The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania (LNPA) is one of more than a dozen cultural heritage organizations of individuals who identify as descendants of the

Lenape people The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historical territory included present-day northeastern Del ...

, also known as Lenni-Lenape or Delaware people. They are based in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in and the county seat of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River and the Delawa ...

Status

The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania is an

unrecognized tribe These organizations, located within the United States, self-identify as Native American tribes, heritage groups, or descendant communities, but they are not federally recognized or state-recognized as Native American tribes. The U.S. Governmental ...

. Despite having the word ''nation'' in its name, the organization is neither a

federally recognized tribe A federally recognized tribe is a Native American tribe recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as holding a government-to-government relationship with the US federal government. In the United States, the Native American tribe ...

nor a

state-recognized tribe State-recognized tribes in the United States are Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by state government through laws, governor's executive orders ...

. Pennsylvania has no federally recognized or state-recognized tribes. Bill "Whippoorwill" Thompson founded the group in 1998 as the Eastern Lenape Nation. LNPA Chief of Education and Tribal Storykeeper Adam "Waterbear" DePaul said, "We were quite successful in that endeavor of hiding, and identifying and passing ourselves off as white." He says the tribe is trying to achieve state recognition, but it does not qualify for federal recognition. Canadian-American linguist K. David Harrison, who partnered with the LNPA on language classes, writes: “some Lenape stayed behind, hid, blended in, intermarried, or assimilated. Remaining in the traditional homeland of the Delaware Valley, their descendants also claim Lenape bloodlines.” Journalist Samantha Spengler wrote: "Whether or not Lenape people continued to live covertly in Pennsylvania, it’s undisputed that there was no continuous tribal entity in the region." There are three federally recognized Lenape tribes in the United States and two in Canada. The organization is actively lobbying the Pennsylvania legislature for state recognition.

Nonprofit

In 1996 and again in 2001, the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania formed The Lenape Nation, Inc., aka The Lenape Nation of Pa., Inc., a

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 5 ...

, based in

. Its current administration is: * President: Ann Dapice * Vice President: Richard Welker * Treasurer: Maurice DeMund (2022) * Assistant Treasurer: Perry Power (2022) * Secretary: Barbara Michalski Maurice C. DeMund served as president until April 2022. The group has also been based in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. In 2021, the Claneil Foundation gave them $10,000;

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

Giving Fund donated $7,646; and the AmazonSmile Foundation gave them $481.

Activities

The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania operates a cultural center in

. They host an annual

powwow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native Americans in the United States, Native American and First Nations in Canada, First Nations communities. Inaugurated in 1923, powwows today are an opportunity fo ...

at Mauch Chunk Lake Park in present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Once every four years, they host Rising Nation River Journey along the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

. They also created the Lenape Nation Scholarship Fund. LNPA member Shelley DePaul and Theodore Fernald launched a

Lenape language The Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages (), are Munsee and Unami, two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family. Munsee and Unami were spoken aboriginally by the Lenape ...

class at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

Swarthmore, Pennsylvania Swarthmore ( , ) is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Swarthmore was originally named Westdale in honor of painter Benjamin West, who was one of the early residents of the town. The name was changed to Swarthmore after ...

, beginning in 2009. The Unitarian Congregation, a church in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

, decided to pay reparations to the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
1998 establishments in Pennsylvania Cultural organizations based in Pennsylvania Lenape heritage groups Non-profit organizations based in Pennsylvania Unrecognized tribes in the United States Easton, Pennsylvania

Status

Nonprofit

Activities

See also

References

External links