Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 13, 2007 14:26:49 GMT -5
Lenapes aid Tom Quick’s descendent in saving family farm over to Lenapes
Jane Quick, center, is pictured at the farm with Jim Beers of the Lenape Nation, his daughter, Tammanend, and Beers’ niece, Brook DePaul. (Photo by David Hulse)
LACKAWAXEN - Jane Quick finds the idea of family farms being transformed into town houses or hotel units unacceptable.
Quick, now in her seventh decade of life, is not a person to sit back and do nothing about a bad situation. Raised on a farm in the days when Pike County’s claim to fame was “rocks and rattlesnakes,” she still drives a four-wheel drive pickup and cleans houses for a living. She can handle a gun and a horse, and she clearly knows how to take care of herself.
But the development all around the 110-acre farm at Whitehall Corners has been a different kind of problem. Several years ago, she said, “I couldn’t manage the farm alone anymore and the family wouldn’t help. I had to do something.”
She tried going to the township government looking for a program that might preserve the farm. “All they were interested in was tourism. They were afraid the Indians would want to do gambling,” she recalled.
Then in 2000, she read a newspaper article about members of the Lenape Nation making a ceremonial canoe trip down the length of the river and their desire to establish themselves on their ancestral lands.
She got in touch with the article writer and started making connections with the Lenapes, thinking they might be the answer to her problem. Those first connections were a bit awkward, she recalled. “I scared the hell out of ‘em,” she said with typical candor.
She said she scared them initially because her family name was not just any family name, and she was not just any Quick.
Quick’s late husband Harold was a direct descendent of Tom Quick, the notorious “Indian Slayer” of the 18th century. In additon, she and the farm were originally Tanners, who were also related to Tom Quick.
Things warmed up when the Lenapes did some genealogical work and found that there was also a Native American strain in Quick’s colorful bloodline. “They started coming up here regularly. I felt good about them right away. They were like people you always knew.”
She recalled showing some of the Lenape around the farm and how they discovered a ceremonial rock circle near the pig and chicken coops. “I always thought they were just rocks,” she said.
With the help of the Delaware Highlands Conservancy, Quick worked out an agreement for a conservation easement and tribal ownership of the farm. She retains lifelong rights on the property, her home and the stable where she keeps her horse.
Lenape spokesman Jim Beers said the nation will restore the farm, and use it for cultural and environmental education. They plan to raise organic crops on the land and one day develop a stay-over summer camp where inner-city kids can come “learn about the earth, walking in the woods and canoeing.”
Jane Quick, center, is pictured at the farm with Jim Beers of the Lenape Nation, his daughter, Tammanend, and Beers’ niece, Brook DePaul. (Photo by David Hulse)
LACKAWAXEN - Jane Quick finds the idea of family farms being transformed into town houses or hotel units unacceptable.
Quick, now in her seventh decade of life, is not a person to sit back and do nothing about a bad situation. Raised on a farm in the days when Pike County’s claim to fame was “rocks and rattlesnakes,” she still drives a four-wheel drive pickup and cleans houses for a living. She can handle a gun and a horse, and she clearly knows how to take care of herself.
But the development all around the 110-acre farm at Whitehall Corners has been a different kind of problem. Several years ago, she said, “I couldn’t manage the farm alone anymore and the family wouldn’t help. I had to do something.”
She tried going to the township government looking for a program that might preserve the farm. “All they were interested in was tourism. They were afraid the Indians would want to do gambling,” she recalled.
Then in 2000, she read a newspaper article about members of the Lenape Nation making a ceremonial canoe trip down the length of the river and their desire to establish themselves on their ancestral lands.
She got in touch with the article writer and started making connections with the Lenapes, thinking they might be the answer to her problem. Those first connections were a bit awkward, she recalled. “I scared the hell out of ‘em,” she said with typical candor.
She said she scared them initially because her family name was not just any family name, and she was not just any Quick.
Quick’s late husband Harold was a direct descendent of Tom Quick, the notorious “Indian Slayer” of the 18th century. In additon, she and the farm were originally Tanners, who were also related to Tom Quick.
Things warmed up when the Lenapes did some genealogical work and found that there was also a Native American strain in Quick’s colorful bloodline. “They started coming up here regularly. I felt good about them right away. They were like people you always knew.”
She recalled showing some of the Lenape around the farm and how they discovered a ceremonial rock circle near the pig and chicken coops. “I always thought they were just rocks,” she said.
With the help of the Delaware Highlands Conservancy, Quick worked out an agreement for a conservation easement and tribal ownership of the farm. She retains lifelong rights on the property, her home and the stable where she keeps her horse.
Lenape spokesman Jim Beers said the nation will restore the farm, and use it for cultural and environmental education. They plan to raise organic crops on the land and one day develop a stay-over summer camp where inner-city kids can come “learn about the earth, walking in the woods and canoeing.”