Lenape Speak
Tannersville, PA – On November 7th and 8th, Northampton Community College hosted the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania’s (LNPA) second annual conference on Lenape culture, “Homecoming 2025: Lenape Speak.” The event brought together different Lenape communities from across the continent for public workshops and lectures about Lenape language revitalization, religion, spirituality, ethnobotany, gender, music, food sovereignty, and storytelling.
The original homeland of the Lenape people roughly spans southern New York, eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and all of New Jersey. Each Lenape community is distinct and has its own history and experience of displacement and/or assimilation. Some communities are federally recognized by the US, some are state recognized, some are not recognized at all, and some are now in Canada. The LNPA is not federally or state recognized, but they have been fighting for recognition for decades, led by generations of clan mothers and chiefs. You can watch a short video that ENGN created, and see their fight on the steps of the State Capital in Harrisburg, PA.
I first met the LNPA in 2018, during their Rising Nation River Journey, in which they paddle the entire length of the Delaware River, from the hills of Hancock, NY down to the beaches of Cape May, NJ. They have committed to this river journey every 4 years to renew treaties of friendship with river communities. And every 4 years the number of communities that they visit grows, and they’ll be paddling again this Summer in 2026.
ENGN supports the LNPA by making short films that help to share their story, and by building and maintaining a digital archive of interviews and events that preserve their community’s history. I documented their first Lenape Speak conference in 2024, and so it was very exciting to witness this year’s conference. Particularly interesting were the hands-on workshops in which attendants learned how to weave pine needle baskets, speak the language, practice porcupine quillwork on birchbark, make fire with rudimentary tools, bead with hand looms, drum, play flute and so much more.
If you’re interested in connecting with the LNPA or you’d like to learn about who they are and what they do, please take a moment to visit their website at https://www.lenape-nation.org.
