THE LENAPE

The Lenape lived in the Eastern part of what is now the United States of America along the Delaware River in the area that is now known as Pennsylvania. They lived there a long time before the first Europeans came there in the early 1600s. After the first settlers came from Europe, the Lenape started moving West. Many times this happened because the people who came to this land and the Lenape did not understand each other. It was a difficult time for the Lenape. Eventually the Lenape moved all the way to what is now known as Oklahoma. The walk that took the Lenape from where they had first lived in the Eastern United States to Oklahoma took 130 years. That is a very long time to be moving your home.

The Lenape tribe are also known as the Delaware. The name Delaware came into use after the Lenape met the European settlers in the 1600s. There are different stories that tell how the Lenape came to be called the Delaware. There is the Lenape version, and there is the European/American version. The word Lenape means "The People." There are many people around the world who live close to the Earth who call themselves "The People."

If you would like to find out more about the Lenape, you can go to your local library and ask for books on the Lenape or the Delaware. You can also begin to find out more about the Lenape by visiting:

http://www.delawaretribeofindians.nsn.us/index.html.

Every culture has a story about who they are. There are many stories about who the Lenape people are and who they were. The story of "Rainbow Crow" is a story from the Lenape people that helps us understand something about they way they enjoyed the world around them. It helps us get a feeling for how they looked at the world. It helps us understand the qualities they thought were important.

CROWS
(Source for background material: Listen to the Crows, by Laurence Pringle, illustrated by Ted Lewin. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1976.)

Crows are very smart. Scientists who study them have discovered that crows can count and that they have their own language. Crows can do all sorts of things that make them special.

A person once saw a crow using a tool. The crow held a twig in its beak and poked it inside a branch to get out insects. That is a very smart thing to do. People use tools, and monkeys use tools. Sometimes otters use natural tools to break clams open on their chest. Crows are very special birds because they know how to use something like a twig as a tool.

Crows have lots of ways of saying things with different sounds. A scientist named Dwight Chamberlain recorded twenty-three different calls that crows make. The sound that crows make is easy to recognize. People usually write the sound this way--caw caw caw, but that is not really the way it sounds.

The next time you hear something you think is a crow, listen. Look up and around and see if you can find the crow. Some scientists think that crows will call out in different ways when they are hungry, scared, or happy. Listen for the sound of crows. What do you think they are saying?

If you would like to find out more about crows, you can go to your local public library. There you can find books on crows and other birds. You can find stories that people tell about crows. You can listen to recordings of bird sounds.

NATIVE AMERICAN STORYTELLING

People have told stories for a long time. As long as there has been language and words, people have told stories. There are drawings on cave walls that show us the stories people told through pictures. Stories are one way that people use to help them make sense of the world in which they live. Most stories have a beginning, a middle, and an ending. A story can tell you about something that you feel but that you can't explain in the usual way.

Stories like Rainbow Crow can tell us about something that is true even if the story is made up. We can tell when a story is true by the way it makes us feel inside. When we hear something that makes us feel happy or sad or makes us dream of wonderful things or takes us on a trip in our imagination, then that story is true. True stories take us on journeys in our imagination and feelings. They help us know what is possible. After we hear, or read, a true story, we carry that story inside of us from then on. It becomes part of who we are. And, in a way, we become a part of the story.

The Native Americans, the people who lived on this continent before the Europeans came, told many stories about the world around them. Some of those stories have come to us because one person told them to someone else, who told them to someone else, who told them to someone else... Those stories exist because there are still Native Americans who are sharing their stories with us by telling them out loud and, sometimes, putting them in books. We help to keep the story alive when we hear it. Then it becomes part of us.