And the doctor was pretty hopeful for that one either have the high fema. But he was still pretty upset, obviously that he had lost everything except his legs. So he was with us at least two weeks, which is usually the 14 days is usually the amount of time that they, that someone that seriously injured would be with us. And every day we would sit down and write a letter to his newlywed wife and then, his wife did get some letters through to him. So we would sit and read it to him and then we would sit and write some more letters for him. He was finally medevacs to japan. Then he ended up back in colorado, and he was one of the first bionic arms for the army. So he wrote to us. He wrote back to us to tell us this. And this was so important to us because we never knew whats happened to the fellows after they left us. And again, here he was supporting us, letting us know that he did okay. Even though things, hes already been to, he says i cant go any further. He said but i am going to make it. So, Something Like that just gave us hope that maybe we can continue helping these fellows that are so young. I mean, weve all told. We felt old. 22 years old and you feel because these kids were 18 and 19 years old coming in. And one of the statistics that i looked up, the age of 20 was the most that had died. It was over 30,020 year olds that had died in vietnam. So it just seemed kind of unreal to me that hello everyone to tonights program and thank you so much for being here. My name is marcia eli i come to you from the center for brooklyn history at the Brooklyn Public Library and bpl presents, which is the librarys arts and culture arm that brings you so many programs and conversations like tonights as well as musical performances family and children events literary and philosophical discussions and so much more tonights program the history of lenape forced removals is one part of a much larger and farraging initiative that bpl is honored to be presenting in partnership with and with the wisdom and leadership of the Lenape Center. Titled will not be hoking. This Initiative Includes new yorks first ever la not be curated exhibition of lenape cultural arts, which is now on view at bpls Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education center as well as many future programs on topics like the myth of the purchase of manhattan. Seed remitriation well have poetry readings and theres an upcoming published anthology of essays on lownape history. Its quite ambitious. I am humbled. To represent my bpl colleagues who have led this ambitious effort. Its truly my honor to introduce tonights discussion on their behalf. In a few moments youll hear three perspectives on a history that has too long been overlooked misrepresented and lied about for 10,000 years the not be lived and will not be hooking an area that includes parts of what are now the states of pennsylvania, connecticut to york and delaware. And through waves of often brutal forced migrations forced removals. This first nation was dispersed to locations from oklahoma to wisconsin departs further north and west before i introduce tonights 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 q 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 zuniga is an enrolled 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 and environmental activism. His multimedia experience includes writing producing directing acting narrating and composing and performing traditional music. Joe baker is an artist educator 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, oklahoma and cofounder and executive director of the Lenape Center. Hes also an adjunct professor at Columbia University school of social work social work and was recently visiting professor of Museum Studies at Colorado College and joe curated the lenape hoking exhibition. I mentioned earlier heather bruegel is an indigenous historian and a citizen of the onative nation of wisconsin and first line descendant, stockbridge, muncie. 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 native community. Shes the former director of Cultural Affairs for the stockbridge Muncie Community and now heather serves as a director of education for forge project. And our moderator tonight. Dr. Tb gallus has been the executive director of the Auschwitz Institute for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities since 2006. Born and raised in romania, dr. Gallas previously worked as an associate researcher for the Uk Parliament where he helped develop the uk position on the un special advisor on the prevention of genocide. Welcome, welcome to you all im now going to turn this over to curtis for a word of welcome on behalf of the not be healthy. Hey. Colomosi hutch duluency alushi okwas new england, mohana ali pike lanape hoking colosseum aho and arpeg good evening, everyone and welcome to this amazing webinar, and were i am Curtis Zuniga. I am a codirector of Lenape Center as mentioned an arts and cultural organization. Thats manhattan based in the beginning but now we cover the entirety of lenape hoking the land of the lenape the original homeland which extends all the way up into the foothills of the catskills mountains and all the way down the Delaware River to include eastern, pennsylvania, new jersey and emptying into the delaware bay. Thats our original homeland. So its 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. This place called lenape hoking, and were very glad that you are here with us this evening from wherever you are joining us. What is she . Thank you. Thank you very much curtis, and i would like to welcome everyone and also recognize that im talking to you today from from the land of the united the original people of the land where im speaking to you today. I would also like to start by recognizing that the organization that i have the joy to lead the Auschwitz Institute is is on in the land of the lanape and i would also like to recognize the lineup is deep connection to the nanape who can homeland as an organization dedicated to a trustee prevention. Yeah. Shes institute believes in the importance of acknowledging the settler colonial genocide perpetrated against this community and the resilience of the lenape who still today continue to resist asia i would like to to invite all of us to to listen to this very important discussion. Thats about to take place 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 to start us off in this discussion curtis. You have the floor. Thank you. All right. I was i was asked to write a an essay. About what was originally called the forced migration of the lenape. And i ended up riding a lengthy sss 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 it began well person began with the italian explorer. Sailing for the french verrazano followed a hundred years later by henry hudson who was in englishman, but he was sailing for the Dutch East India Company uh trying to explore wrote routes for the fir tree. 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 with a culture and a belief system that in some ways actually were much akin 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 lenape hoking the homeland of the original, illinois people. To me and by extension to so many of our of our people to me. Its like being an orphan. Its like someone who has been taken away from the arms. Of our mother and taken away far away. To where we can not our mother anymore. And theres 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. Thats our colonial name again. I am a member of the delaware tribe of indians. Thats our colonial name delaware. I was actually came from a British Colonial governor. Sir thomas west now the lineup a 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 as the hunger for more land and opportunity to to have a free and independent land to live on they displaced the original people who are already free and independent People Living on that land. Thats the linopic. These are 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 while we became war refugees if you listen to the news or watch the news and you see about other countries and and people did being displaced in their own country and the theater of war. Well, thats what the lenape went through. And so this exhibit will not only tell that story and theres an there theres a essay that i wrote. Where i take us through that 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 of the original lanape. Were like different branches from the same tree trunk, but that tree trunk is rooted firmly in the homeland and now with lineup a center and ive been involved for over 10 years now with linape center. I feel like that orphan child who has come back. Back to new york back to lenape hoking. To connect with my mother the motherland the homeland the original homeland will not be hoking. It is that deep Spiritual Connection with the land. The waters the ancestors its never gone away and thanks to line up a center and our friendships and partnerships that weve made with such institutions as the Brooklyn Library and the center for brooklyn history. People are making away for the lenape to return. To our homeland and in doing so and by telling our story people learned that we still exist. We there was so much erasure of our history and our culture and our language and our presence in lenape hockey. Erasure done by centuries by decades of people who took over the land most often times by force or by fraud and basically wrote the one up a out of the history but Lenape Center and our friends with the Brooklyn Library. Were 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 then doing so we continue the generation that generational connection. After all of these centuries back with the homeland and that is extremely gratifying. It it ruins us more in our culture and our language and we pay honor to the sacrifices of our ancestors. And the gift of the creator for our culture and language which we still have and that thats passed down to us. And we will continue to grow back in lenape a hoking 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 bay center. We do have a website called the lenapecenter. Com and youll find a lot of incredible information about the growth and development of our organization. But although the work that weve done. Were an arts and a culture organization. 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 lenape people are no longer. Orphans, we have returned to our mother and our mother is opening her arms and welcoming us back. And we also by working with various organizations in lenape hoking. Were taking our place back. At the table of power and we bring traditional knowledge and an incredible culture and language that only enrichens the entire. Fabric of that which is line up a hoking that which is new york city that which is the 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 went up a hoking. I want to issue share this time with them to provide additional perspectives and i encourage you to look throughout all of the activities thats going here with the Greenpoint Library in brooklyn the center for brooklyn history and youll only see much more bigger and better presence of the Lenape Center in the years to come. So with that i say one issue. Thank you. Way she 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 all in the audience are sending as as we are we are starting the conversation. Now i would like to invite heather to join the discussion heather. Hi. Thank you so much conan mante nijizi kishek and clay by remember my language correctly. My name in our language is sunflower and so bloom. I was i had my naming ceremony in the middle of the pandemic and september of 2020. Im 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 Public Library and shes a brooklyn the center for brooklyn history. Im so honored to be here. Im coming to you from the homelands of the mahikanya which are the people of the waters that are never still today. Theyre known as the stockbridge Muncie Community and the sheet of government lies in bowler, wisconsin. Im very honored to be able to be coming here from the homelands. I moved here in october of last year from wisconsin prior to that. I was living on the homelands of three fires council in southeastern, michigan. I worked for a number of years for the stockbridge Muncie Community and now im here in upstate new york. Well, actually i just learned im not an upstate new york. Im technically i guess im in like the middle. Apparently i was wrong the whole time, but thats okay. Im just you know in the homelands here and im so honored to be part of this panel. I wanted to start with this. This is one of my favorite favorite quotes i guess and it was from 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