Indian Givers Series vol. 5

Hey Grandma! What's for dinner?

• Tomato & chile red-bean succotash
• Wild rice with summer squash and dried blueberries
• Shawnee cakes herbed with ramps
• Sapan (plain cornmeal mush)
• and for dessert: fresh blueberries.

Indian Givers series vol. 4

Jennie Bobb of the Lenni Lenape nation (also known as the Delawares) has now had her picture used for a poster promoting a campaign of resistance. The slogan "Occupy Wall Street" now reads "Take Back Wall Street: Occupied Since 1625." The Lenni Lenape were the indigenous people of New York City.


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Indian Givers series vol. 3

Blueberry Sapan

Sapan is the word for boiled cornmeal in the Lenape language (also known as Delaware). An anglicized version of the name is suppawn, ocasionally found in some old recipes. Sapan was a daily staple for the Lenni Lenape, and they combined it with any of a number of other ingredients, either savory or sweet.

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Indian Givers Series vol. 2

What is the connection between Johnny Rotten and Chief Tamanend?


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Sacred ground of my ancestors
hot Memorial Day in Philadelphia
on the bank of Lënapei Sipu ~ the Delaware River
the park full of life in the sun
families out together, speaking Spanish,
bopping to the merengue beat

Where the Great Elm once stood
now stands a stone
amidst uncounted memories
and the ancient life of this land

Nuhëmak manëtuwàk!
Grandmother ( Read more... )

Indian Givers Series vol. 1

When I first visited Northern Virginia twenty years ago, I noticed the name Sugarland all over a certain area and wondered what kind of name "Sugarland Run" could be. I just found out the full story behind the name, and the answer takes us deep into Nova's topography, ecology, and history ( Read more... )

On the right bank of the Monongahela, Turtle Woman sat on the high ground, facing the setting sun, overlooking the river crossing at Red Stone, the important crossroads where Nemacolin's Trail crossed at the only low riverbanks in the area. She held court in the ruins of a red stone building constructed by the People of Olden Times.

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"What do you call this country where we will live?"

"Alegwenink. That means 'They Came There from Far Away'. Which is just what it is."

"Who came there from far away?"

"We did. Everybody who's there did. The Lenape, the Shawnee, and the Seneca and Menkwe. "

{C} {C}

"So there were no people here before these people came?"

{C} {C}

"Oh yes, there were ( Read more... )

-Alliquippa? (looking over the writer's shoulder) You mean she's a person? I thought that was just a place name near Pittsburgh.

-Yes, she was the most prominent sachem of the Seneca nation in Pennsylvania in the mid-18th century. She lived not at the place named for her, but at the confluence of the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny rivers, the site ( Read more... )

***

Ahsennamenshi explained: "Before, we always had either a war sachem or a peace sachem. But now? It isn't war, but it doesn't feel like peace either. It feels more like wartime. So we have a new kind of sachem. He's a we-have-to-travel-and-find-new-homes sachem. So we're kind of making up some of the rules as we go along."

"What do you call this ( Read more... )