WHO WE ARE
We are an organization of Lenape matriarchs from the 5 Lenape tribes in the lands currently known as Canada and the United States. We are members and verified descendants of The Delaware Nation of Oklahoma, The Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma, The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown, and The Munsee Delaware Nation. Our goal is to increase Lenape peoples' presence in our own homelands, having been violently displaced hundreds and even thousands of miles away. Short term, we organize multiple annual trips back home for our people, with special attention to the matriarchs and youth in our communities. Our trips are focused on land and water stewardship, culture, language, stories, healing, education, building relationships, and ceremony. Long term, we intend to get land back, which will enable us to protect the local ecology, restore Lenape's ability to be home in their own lands, create a safe space for Lenape women and femmes, educate the local communities, honor our right to land-based culture, and help to heal a 5 century long wound. We gather together from the various corners of our diaspora to revitalize our ways and reclaim what was taken from us.
Our Mission
Our mission is to build pathways home by restoring Lenape matriarchy and connection to the land.
WHAT WE DO
Reclaiming our home for generations to come.
Ensuring our children will know their homelands.
Our Values
Family, community, caretaking and restoring cultural and traditional Lenape values, rematriation, environmental stewardship, land-based learning, traditional ecological knowledge, land back, water protection, education, nurturing intergenerational connections, and healing historical trauma
Our
Story
Get to Know Us
Though displaced thousands of miles away from our territories through acts of genocidal removal, Lenape people have never stopped working to maintain a connection to our homelands. Lenni Lenapexkweyok is the result of generations of Lenape prayers, work, intellectual thought, and organizing. The first trip as a collective started out of a relationship between a local NYC-based artist, Emily Johnson, with her organization Catalyst, and a group of Lenape women. Since then, we have developed an independent collective of women and femmes from each of our tribes, collaborating across the so-called US-CA boarder to bring our people home. We work with several NYC-based organizations, artists, and individuals who understand the importance of partnering with the Indigenous People of occupied territories. We happily accept new collaborations as we believe that solidarity is the key to freedom. In particular, we call upon wealthy settlers in our homelands to recognize their power that is dependent upon Lenape displacement and to give land back.