The West Chester Green Team launched its summer family education series on Saturday, June 24.
A group of almost 40 people of all ages gathered at West Chester Friends Meeting House to hear Chris Applegate from the Museum of Indian Culture in Allentown. Applegate spoke about the daily lives of the Lenape tribe 500 years ago, before the arrival of colonists. She displayed dozens of items including a pair of elk skin moccasins. Pennsylvania, she told her audience, is the home of a large elk herd now, after total extinction and reintroduction in the early 20th century. Many Elk are living, appropriately, in Elk County. Even though the elk are back, in so many other ways, there have been vast changes. Now the Lenape live as others do, with cell phones, cars, and jobs.
Applegate talked about the importance of music to the tribe and showed a turtle shell rattle and shakers made from deer hoofs. She demonstrated a bow and arrows, as well as a spear. A Lenape style cradleboard with a life size doll in it, carried by a strap on the forehead, not by shoulder straps as are modern baby packs, was also displayed. Applegate described the grinding of corn and the growing of “Three Sisters” vegetables, with corn in the center and beans and squash by its side. Planting in this way insured the health of the crops and, when eaten together, “the three sisters” provided healthy, balanced nutrition.
“Wanishi” means thank you in the Lenape language and generosity is the core value of the culture. In her concluding story, Applegate told the tale of how the bear lost his tail. The reason: he was greedy and would not share fish he had caught with a hungry raccoon.
(See this report also in the Daily Local News, 6/28/23.)
West Chester Green Team 
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[…] The Legendary Lenape program is a summer 2023 series of educational gatherings for children, families and people of all ages taking place at locations around Chester County, on Saturdays or Sundays from June 24 to August 13, at varying times. See report after first session here. […]
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