Month: February 2021

Hoag Whitehorn, Lillie. “Lenape Talking Dictionary.” The Lenape Talking Dictionary | Stories – Xkweyok Enta Naxkuhëmënt Enta Këntkahtit. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://talk-lenape.org/stories?id=44. 

———. “Lenape Talking Dictionary.” The Lenape Talking Dictionary | Stories – Xkweyok Enta Naxkuhëmënt Enta Këntkahtit. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://talk-lenape.org/stories?id=44. 

B- “Origin Story of the Woman Dance” details how the woman dance, a sacred dance practiced in Lenape tradition, came to be. Member of the Delaware Nation Lillie Hoag Whitehorn details how a man went out hunting to support his wife and child at home. In the meantime, the woman tended their garden when she was struck “by the thunders”. The husband returned home after it stopped raining to find his wife dead and burned by the lightening. The husband then brought his wife to the councils and one council shared that he can bring her back if all the woman in the tribe dance and all the men sing for 4 days. If anyone cries for her when she returns on the 4th night then she will be gone forever. Essentially, an older male tribe member saw the woman on the 4th night and cried tears of joy to see her return. Being that he disobeyed the commands of the council, the woman returned to the land of dead.

C- One thing I find interesting is that this story does not provide any names but rather titles and labels that essentially make the characters faceless. I believe the point of this is to firstly make the story easy to pass down as most Native American storytelling is oral. I also believe this is done as faceless characters can be more easily applied to the audiences’ lives than ones that have names and well-developed back stories. Earlier on in the story, the woman is the one who farms while the man hunts. This is another look into the role of women. Women were expected to farm which in Western society is considered a man’s job, while the man hunted which in Western society was considered a sport for the rich and noble. The idea that a woman farms while the man hunts reflects the complementary dynamic in the role of women. Additionally, this dance is unique as it can only be performed by women. Men are not allowed to dance. There is strength in sisterhood as all of the women of the tribe come together. It is the power of these women dancing that brings their sister back to the human realm. Most interestingly, it is a man (an elder) who ruins the ritual by crying for the woman. I do wonder what is the subtext of it being a man who ultimately stops the woman coming back from the dead imply. I think this could potentially reflect how some roles are only for women or only for men however I don’t want to assume and get it wrong as I don’t want to inaccurately represent the tribe so I will have to look into more sources on this story in the future.

A- This source found its way to The Lenape Talking Dictionary to teach Lenape tribe members not only how to speak the Lenape language but also about the stories that act as the foundation for culture and tradition. I believe this story may have been included on this website not only to teach younger members of the tribe the language and pronunciation. but also to provide a broader context of how this story relates to Lenape life.

B- In a broader context, this story provides insight into what sort of role may have occupied. In this story, the ceremony can only be performed by women. This is a broader reflection of the fact that there are certain roles that only women can take part of. Throughout my research, I have discovered that Lenape society is far less patriarchal than Western society and more so complementary. It appears that this ceremony is a reflection of the complementary nature of Lenape culture.

CAFFREY, MARGARET M. “Complementary Power: Men and Women of the Lenni Lenape.” The American Indian Quarterly 24, no. 1 (2000): 44. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed February 20, 2021). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A63537180/AONE?u=temple_main&sid=AONE&xid=4ed851d1.

Scope- The purpose is to investigate how gender roles were complimentary in Lenape society.

Argument- The role of man and woman in Lenape society is complimentary rather than being a complete patriarchy or matriarchy. Gender was far less rigid than the Lenape’s colonial settler counterparts.

Significance- This source affirms what sort of roles women took on, what type of customs and traditions they participated in, as well as what kind of authority they held. By gaining this base level knowledge of women in Lenape society, I can compare and contrast how they are presented in various Lenape myths, legends, and spirituality.

Evidence- The author uses a mixture of primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include William Penn and missionary David Zeisberger while secondary entail See Lee Sultzman and Gabriel Thomas. Upon looking at this articles sources, I would like to find more articles either written by a Lenape tribe member or based off of written/spoken accounts of the Lenape people. Most of the primary sources come from missionaries trying to convert the Lenape people or neighboring settlers. Being that these individuals did not grow up in the tribe, they are bound to get some details wrong or misinterpret the culture as they view it from Western eyes. Though I still find this article to helpful in my research, I think comparing this to an article more intimately tied to the Lenape perspective will give me a clearer view of what life was like for Lenape women and its relationship to myth.

I was having a lot of trouble deciding between the two topics I proposed last week because I am so interested in both. So, I decided to combine the two topics into one. I will be investigating the role of women in various Native American myths.

A few questions that will guiding me as I begin to research will be:

1. How does the role of women in myths & legends impact the role of women in Native American society and vice versa?
2. How might these myths reflect how women were viewed?
3. To what extent were myths and legends viewed as truths/ how much did Native people value and respect their legends?

1. One potential topic I’d like to explore is the role of women in Lenape culture. I’m currently in a course called Found Philadelphia and we’ve been learning a bit about the Lenape people who inhabited this land before the settlers arrived. I’ve been particularly drawn to the role of women because we learned that life was far more egalitarian between the sexes in Lenape society than in colonial society. For example, the creation story puts women at the center of it all and marriage was matrilineal. I’ve been very interested in learning about matriarchal and even societies that are more egalitarian compared to the patriarchal societies we tend to learn about in the United States and Europe. I hope from this research topic I can learn more about why and how the Lenape were comparatively more equal between the sexes.
2. I’ve also been thinking about looking into Lenape mythology. I was thinking of examining how these legends influenced their ways of life and understanding of the world around them. Additionally, I wanted to look at how the myth may have changed with the introduction of Christianity once the colonists arrived. I was drawn to this idea because I’ve been learning a lot about how people used religion or spirituality to make sense of life in my class African Civilization. In my research, I hope to uncover how certain stories are created to explain nature and human behavior as well as uncover how legends influenced Lenape culture.