Malvern Prep Celebrates Native American Heritage Month

Malvern Prep celebrated Native American Heritage month on Wednesday, November 9, gathering together to welcome members of the Lenni Lenape Tribe to campus. Members of the tribe included; Chief "Gentlemoon" Chuck DeMund, Chief of Ceremony and Intertribal Affairs; Ken "Wolf Eyes" Macaulay; Barbara Bluejay Michalski, Chief of Culture and Tribal Secretary, Walter "Quiet Feather" Sosnowski, and Pam "Talking Goose" Sosnowski.

During the celebration, the school took time to acknowledge and thank the Lenape Nation for being the original caretakers of the land we currently occupy. The entire space of campus was dedicated to the Lenape Nation and the lawn next to Austin Hall will officially be renamed the Lenape Lawn.

The Lenape people are the original inhabitants of Delaware, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Southern New York. For over 10,000 years they have been the caretakers of these lands and of The River of Human Beings, more commonly known as the Delaware River. The Lenape were the first tribe to sign a treaty with the United States and the first tribe to have land set aside for them in New Jersey.

Many place names in Pennsylvania are derived from the Lenape Language, such as Manayunk, Conshohocken, and Neshaminy...to mention only a few. In the city of Philadelphia stands a statue of Chief Tamanend, a revered leader among the Lenape, who signed many treaties with William Penn. The history of the Lenape is truly the history of Pennsylvania.