Learning the ways of the Lenape Indians

BUSHKILL - Step back 400 years and discover what life in Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey was like for the Lenape Indians at a special Family Fun Day program in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Saturday, Nov. 4, at 1 p.m. The free program of crafts and education at the national park’s Bushkill Meeting Center on Route 209 offers adults and children an opportunity to learn about the Lenape (len-AH-pay) or Delaware Indians and to make corn husk dolls. John Kraft of Lenape Lifeways, headquartered in New Jersey, will bring an outstanding exhibit of artifacts and props to liven the afternoon program about the early residents who lived in an area they called “Lenapehoking,” which meant “Land of the Lenape.” Their land included all of what is now New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, southeastern New York State, northern Delaware and a small part of southeastern Connecticut. As part of the “Eastern Woodlands,” Lenapehoking had many rivers, streams and lakes and was densely forested and rich in wildlife. When settlers arrived from Europe in the early 1600s, some Lenape were living in large villages of two or three hundred people, but most of them lived in small bands of 25 to 30 people. The program is free but reservations are required to insure enough craft supplies, seating and refreshments. Call 570-588-2452, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and reserve for both adults and children. The lecture series is arranged by the park service interpretive staff and sponsored by the not-for-profit Friends of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and by the park. The Friends are dedicated to supporting the historic, scientific, educational, recreational and natural resource management activities in the park and to raising funds for special park projects The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area encompasses 70,000 acres of parkland in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, straddling 40 miles of the Delaware River from Milford, Pa., and Montague, N.J. to the Delaware Water Gap. The parkland offers hiking, canoeing, rafting, hunting, swim beaches, historical markers, waterfalls and more to over five million visitors a year.