dips below whatever the requirement is, the tribes start to disappear. And when the tribes start to disappear and the federal government doesnt need to uphold those treaty rights anymore, reservations were supposed to be temporary because we are not supposed to be here. And, i mean, that genocide, from the start, from that removal, just continues and perpetuates today. Its 2022, you know . They are still trying to find ways to solve the, quote, indian problem. It is something. It started with the removal of the land and there were so many other things that added on top of that in order to help get rid of us. Another aspect of that, and thank you for that perspective, is the ongoing psychological trauma that is inflicted as a result of colonialism. I am speaking to the spirits that exist just outside the parking lot in the darkness of indian bars. I am speaking about the Domestic Violence that plagues our communities. I am speaking about the atrocities, the secrets that are held within families, the lateral violence is 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 to find a positive way of responding to this brutal and oftentimes violent history that we continue to have within our being. I think joe hit on it very well, that there is generational trauma, historic trauma that is oftentimes acted out in two days will not be delaware people. Two days 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 the lana pay center is presenting. That colonialism is based on the Christian Doctrine of discovery, and this concept of manifest destiny that the christian europeans were sent to this land to take dominion over it, two 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 too warm convert them into christians who would become working class, to extract the resources from the land, and send that back to the kings and queens, and the popes, and everybody back in europe. And also, all of that land would be made available to them waves and waves of people coming to this new land. And there was this idea that indians were savages, so you either convert them, or you could kill them. And its all right to kill, 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 lana pay, to remove them from their homeland. The introduction of smallpox infected blankets given to one of a indians. These kinds of tactics push dylan abe away, and then slowly, we became erased from the history books, from the conscience of the people. And it is part of the reason why they were not a center is combatting this erasure, telling the truth, because in a way, it helps people to wake up and realize that we are still here. We are still a living, thriving people with a culture and a language, and we deserve to be welcomed back in the homeland and allowed to connect with the homeland and the spirit of the homeland. And to take our place, rightfully, at the table of all whether it is political, religious, economic, artistic, whatever it may be. The law not pay people, collectively, and our efforts as the directors of ellen of a center, and our other friends. We want to bring these issues forward and find ways of changing and affecting Public Policy today. So that we are not still dealing with the vestiges of colonial and historical trauma. One of which, we are actively involved in. Thats the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous Women and children. And now, it is all Indigenous People. Today, in 2022, many people still look at indian people, like ellen abe, much like they did 500 years ago. Much like they did in 1776, when Thomas Jefferson called us merciless savages, when he wrote the declaration of independence. Combatting the erasure is more than just dealing with the past. It is laying a path for the future, so that when the line of a take our place, back in our homeland, we can bring traditional knowledge, practices, and traditions that will only strengthen the existing community today. We are 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 an important emphasis on our mission as villain of a center in the years to come. Thank you very much for responding to my question. Maybe now is the might moment to speak about the process of developing our living knowledge, and to engage with the history, and to engage with the president of the history of our lands. And of the crimes committed on our lands. I cannot tell you, in the audience, how grateful we are to have the center and guidance provided for us to understand this as an institution, working for human rights help. And to contribute to this, we hope, and the legacies that we live today of the colonial genocide. 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, so the genocide. And develop their own living land acknowledgment practices that will make us a better society. Now, i would like to go to our questions. I will Group Questions some of them are for information, and some of them are asking our speakers to reflect. This question comes from an anonymous participant, asking, what do you mean by the lana pay hooking as opposed to just one of a . The second question comes from lauren, and asking what efforts are in place to include the history of the land not pay hawking into new york state, for elementary and secondary schools. Joy you are mutate. Sorryou are muted. Sorry. Thank you. Okay. Now, i have a voice. I am happy to share with you regarding the new york state curriculum. There have been great efforts made by individual teachers to the Lenape Center requesting a more truthful and honest and thorough history of lenape president s in the homeland other than that cursory performative sort of set of 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 just being driven by the individual and courageous efforts of individual teachers. If i may, i am looking at the chat bar over here and there are so many questions and i think we only have a limited amount of time left on this webinar, so why would encourage people to take their questions and email them either to the library or i will give you the email address for the Lenape Center, which is simply, Lenape Center at gmail. Com. Many of these questions are great, but we just dont have enough time to cover it all. Perhaps, if you send those in, we can write more essays and create more exhibits and address these things in the months and years to come because theyre the same questions we ask ourselves as we began to return back to the homeland. Thank you, Curtis Zunigha. So many excellent questions. And it would be a pity to not be able to engage with them. If you enjoy the energy of the discussion, 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 . Okay. The next question comes from just. I would like to know what is the best way for black people who are settlers in lenapehoking to support the lenapes efforts towards reclaiming there land i believe i owe a date today how are the related to they lenape . Anybody we would like to reflect on these two . Heather bruegl, do you want to mention about differentiating between lenape and both the language and the Community Identity . I can try. I sometimes get them confused, but you will correct me if im wrong. So, monsey it is part of the lenape, but it is a language dialect. There are other dialects. Like, there is i forget them. But there are other dialects. When i referred to that i referred to the language. When im talking about the people, i talk about the lenape. That is my clear understanding. I feel very much put on the spot right now. [laughs] and just really quickly, to the person who mansion they are a black person working on the land. That is awesome. Thank you so much. I would encourage you to reach out to seoul fighter farm, a farm here in the hudson valley. They are an afro indigenous farm and they do some really amazing work. And they have done really good things about making sure they are paying homage and respect to the land. You can find them, so fire. Com if you put them into google, you will find them. I think thats really cool. I also want to say, i see you and i acknowledge you. Thank you so much for that. I acknowledge your past and your ancestors hardships. So, thank you for honoring mine as well. Thank you very much. Let me just say that we too i Lenape Center are working on the land in partnership with farm to return ancestral seats to the ancestral land. We are in our third season and there is Company Programming that will be a part of the exhibition, lenapehoking, that will be really very specific to address those topics of land and farming, different ways of not only they lenape, but also other Indigenous People of the area for the African American community, the origins of your story and colonialism are very similar too the lenape and to the Indigenous People here in the homeland. Because that Christian Doctrine of discovery also extended 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. And i am talking about north, south, and central america, to become a working slave class of people. So, i think the Africanamerican Community and the native American Community collectively can not 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 is still going on. And therefore, we cant work collectively to change thinking and institutions and the decades to come and try to overcome what has happened in the past. Its an ongoing effort. Thank you. And our final two questions, if you dont mind. The following. The first one from rosemary. Would you speak a little bit about the reformation and process of lenape languages . What do you feel are the prospects for those languages to become live languages that are spoken daily currently and communities . And the last question comes from who is asking, what books on lenape history would you recommend . Well, i can address that last question, regarding what books. There is a lot of information available, not all of it accurate or can be recommended. But what i do recommend for everyone in this audience too 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, for educators, and it is really one of the first publications that includes community voices, voices directly from the community. Not the scholars, but community voices. So, that will become an important new resource that we can recommend at the 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 delaware people have lost their culture and their language. We have lost a lot of traditional knowledge, but not our language. And thanks to the efforts of so many people, some of who are still living today, for instance, with my tribe, the delaware tribe of indians, we actually have a website called talk lenape dot 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 from it is kind of like a trail of bread crumbs that our ancestors and many of our elders have left for us to go back and follow that trail and go back to the origins of our culture and language and we now have a group of young people, right here in my community, called young lenape leaders who are using our language website and bringing some of our [inaudible] so, as long as we have our language, that is the foundation of promoting our culture and we are engaged in a very robust effort to keep that going. The language and dialect, which is more the northern trys up there in wisconsin and canada, they also have traditional speakers and elders. But they also have a growing group of young people, who are taking over now as the cultural leaders, and it is all based in speaking that language. So, we dont have everything we used to have, but we are on this path of reclaiming it to strengthen our identity and to strengthen our commitment to returning to the homeland and growing the return of our identity. I am speaking very passionately about it now. Because it is a sacred endeavor that we do, as a gift of appreciation, an expression of appreciation for the sacrifices of our ancestors, that gave that to us in spite of the worst conditions ever in our history. And with that, you can learn more about it. Again, in this anthology that joe spoke about, but also in visiting places like the website for Lenape Center and see our ongoing efforts. And let me just say, there is nothing like being able to speak, the few words that i know, on the land that knows that language. The land never forgets. It is very powerful. And it connects the generations one of the coolest things going on with me right now with regards to our lenape language, i am texting my 16 year old granddaughter in lenape and she replies in lenape that is so cool that is really cool. That is awesome well, i would like to thank our wonderful speakers, heather bruegl, Curtis Zunigha, and joe. Thank you for sharing your passion and experience. I would like to thank the audience for being so engaged. I apologize that we could not answer all your questions. But i hope that will be the seed of you are reaching for the phone and writing emails to continue this conversation. I would also like to thank our generous host, the Brooklyn Public Library and the brooklyn public Library Center for brooklyn history, for hosting us today and and i just want to echo you and thank all of you for such a spectacular, way to brief, beginning of a conversation. I have never really seen so much engagement in the questions that come in, since we are really we started with virtual programming. So, from my heart, and enormous thank you. And i want to tell everybody, because a number of questions have come in about the anthology that has been mentioned. That anthology is in process now. The best way to know when it will be published and how you can get your hands on it is to visit the website pages, the lenapehoking pages on the Brooklyn Public Librarys website, which will go into the chat. There it is. And you will get updates there. Youll also be able to explore all the upcoming programs. Some of them came up already in this conversation. There will be a program about missing and murdered Indigenous Women. We have a program about the purchase of manhattan. These are some questions that i saw you all asking. There is a conversation coming down the pipe we have poetry, performances, and many other conversations. So, please look for those and join us for those. But most importantly, thank you all for being our audience. Thank you for engaging and thank you, heather, joe, curtis, tibi galis, for such a moving and powerful first launch of this series. I wish everybody a wonderful night. If you are enjoying American History tv, sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on our screen to receive the weekly schedule. Sign up for the American History tv newsletter today and be sure to watch American History tv every saturday or anytime online at cspan. Org slash history. Good afternoon. My name it is angela sailor and i am the Vice President of the for the Heritage Foundation. On behalf of our president , welcome to our first principal town hall series. You know, this past year, our history and founding principles have been questioned, doubted, and challenged. Others have sought to dangerously distort our American Heritage and to fundamentally change it. But during this time of crisis, your Heritage Foundation has