Funding for cspan2 comes in these Television Companies and more. Including. Along with these Television Companies support cspan2 as a public service. Hello Everyone Welcome to tonights program and thank you so much for being here. My name is marsha i come to you from the center for brooklyn history at the brooklyn Public Library. And bpl presents which is the librarys arts and culturend arm that brings you so many programs and conversations like tonight as well as musical performances, family and childrens events, literary and philosophical discussions and so much more. Tonight program the history is one part of a much larger and far ranging initiative at bpo is honored to be presenting in partnership with the wisdom of leadership. This Initiative Includes new yorks first ever exhibition of Cultural Arts which is now on real at bpo library in Environmental Education center. As well as many future programs and topics like the myth of the purchase of manhattan. We will have poetry readings there is an upcoming published anthology of essays. It is quite ambitious. I am humbled to represent my bpl colleagues who have the lead 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 the history that has too long been overlooked. Es misrepresented and lied about. For 10,000 years the lenape lived in an area that includes parts or what are now the states of pennsylvania new york and delaware waves of often brutal forced migrations, forced removal this first nation was its first two locations from oklahoma to wisconsin, two parts parked further north and west. Before i introduce tonights speakers i have two quick notes for you. First, as always you have the option choose close captioning tonight. That button is at the bottom of your screen. And a 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, it is my honor to introduce ourr speakers and turn it over o them. Curtis zunigha is a member of the delaware tribe of indians and cofounder 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 environmental activism. This multimediaul experience includes writing, producing, directing, acting, narrating, composing and performing traditional music. Joe baker is an artist activist worked for the past 30 years is an enrolled member of the delaware tribe of indians of oklahoma. Cofounder executive director of the Lenape Center. Hes often an adjunct professor at Columbia University school of social work. And was recently visiting professor of studies at colorado college. Joe curated the lenape exhibition i mentioned earlier. Heather bruegl is an indigenous historian a citizen of the wisconsin and firstline descendent in addition to her many speaking engagements she has become accidental activist, speaking to different groups about intergenerational racism and trauma im helping to build awareness of our environment and other issues in native community. Shes former director of Cultural Affairs community and now heather serves as air direcr of education for forager project. Our moderator tonight doctor tibi galis has been a good executive director of the switch institute for the prevention of genocide and mass a atrocities 2006. Board and raised in romania previously worked as an associate researcher for the Uk Parliament where he helped develop uk position on that un special advisor on the prevention of genocide. Welcome, welcome to all. Imhi not going to turn this ovr too curtis for a word of welcome on behalf of the lenape. Pay, [speaking native tongue]. Welcome everyone and welcome to this amazinge webinar. I am a codirector of the Lenape Center as mentioned arts and Cultural Organization that was based in the beginning but now we cover the entire the land of the lenape the original homeland which extends all live to the foothills of the catskills mountains and all the way down the river to eastern pennsylvania that emptying to the delaware bay. Its original homeland. It is amazing we are apart of this webinar this evening. And on behalf of the Lenape Center speaking as a lenape man i welcome you to this it played and we arela very glad that you are here with us this evening from where ever you are joining us. Thank you very much curtis. Id like to welcome everyone and recognize to you today from the lands of the original people of the land where im speaking to you today but i also like to start by recognizing that the organizations i have enjoyed to leave at the Auschwitz Institute is not in the land of the lenape. I would also like to recognize the lenape deep connection to the homeland. Organization dedicated the Auschwitz Institute believes in the importance of acknowledging the settler genocide. And the resilience of the lenape still today continue to resist. I would like to invite all of us to listen to this very important discussion. On to open our hearts to learning about the history of our lands and the history of the people of our land. I would like to invite curtis to start us off in this discussion. Thank you. All right. I was asked to write an essay about what was originally called the forced migration of the lenape. I ended up writing an empty dsa. My approach was to get away from the term of migration or diasporan. We have been using that term but the more i reviewed and remembered our story it truly was forced relocation. In writing about our people, we were the ones who encountered originally it began, first he began with the italian explorer sailing for the french. Followed one third years later by henry hudson was an englishman. He was sailing for the Dutch East India Company explore routes for the first trade. Upon encountering the lenape people there were numerous stories and accounts written by explorers, military leaders, missionaries. And other colonial settlers. That talked about the lenape people is a strong and ancient people. With a culture and a belief system that in some ways was much akin to the british quakerism. Above all we have and still have deep spiritual relation of the land. We talk about being removed from my homelands, 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 orphanage. Someone whos been taken away from the arms of our mother. Untaken far away to where we cannot see our mother anymore. 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 at the lenape people are broken up into various groups. Today their names include the name and delaware. That was our colonial name. I am a member of the delaware tribe of indians for that is our colonial name delaware. Ii 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 ultimately the americans as the hunger for more land and opportunity to have a free and independent land to live on. They displace the original people who were all ready free and independent people leaving on the land. That isto the lenape. 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 in an environment in a theater of war after a wildly became war refugees. If you listen to the news or watch the news you see about other countries and people being displaced in their own countries in the theater of war. That is what the lenape went through. This exhibit will not only tell that story and there is my essay that i wrote were i take us through that trail were today the lenape todays modern descendents known as the delaware i am enrolled member of the delaware tribe, are located in northeastern oklahoma and wee had been years since 1867. There are other communities one in oklahoma, two in southern Ontario Canada and one in wisconsin. Collectively we are the descendents of the original lenape. We are like different branches from the same tree trunk. That tree trunk is rooted firmly in the homeland. And now with Lenape Center and ive been involved for over 10 years now with the Lenape Center i feel like that orphan child who hasle come back. Back to new york. Back to lenape. To connect with my mother, the motherland the original homeland that is the deep Spiritual Connection with the land, the waters, the ancestors. It has never gone away. The partnerships we have made with such institutions as a Brooklyn Library in 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 existed. There was so much erasure of our history, our culture, our language, and our presence. Done by centuries, decades of people who took over the land most often times by force or by fraud. Basically wrote the lenape out of the history. But Lenape Center and our friends with a Brooklyn Library, we are here to tell you wait never died out, we are still here we are grateful 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 these centuries back with the homeland. That is extremely gratifying or in our culture and language we pay honor to the sacrifices of our ancestors the gift of the creator for culture and language which we still have one that has passed on to us. We will continue to grow back 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 center. We do have aeb website called te Lenape Center. Com. You will find a lot of incredible information about the growth and development of our organization and all the work we have done. We are arts and culture organization. We are also 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 lenapeeo people are no longer orphans. We have returned to our mother and our mother is opening her arms and welcoming us back. We also comment by working with various organizations we are taking our place back at the table of power. We bring traditional knowledge and incredible culture and languageha that only inventions the entire fabric of that which is lenape. That which is new york city. That which is the Brooklyn Library and all of our partners in the wonderful people we have gathered together with. With that there are some other here representing lenape i want to share this time with them to provide additional perspectives. I encourage you to look around all of the activities thats going on here with the Greenpoint Library the center for brooklyn history much more bigger and better presence of the Lenape Center in the years come. So with that i say thank you. Now we will h turned to heather and joe and after that will open discussion based on the questions that you all in the audience are sending as we are starting the conversation. Now i would like to invite heather to join the discussion, heather . Rex hi, thank you so much. My name in our language is sunflower i had my naming ceremony in the middle of the pandemic in september of 2020. Im very honored to be part of the panel this evening. Thank you to joe and curtis for learning. Ued thank you to the Public Library and the center for brooklyn history. I feel honored to bee. Here. I am coming to you from the homeland which are people of the waters that are never still. And they lie and government and wisconsin are very honored to be coming here from the homeland. I movedob here in october of lat year. From wisconsin. Prior to that i wasg living on the home line in southeastern michigan. Ihe worked for a number of years for the community and now im here in upstate new york. Actually im technically in the middle i was from the homeland but that is okay. In the homelands here and im so honored to be a part of this panel. I want to start with this, this is one of my favorite quotes i guess. It was from an activist. Were not at an were older than both concepts we are the people. We are human beings. I found that is really powerful to stop and think about that. We areho older than both of thoe concepts. We are the human beings. When i hear that i think about we are the original. We are oji we are the people who were hear from the beginning that creator created this beautifull island and place this upon we were here first. This is our homeland through forced removal time and time again over forced into different areas. Im a firstline descendents not located in northeast wisconsin the treaty of 1856 perp layoutch that was from the nation. Other nations gave up pieces of their home so that my ancestors and i will include the oneida in this asro well but other nations gave up their homelands so that we could have a place to call home. The reason we needed a place to call home was because of colonialism. We were forced out from the start. First encountered explorers and 1609. That is what henry hudson as curtis mentioned earlier. From that moment on, from the moment colonialism collides with the indigenous ives of this land, things changed forever. Your life changes forever. Now that im in the homelands ive had the opportunity to come home, i cannot help when im out in the land to stop and think about what my ancestors went through it order so that i could sit here and talk to you about them today. Famine, disease, loss of land, forced removal,ov wars, death, conversion to christianity, loss of self, loss of culture, loss of tradition, loss of language. They did all of that so that i cannot tell you their story. And contrary to popular belief, the nation is older than colonization we are older than the tales told by james cooper. He got it very wrong. Its a very beautiful movie im not going to lie the cinematography is great. But it is not accurate in its history. That people of the waters that are never still settled along the river that flows both ways. You know as the hudson river. Because that is its name. Removal from her homelands in new york to settling in the western part of massachusetts which was also part of our homeland a great conversion happened there that conversion fought with christianity. I had the opportunities last summer to come to the homelands for the first time walk around in massachusetts. Inc. About the history that was therapy the history that happened there in that place. One of the places i stopped it was the Mission House which is located. Knowing what happened at that Mission House that Mission House was set up suit jon sargent it was a missionary in a priest at the time could help would convert Indigenous People to christianity. You had mohicans that you had oneida and mohawk in all of these other nations come together. What happened there is not only is her loss of the traditional ceremony andnd religion, but wht happens is our identity starts to be stripped away from us we are no longer mohican. Because for some reason its too hard to remember all those names. So they start by taking away their land they start to strip our identity in who we are. So from that moment on for the stockbridge mohican indians. In that kind of stuck with us. We consider ourselves mohican, mohican nation, when not pay. But yet we brought the colonized name with this. What happens next is the American Revolution starts this is a war for independence im not going to lie to you. I love the early colonial history i find it very fascinating. Im like the worlds biggest nerd when it comes to this. And i can say it word for word. But what we dont talk about is the mohican nation and other indigenous nations including those which would have been fall on the site of the colonus wheat starved under t george washingtons. We were there. What happens if we come back for more . We are forced out of our homelands again. We find that when we are off fighting for the freedom to form the United States we were helpinger everyone. We come back in her land has been taken. This time we are in indiana. Indiana the land that we are supposed to help settle on with our brothers and sisters have been forced into selling. We had no place to stay. We moved again this time we moved even further from our homelands. We moved to wisconsin. First of the southern part of the state was set in what is now without a home their family theres a place for us to be. Again as long a river of fox river. That was at major waterway used for transportation of goods. Moving products around. And settlement. Settlers were coming into the area, they needed the space, we had to move again. So it was because of the nation given up their homelands we move further north and had a place to call home. Large time we were in wisconsin a group of our brothers until we were not as a stockbridge community. For example we learned both languages. I am a woman with mohican ancestry. I felt very honored all parts of the culture that iwe carry. The land is beautiful its covered ined forests was that great for farming . We had great force. The clearcut theer land. Over going to different economic base . Again we were in a position wewere going to be losing a lotf land. We were going to be losing our livelihood. There are some great Leaders Within that community of fought very hard, who stuck to their gun