On the Turtle's Back: Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren
The Lenape tribe, also known as the Delaware Nation, lived for centuries on the land that English colonists later called New Jersey. But once America gained its independence, they were forced to move further west: to Indiana, then Missouri, and finally to the territory that became Oklahoma. These reluctant migrants were not able to carry much from their ancestral homeland, but they managed to preserve the stories that had been passed down for generations. 
 
On the Turtle’s Back is the first collection of Lenape folklore, originally compiled by anthropologist M. R. Harrington over a century ago but never published until now. In it, the Delaware share their cherished tales about the world’s creation, epic heroes, and ordinary human foibles. It features stories told to Harrington by two Lenape couples, Julius and Minnie Fouts and Charles and Susan Elkhair, who sought to officially record their legends before their language and cultural traditions died out. More recent interviews with Lenape elders are also included, as their reflections on hearing these stories as children speak to the status of the tribe and its culture today. Together, they welcome you into their rich and wondrous imaginative world. 

 
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On the Turtle's Back: Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren
The Lenape tribe, also known as the Delaware Nation, lived for centuries on the land that English colonists later called New Jersey. But once America gained its independence, they were forced to move further west: to Indiana, then Missouri, and finally to the territory that became Oklahoma. These reluctant migrants were not able to carry much from their ancestral homeland, but they managed to preserve the stories that had been passed down for generations. 
 
On the Turtle’s Back is the first collection of Lenape folklore, originally compiled by anthropologist M. R. Harrington over a century ago but never published until now. In it, the Delaware share their cherished tales about the world’s creation, epic heroes, and ordinary human foibles. It features stories told to Harrington by two Lenape couples, Julius and Minnie Fouts and Charles and Susan Elkhair, who sought to officially record their legends before their language and cultural traditions died out. More recent interviews with Lenape elders are also included, as their reflections on hearing these stories as children speak to the status of the tribe and its culture today. Together, they welcome you into their rich and wondrous imaginative world. 

 
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On the Turtle's Back: Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren

On the Turtle's Back: Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren

On the Turtle's Back: Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren
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On the Turtle's Back: Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren

On the Turtle's Back: Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren

Overview

The Lenape tribe, also known as the Delaware Nation, lived for centuries on the land that English colonists later called New Jersey. But once America gained its independence, they were forced to move further west: to Indiana, then Missouri, and finally to the territory that became Oklahoma. These reluctant migrants were not able to carry much from their ancestral homeland, but they managed to preserve the stories that had been passed down for generations. 
 
On the Turtle’s Back is the first collection of Lenape folklore, originally compiled by anthropologist M. R. Harrington over a century ago but never published until now. In it, the Delaware share their cherished tales about the world’s creation, epic heroes, and ordinary human foibles. It features stories told to Harrington by two Lenape couples, Julius and Minnie Fouts and Charles and Susan Elkhair, who sought to officially record their legends before their language and cultural traditions died out. More recent interviews with Lenape elders are also included, as their reflections on hearing these stories as children speak to the status of the tribe and its culture today. Together, they welcome you into their rich and wondrous imaginative world. 

 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781978819146
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 09/15/2023
Series: CERES: Rutgers Studies in History
Pages: 250
Sales rank: 204,355
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range: 16 - 18 Years

About the Author

CAMILLA TOWNSEND is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She has published widely on Indigenous history and language in the Americas. Her books include Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma (2004) and, most recently, Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs (2021), which won the 2020 Cundill Prize in History.
 
NICKY KAY MICHAEL is a member of the Delaware tribe who earned her BA in American studies from Stanford and PhD in history from the University of Oklahoma. She is currently the interim president of Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where she is also the executive director of Indigenous studies and curriculum. She is serving a seven-year term on the Delaware tribal council.

 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 
Introduction: The Storytellers’ History 

1 Creation Stories 
The Turtle’s Back 
The Seven Stars 
The Snow and Ice Boy 
The Girl Who Sounds the Thunders 
A Snake Legend [Julius Fouts] 
The Disappearance of Corn [Charles Elkhair] 

2 Big House Stories 
The Misingwe [Charles Elkhair] 
Vision on the Kansas River [Charles Elkhair] 
The Future of the Big House [Charles Elkhair and Julius Fouts] 
Delaware Church [Julius Fouts] 

3 Culture Heroes 
Ball Player [Julius Fouts] 
The Big Fish [Charles Elkhair] 
Wehixamukes (Strong Man) [Charles Elkhair] 

4 Humans Learning Lessons 
Rock-Shut-Up [Charles Elkhair] 
Little Masks [Julius Fouts] 
He Is Everywhere (Wē ma tī gŭnīs) [Julius Fouts] 

5 Talking to the Dead 
First Cause of the Feast for the Dead [Minnie Fouts] 
Talking to the Dead [Susan Elkhair] 
Lost Boy [Charles Elkhair’s daughter?]
Otter Hide [Charles Elkhair?] 

6 The Coming of the Whites 
The Coming of the White Men [Julius Fouts] 
Origination of White Men [Julius Fouts] 
Whites & Indians [Charles Elkhair] 

7 Tales of Ordinary Life 
A Child’s Life [Julius Fouts] 
The Three Clans [Julius Fouts] 
The Origin of Stories 

An Afterword in Three Parts 
I What Happened to the Storytellers? 
II Four Elders at the End of the Twentieth Century
Rosetta Coffey (September 17, 1997) 
Pat Donnell (September 20, 1997) 
Joanna Nichol (October 11, 1997) 
Bonnie Thaxton (August 19, 1997) 
III Today

Appendix A: The Turtle’s Back (Iroquoian and Munsee Versions) 
Appendix B: Dutch Arrival at Manhattan (John Heckewelder’s Version) 
Appendix C: The Woman Who Wanted No One (as told to Truman Michelson) 
Appendix D: Elected Leaders of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, ca. 1800-Present
Acknowledgments
Glossary 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index 

 

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