My Letter to the Editor of the Daily News

Kimberly Ord
Mount Union, PA 17066
814-506-1217

To the Editor of the Daily News,

  In the Opinion Line since June 3, 2006, many nasty comments were made about the “Lenape Coming Home Native Gathering 2006” to be held at Blair’s Field in Huntingdon, PA on September 15-17, 2006.    This letter is to serve as a rebuttal to the caller as it is way too long to call into the opinion line.  

  First of all, my husband and I wish to thank Larry Bailey and the others who have stood up against the nasty comments made about the Gathering we are organizing, through their letters to the Editor and opinion line comments.

  My husband and I are willing to show anyone the documentation and proclamations we have about the Lenape People.   The Lenape never claimed once that they were in this region when the first Europeans came to North America, only to this region.  You can check the Huntingdon Borough newsletter of December 2005 to clearly see that.   As with all news conferences, the newspapers and other media outlets involved edit the story as they see fit.  The article submitted for the Borough’s newsletter was the printed information given to media outlets at the news conference.

  Most of the Lenape bands lived in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York, but since the Lenape were allies of the Susquehannocks, some did live amongst them, in the Susquehanna and Juniata River Valleys.  It was common practice in the culture of indigenous peoples who were allies to live with each other as evidenced by the * Iroquois attack on the principle village of the Susquehannocks, namely Susquesahanough in 1663.  The Susquehannocks and Lenape living there repulsed the Iroquios and that war lasted 12 years.

  * In 1674, the Iroquois succeeded in pushing the Susquehannocks out of the central regions of present-day Pennsylvania and into the Potomac River area in Maryland.

  * In 1677, a treaty to remove the Susquehannocks and have them adopted by the Iroquios was signed.    Most of them accepted it, while the Lenape adopted 26 families and a small group of Susquehannocks still remained independent and became known as the Conestoga Mission Indians around the Lancaster area until the Paxton Riots brought about their demise.   On December 27, 1763, the Paxton Boys massacred all, but two remaining Susquehannocks taking refuge in the county jail.  Those two were sheltered by the governor and worked as servants on a farm in Lancaster County until they died.  That was the last of the Susquehannocks People.  

            (* Historical documentation about the Susquehannocks is from Larry D. Smith, historian and newsletter editor for the Blair County Chapter, SAR, and excerpted from his books, Mother Bedford And The American Revolutionary War, and 150th Anniversary History Of Blair County, Pennsylvania which was obtained through a discussion he had with Paul M. Heberling, a retired anthropology professor of Juniata College, and owner of the Heberling Associates, an archaeological research company in Huntingdon County, PA.   Excerpts of the books with this information can be viewed online at: http://www.motherbedford.com/Indian1.htm  as “Mother Bedford” was essentially what we know as Huntingdon, Bedford and Blair County nowadays.)

  In 1682, the treaty between the Lenape and William Penn, purchasing the land we know now as eastern Pennsylvania made the way for the Lenape to be pushed westward, eventually.  Between 1709 and 1741, the majority of the Lenape had moved into the Susquehanna and Juniata River Valleys.    In 1754, the Iroquios sold the Lenape land to William Penn’s sons, including the area we call Huntingdon County today.

  Even though you think all the Lenape moved on and ended up in Oklahoma and Missouri, some married into the European and African-American cultures, thus staying behind with their families in this area and there are indeed historical references to this fact as well for anyone to find.    The Provincial Government did not want to force husbands or wives or children of their own peoples to be separated, they were not that cold-hearted.  In case you didn’t know, 95% of Indigenous Peoples of North America are Metis, or mixed blood, as only a few are full bloods in today’s society and that includes those living on reservations today.    If a person’s great-great-great-great grandfather was German and they have an Irish surname, it does not erase the German ancestry they have.  It is the same with those that have Lenape or Cherokee or Iroquois ancestry.  A person with mixed heritage is not a wannabe.   Just as if you are 5% German, 15% Swedish and 80% Irish, eating sauerkraut or putting on an schuhplattler dance exhibit for the public does not make you a wannabe German or a charlatan.

About the Lenape connection to the area now called Blair Field, in Huntingdon Borough.   The area was used for religious ceremony that occurred regularly, of which I will not go into detail about here.   It is documented by the Europeans and discussed by those who were raised in the Lenape culture their whole lives.    Yes, there are some Lenape people out there like that, who were born, raised and live in Pennsylvania.    The legitimate Lenape in “Indian Territory” have sent representatives to form groups in Pennsylvania to provide those with Lenape ancestry ties back to their heritage, traditions and culture.       The Pennsylvania State Senate recognized this effort in 2002.  I have a copy of that resolution as well.     From Wikipedia, it is stated - Huntingdon was settled about 1760 on the site of a famous Indian council ground.  Council Grounds were sacred areas if you research hard enough.

Now, if when the first surveyors of the Provincial Government came to the Huntingdon County area talk about the resident tribal peoples being here and between 1709 and 1741 it is recorded that most of the Lenape moved into the Susquehanna and Juniata River Valleys, and also recorded that the Iroquios sold the land in 1754, on which the Lenape resided, isn’t it safe to say that the resident tribe near and about present day Huntingdon was indeed Lenape?    It wasn’t the Susquehannocks here as they were extinct shortly after 1663, about 90 years earlier.     It wasn’t the Iroquois living here as they were enemies of the Lenape.     It was the Lenape.   And since the Lenape and Susquehannocks have been allies for many years prior to the extinction of the Susquehannocks, it’s hard to tell just long the Lenape might have been in the Susquehanna and Juniata River Valleys, not as Nations, but as small villages.    It already has been proven the Lenape did live amongst the Susquehannocks.

About the Standing Stone, there is no documented proof, whatsoever, of who erected the stone that was recorded by traders and surveyors of the area.   It is recorded that in the first half of the 18^th century traders … **

“ … found a tribe located upon ground now in the south-eastern part of the Borough of Huntingdon.  Circling around a tall, slim pillar of stone, covered with hieroglyphics, were wigwams or lodges of the browned sons of the forest.   Besides their chief vocation of hunting, they cultivated corn in patches of land which they had cleared on the flats adjacent to the river and creek.  The stone referred to, which was supposed to bear in its cabalistic inscriptions a record of the history and achievements of the tribe, was regarded with great veneration by the natives, and its conspicious position and appearance led the white visitors to designate the locality by the name “Standing Stone.”   It stood above Second street between the Pennsylvania railroad and the river, on or near No. 208 Allegheny street, now owned by the estate of George Thomas, deceased.   Conrad Weiser, an Indian interpreter in the employ of the Provincial government, made a trip from his home in Berks county  to the Ohio river in 1748, and mentions the Standing Stone in his journals under the date of the 18^th of August.  John Harris, father of the founder of Harrisburg, in his account of a journey to Logstown on the Ohio, made in 1754, describes the stone as being “about 14 feet high, 6 inches square.”

With the Iroquois sale of Lenape land in 1754, the Lenape moved away from the area and the stone was gone too.    There is no proof of who removed the stone, though many theories exist about that, they are nothing about unproven theories.

  Now with that brief excerpt of history which is from Africa’s History of Huntingdon County and the fact we know from other historical accounts which are noted above about the Lenape moving into the area between 1709 and 1741, it was definitely the Lenape that built their village, dubbed “Standing Stone” around the stone pillar which was carved with “cabalistic inscriptions” of their history and achievements.   

  ** We also know that in 1742, the Six Nations, in a conference, brought forth complaints about white settlers, on the part of the Indians settled at Juniata and they refer to them as  …. “Our Cousins, the Delawares”.    So the Iroquois stated the Lenape were here too.

  ** We also know from historical accounts it was the “three Delaware Indians at the Narrows” who murdered John “Jack” Armstrong and his two companions.

  (** Historical documentation excerpted from History of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania by the Honorable J. Simpson Africa from the PA Room of the Huntingdon County Library.)

  Since the Susquehannocks were pushed into Maryland (Potomac River area) in 1674 and became basically non-existent in 1677 by treaty and either adopted by the Iroquois or Lenape and that a few became known as the Conestoga Mission Indians in Lancaster County area and it is known that the majority of the Lenape moved into the Susquehanna and Juniata River Valleys starting about 1709 and the traders report the Indians village around a standing stone in the first half of the 18^th century (1700-1750) and the Lenape were here then, by many accounts in history, why is it so hard to see the accounts of the Standing Stone and the “browned sons of the forest” living around it as Lenape?   If the “cabalistic inscriptions” on the stone was the “record of the history and achievements of the tribe” living there, why wouldn’t the Standing Stone be of significance to the Lenape People, since it was their history and their achievements recorded on it apparently because the Lenape was living there?  It was at least significant to the Lenape of the Standing Stone Village.

  Another point to bring up is the alliance between the Susquehannocks and Lenape, which historical records show.  One must consider the cultural aspects of the indigenous tribes to further explore just how the Standing Stone came to be.   It was common for indigenous tribes to exchange ideas, just as happens in today’s society with the many cultures in the world.   This didn’t just apply to technologies to survive but also to the very context of their cultural and spiritual ways.   

  With the alliance of those two societies, many ideas probably were adopted by the other and vice versa.   And when an indigenous people fell under the control of another, ideas were also exchange.   The Six Nations and their culture have touched many eastern peoples, such as the Lenape who still have some Iroquoian ways within their culture today.  Another group the Six Nations had cultural and societal influence on was the Europeans, other immigrants and our lives today.  One example is Democracy in America.  Another example is the Women’s Suffrage movement in North America.

“Sally Roesch Wagner, executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and Jeanne Shenandoah, a member of the Onondaga Nation Eel Clan, will speak on "Sisters in Spirit: Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Women, an Inspiration to Early Feminists".

Wagner and Shenandoah will examine the ways in which the roles of traditional Native American women shaped and influenced the women's suffrage movement. Beginning with an overview of the responsibilities and duties performed by Haudenosaunee (traditional Iroquois) women in a society that included women in decision making, the presentation will explore what the early suffragettes knew about the status of Haudenosaunee women and how the model influenced their work for women's rights.

A leading scholar on the women's suffrage movement, Sally Roesch Wagner is the author of "Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists."

  So it is possible that the Lenape did pick up stone markings from their allies.    But to further look at this possibility, one must also understand the indigenous cultures in regards to conquering another tribe.   Trophies were taken when one group of indigenous people conquered another and something as important as the Standing Stone would have taken by the Iroquois in the 1660’s if it belonged to the Susquehannocks to show their dominance over them.   It wasn’t removed then.    But it was removed when the Iroquois sold the land of the Lenape in 1754 or shortly thereafter when the Lenape were pushed further west.    One of the theories that prevail is the Iroquois did take the Standing Stone from the Lenape when they were removed from this area, but as I said, it is unproven by documentation.    

Since the caller had another blurb to spout in the June 24^th edition of the Daily News, I waited to include any additional comments with this letter.    I have already touched on the commission of some groups to be formed in Pennsylvania by the Delaware Tribal Headquarters and that effort actually recognized by the State Senate in 2002, I am glad you posted their website.    On their own website, they even list that some with Lenape blood (ancestry) contact them from the Eastern United States and they state “We are sorry that we cannot be of help to many of you who might have Lenape blood, but there are no sources of which we are aware to look for your ancestors' names.”    These are those that I spoke of that intermarried with the white settlers, thus not wannabees, but are of Lenape ancestry.     There are several groups in the Eastern United States that serve those with Lenape ancestry and their families, which include The United Eastern Lenape Nation, headquartered in Hermitage, PA, Thunder Mountain Lenape Nation, located in Saltsburg, PA, The Pennsylvania Lenape Nation, located in Sellersville, PA, Lenni Lenape Historical Society in Allentown, PA, Sand Hill Lenape-Cherokee Band, located in Sand Hill, NJ, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians, located in Bridgeton, NJ, and Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation, located in Mahwah, NJ – to name just a few.   There are others.   These people didn’t migrate back from Oklahoma; they were born in the East, raised in the East and live in the Eastern USA.

  My husband and I are members of the United Eastern Lenape Nation (UELN), specifically the Village Chief and Village Mother of the Standing Stone Village, headquartered in Mount Union, PA, with members in Mount Union, PA, Huntingdon, PA, Altoona, PA and Romney, West Virginia.  The late Sam Hannah Gray Wolf, recognized by the State Senate, referenced before in my letter, is the person who founded the UELN.    The “legitimate” Lenape as you call them, commissioned him to do so.   The omission of the full name of our group in the Daily News was not a mistake on our part as the full name of the UELN with our Village name was given to the media outlets at the news conference.  

Kimberly Ord

Since I have more space here than I would in any newspaper, there are a couple of things I put in the above letter I would like to expound upon or clarify better.   Follow this link to get that info.

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