Post by Okwes on Sept 23, 2006 11:15:23 GMT -5
Lenape aim to educate public about culture
By Rebecca Berdar, rberdar@altoonamirror.com
HUNTINGDON — As a boy about 7 years old, Chief Billy Blue Feather took walks with his grandfather into the woods for clandestine lessons on Native American values.
The boy learned which herbs were sacred. He learned how to track. He learned what it was like to be Lenape like his grandfather — to keep your heritage secret.
“My grandfather would say, ‘Don’t you tell anybody.’ When I was growing up, you hid your native blood. You had to,” Chief Billy, 65, of Sharon said.
He said, “When I was a boy, I always wanted to be a cowboy. I didn’t want to be an Indian — they lost all the time.”
John Wayne was his hero then, a time when his own grandmother, a full-blood Lenape Indian, would retreat to the attic when whites visited the home.
“It was considered inappropriate for her to mix with white woman,” Chief Billy said.
He explained the Lenape, prior to Europe’s discovery of the North American continent, held women and children in the highest regard.
Now, the little boy who kept his heritage hidden, is the primary chief of the United Eastern Lenape Nation which maintains 11 teaching villages in nine states.
Unlike his grandfather, a coal miner dead at age 50 from black lung disease, he doesn’t feel compelled to hide his ancestry.
Chief Billy is among several hundred Lenape expected to converge this weekend at Blair Field to celebrate the 256th anniversary of the tribe’s last gathering on its sacred ground.
Organizer Kevin “Talking Crow” Ord is anticipating up to several thousand visitors. The first groups arrived Friday when the tribe turned Blair Field into an outdoor classroom for area school children.
“I didn’t expect to be so moved emotionally and spiritually,” Ord said, recalling how, as the drums thundered and the children cheered, three bald eagles flew over the field.
“It was synchronistic. It blew me away,” Ord said.
The gathering is Ord’s dream come true after 10 years of longing to rejoin the tribe on Blair Field, where 10,000 Lenape met almost 300 years ago to give thanks.
Ord said he hopes to recapture the spirit of that previous celebration and to education the public on the ways of the Lenape.
Mirror Staff Writer Rebecca Berdar is at 946-7458.
By Rebecca Berdar, rberdar@altoonamirror.com
HUNTINGDON — As a boy about 7 years old, Chief Billy Blue Feather took walks with his grandfather into the woods for clandestine lessons on Native American values.
The boy learned which herbs were sacred. He learned how to track. He learned what it was like to be Lenape like his grandfather — to keep your heritage secret.
“My grandfather would say, ‘Don’t you tell anybody.’ When I was growing up, you hid your native blood. You had to,” Chief Billy, 65, of Sharon said.
He said, “When I was a boy, I always wanted to be a cowboy. I didn’t want to be an Indian — they lost all the time.”
John Wayne was his hero then, a time when his own grandmother, a full-blood Lenape Indian, would retreat to the attic when whites visited the home.
“It was considered inappropriate for her to mix with white woman,” Chief Billy said.
He explained the Lenape, prior to Europe’s discovery of the North American continent, held women and children in the highest regard.
Now, the little boy who kept his heritage hidden, is the primary chief of the United Eastern Lenape Nation which maintains 11 teaching villages in nine states.
Unlike his grandfather, a coal miner dead at age 50 from black lung disease, he doesn’t feel compelled to hide his ancestry.
Chief Billy is among several hundred Lenape expected to converge this weekend at Blair Field to celebrate the 256th anniversary of the tribe’s last gathering on its sacred ground.
Organizer Kevin “Talking Crow” Ord is anticipating up to several thousand visitors. The first groups arrived Friday when the tribe turned Blair Field into an outdoor classroom for area school children.
“I didn’t expect to be so moved emotionally and spiritually,” Ord said, recalling how, as the drums thundered and the children cheered, three bald eagles flew over the field.
“It was synchronistic. It blew me away,” Ord said.
The gathering is Ord’s dream come true after 10 years of longing to rejoin the tribe on Blair Field, where 10,000 Lenape met almost 300 years ago to give thanks.
Ord said he hopes to recapture the spirit of that previous celebration and to education the public on the ways of the Lenape.
Mirror Staff Writer Rebecca Berdar is at 946-7458.