On Nov. 27, Healing Turtle Island, an event of cultural reconciliation between the Collegiate Church and the Lenape, was held in Bowling Green Plaza near the old U.S. Customs House (now the Museum of the American Indian) in the city of New York. It was sponsored by Intersections, a special project of peace and reconciliation initiated by the Collegiate Church. It was the first church to settle in Manhattan, which was known as Manahatta in the Lenape language.
During their deliberations, the church was astounded to find that New York has one of the largest Native American populations in the country. According to census figures, more than 90,000 Native Americans live in the New York City area.
Learning there was such a large population prompted them to actively seek Native Americans to form a partnership. It included people who remained behind in their ancestral homeland and the Lenape of Oklahoma. Recently the Lenape Tribe of Oklahoma regained its status as a federally recognized tribe after a protracted battle with the federal government and the Cherokee Nation.
“The Lenape are the original people of Manhattan Island,” said Curtis Zuniga, former Lenape Tribe chair. It was after contact that the name Delaware was given to the valley.
Healing Turtle Island recognizes the 1609 encounter between the Lenape and Henry Hudson and his crew 400 years ago. Like many of the celebrated explorers before him, Hudson was hired to find a passage to India. He was English but signed on as captain with the Dutch East India Company. They went on to make their fortune in the burgeoning fur trade.
“Dutch colonists were hacking men, women and children to death,” said Ronald Holloway, Sand Hill Band of Lenape chairman. He is a descendent of those who remained on the East Coast after their brethren where driven out of their homelands.
The long forced migrations of the Lenape are well-known to tribal members. There were several routes and alliances formed for survival. “There are several bands of Lenape,” Zuniga said. “There are two bands in Oklahoma; two bands are located in Ontario, Canada.”
Collegiate Church was the company church of the Dutch East India Company. The minister Rev. Robert Chase underscores that the church was complicit in the dreadful treatment the Native Americans received at the hands of the colonists.
“Turtle Island is the name that the Lenape and other Native Americans use to refer to their ancestral homeland, what the Europeans called the ‘new world’. In this event, we are celebrating a new beginning, a healing, if you will, in the relationship between Collegiate Church and Native Americans,” said Rev. Chase, founding director of Intersections.
The church was known during colonial times as the “conscience” of the settlers. The church wanted to do something that would acknowledge the historical travesties that took place. They also want to take necessary steps to do something in the present to make amends. As a step in reconciliation, the church issued an apology that read, in part:
“With pain, we the Collegiate Church remember our part in these events. We consumed your resources, dehumanized your people and disregarded your culture, along with your dreams, hope and great love for this land. We feel sorrow for our part in these actions.”
The apology also recognizes the lifeways that were an integral part of the reality the colonists found in America. The apology was read the day after Thanksgiving. It provided a fuller understanding of the nature of the relationships the Lenape cultivated among one another and the natural world. This is in stark contrast to the holiday that re-enacts the founding myths of the United States.
“The Lenape people and their kin wished and envisioned good health and a good life for themselves and for their children – and a continuation of their lives upon this great land. They farmed, they fished, and they hunted. They built homes and they made trails across this great land. They gave thanks – and they give thanks today in places far from their original homes – for the earth and the sun, for the streams, lakes, rivers, ocean, clean air, and for all gifts of sustenance and life provided for them by our common and our truly Great Creator.”
“The heartfelt statement of apology from the Collegiate Church was emotionally moving to me,” Zuniga said. “I plan on taking the statement back to my community. This will be an ongoing process. I am hoping that as I talk with our community we will bring our presence to this. We are a peace loving people by nature.”
Chase said one of the most moving parts of the ceremony was the exchange of necklaces by a young girl from Collegiate Church and a young Lenape boy. For many in attendance this moment was heavy in symbolism. It challenges people to begin anew in their relationships.
“We don’t just want to have our Kumbaya moment and move on. This is an ongoing process to find ways in which we can work together on the pressing issues of the Native American community. We hope that this effort can provide a model.”
“I hope that this event will inspire us to reconnect the circle,” Zuniga said. “It is an ongoing process we need the hope of the younger generation and the wisdom of the older generation to reconnect the circle.”
For the full contents of the apology, visit the Web site.
