We are located in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, a small part of Lenapehoking, the home of the Lenape people for thousands of years. We understand that the Lenape were friendly and helpful — until the settlers gradually, and often violently, forced them out. We acknowledge the injustice and mistreatment Indigenous people faced (and still face) as a result of settler colonialism. We recognize that the Lenape practiced many of the same values the Alliance holds, including respect for and regenerative stewardship of the land and other living things, eating healthy natural foods, social justice and restorative practices, and community-based participatory decision-making.
The largest surviving groups of Lenape are the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma and the Delaware Indian Tribe, but we also have the Ramapaugh Mountain Lenape and the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania — both still in this area.
The number of groups, their wide dispersal, and their continuing identification with the Lenape are pretty clear indicators of the extent to which colonialism disrupted a strong Indigenous civilization in this area, paralleling impacts in other parts of the US and the continent as a whole.
We want to be clear that acknowledging and recognizing the Lenape in no way remedies or repairs the damage done; it is merely a step towards raising awareness.
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