We are now moving into settlement:
EPOCH II (Settlement)
The Everyday Life of the Leni Lenape Indians of New York City was a program that was presented to students in New York City that entailed the construction of a Lenape village along with the activities presented in this outline. It is outlined, here, as an example of what our methods of study look like during this period of transition and settlement. Many of the activities are similar to Epoch I, the hunter-gatherer and pastoralism, with the added detail that the hunter-gatherer (and the pastoralist) is now beginning to settle into village life. This is a generic program, easily adapted to any local international site, and is a transition into agricultural society. Ancient agricultural societies are well documented in Egypt, China, the Fertile Crescent of the Mid-east, and India. Although Native American societies may not have been as technologically skilled as these societies, the basic essentials for settlement into the agricultural life are already apparent. Through settlement the opportunity for more detailed observation of the homestead is available. We begin to learn about the “bioregion” with more intimacy. Who and what came before us? How did they use what they found in this place? Who am I in the whole scheme of things?
*PLEASE NOTE: Substitute your local tribal culture wherever the Leni Lenape appear in this outline. Do your research. Select texts and resources that depict pre-settlement patterns of local native peoples and the transition into European settlement.
“People already sense, in some way, that they live in geographic regions comprising natural systems of water, air and land. Now they are becoming aware of them, and seeing if we are overstressing these systems and rhythms. At the scale of the bioregion, people can understand the flow of natural systems, whereas at the global, or national levels, the mind boggles. The systems are so varied, the climates so different. But the bioregion is something that people do understand. So you have the region, and that’s the right scale; and you have the sense of systems, that’s the right philosophy. If you put the two of them together, you get ecological consciousness.” (Kirkpatrick Sale)
Life skills and the Leni Lenape village: the recreation of the life and folkways of a people. The ecosystem of the Lower Hudson River Valley and the Delaware River Valley gave birth to a tribe whose name translates as “ordinary people”. The Leni Lenape (Delaware) Indians are an Algonquin tribe native to an area stretching from Southern New York State to Southern New Jersey, and from the coast (the Atlantic Ocean) to just west of the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. According to archaeologists, the Paleo-Indians, or the first Americans, crossed over a land bridge, from Siberia to Alaska, 15,000 years ago. At the height of their population over 10,000,000 native peoples lived and roamed over the Americas. Leni Lenape means “common” or “ordinary people”. Evidence shows that the Lenape began to occupy the New York-New Jersey region approximately 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. Many of the place names in the New York City metropolitan area obviate native inhabitation (ex: Manhattan- “the place that is an island, and Hoboken- “tobacco pipe”). In this section of our course we will be recreating the life-and folkways of the Leni Lenape in several ways:
The course consists of lessons, readings and hands-on activities in the field. We will draw our material from the text: The Lenape or Delaware Indians, by Herbert C. Kraft (see other references on Native American architecture and lifestyles applicable to home base of student).
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