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Ascus Township
>> here.

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» Berlin Township
>> here.

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» Black Waxon Township
>> here.

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» Shoulda Township
>> here.

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» Yep. Westall Township
>> here.

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» State of New York.
>> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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» Delaware River Basin Commission
>> here.

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» National Park Service
>> here.

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» Thank you.
Um the vice president.

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» Yeah. No, I was saying that uh back in
last March, we attempted to arrange a

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presentation regarding the Lafi people
and that didn't work out at that time.

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Subsequently, there was some
reorganization within the tribal

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government and Ant Eden had reached out
to us to say that he would be our new

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person to contact and we have been
working together recently. The Calun

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Depot is arranging an indigenous
people's day on October 17th and we have

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a small committee that's been meeting
and Ed has been our representative to

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that and he very agreed to give a
presentation to this body the upper

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Delaware council tonight and I will let
you take it away from there. Um I will

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call up your slides
in a second.

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Aiwani, thank you so much. Delawinci
Inc. U my name is Ank Eden. My pronouns

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are he, him or they, them. I'm an
independent uh Lape delegate and I am

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from here in Lape Hoking. Um I am based
in Pennsylvania, but our ancestral

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homelands, as many of you may know, are
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, um and

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Maryland.
So, without further ado, can everybody

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hear me? Okay.
>> Yes.

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» All right. Excellent.
So, um just a heads up, I'm going to

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read through my notes. I'll keep a bit
of track of time. Um if there are any

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pressing questions, feel free to just
have anybody throw up their hand. Um,

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and if at the end of our about half hour
slot, we don't get to all those

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questions, I'll hang out until the end
with my camera off and when we come

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around to public comment, I would love
to hear some more feedback. So, what

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brings us here today, and this will be a
little bit more of a discussion.

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» Um, do you have slides that you're
pulling up?

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» I only have one.
>> Oh, okay.

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» Yep. I only have one. So yeah, that's
exactly what I was going to get to. This

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is going to be a little bit more of a
discussion than a slide. Um cuz of

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course our topic being creating healthy
allyships with indigenous peoples. I

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really want to be able to speak with
you, you know, face to face or as face

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to face as it's going to get over Zoom.
Um but I'm so grateful for this space

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and for the Upper Delaware Council to
initiate this. So, I see plenty of new

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faces here. Um, I actually see some of
my own language students. So, Aiwani,

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thank you so much everybody for coming.
That being said, uh, so like I said, hi,

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I'm Inc. Um, I have a mixed heritage.
So, I am Lena Lape. I'm Asian and I'm

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also European. Um, I merge all of these
identities and backgrounds together to

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inform my environmental activism as well
as my explorations as an artist and an

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educator. Um, I publish books. I am also
a first responder. So, I have my hands

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in a couple different pots. Um because
as you'll learn today, one of the things

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that is very important for our peoples
is being able to reach into the many

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parts of how it takes a village to
function. Uh people serve multiple roles

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and we find what people are good at and
like to support them in doing that kind

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of thing. So for me uh my father, my
grandfather and both grandfathers and

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their fathers on multiple sides had
connections to the water as river

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workers or boatsmen themselves. Uh I
carry on this tradition. One of my very

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first memories is being on the water
myself. Um and it is probably where I am

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happiest. So, as much as that brings
joy, we can also find these deep-seated

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um historical understandings within the
river and it has many different ways

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that it can speak to us. Uh it, you
know, it's not just something that we

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live near and it gives us our water.
It's something that also really shows us

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how healthy we are as a people existing
around it. And that's a bit of what

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we're going to talk about today and how
we can develop those relationships.

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um across indigenous nations which
have many different uh embodiment. Some

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tribes are smaller, some tribes are much
larger, some people are independent.

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Um but between native nations as a whole
and with organizations such as

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non-governmental organizations, such as
legislation and bureaus, how we can find

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ways to work together. And so we're not
just stuck in our little compartments of

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our specialties to be able to
um bring out the best in all of us. Like

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I was saying, it does indeed take a
village.

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So, um, while cultural ties to
development around rivers have been part

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of my own relatives history
on these multiple continents, I reflect

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on their influence to remember their
efforts and times our war of peace that

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taught them what they knew about their
environments that taught them what they

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knew about how the environment impacted
how they could take care of their

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communities and families.
And that is what I really like to center

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in my work. Um, I don't claim to speak
for any and all indigenous people. I'm

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here as myself, as a friend, um, as a
supporter, and as an advocate, so I will

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speak to my own experiences. And if you
ask somebody else, their answers might

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differ a little bit from their own
native nations. Um, there are more than

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500 in
the United States, what we call Turtle

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Island alone. So, even when it comes to
the Linape people, there are multiple

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tribes. There are multiple clans
and we all have our own ways of uh

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holding space for our culture and
relating to the land. So, the Lone Lape

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are a river people. Uh the Delaware
River itself is a bit of our HQ. It's

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our port. Um
the Lape have three clans. And so most

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central to the Delaware River itself,
you'll have the Miy up north, which is

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the Wolf Clan.
We have the Unami clan, which is Turtle.

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That's my clan.
and we're a bit more central. Uh, so I'd

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say about east to Philadelphia and a bit
below that. And then we have the

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Unoactigo
and they are more of our ocean people

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all the way down at South Jersey and
connected to the Delaware Bay.

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So there are multiple indigenous names
for some bodies of water as you'll find.

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Uh my community refers to the Delaware
River as Lape Cipu, which is a reference

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to how intertwined we are with the
river, but it also means uh in the sense

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of being transliterated the river of the
original people.

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So this uh way of speaking about the
river really denotes how central it is

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to our way of life, how we relate to
each other, how we travel, how we

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nourish ourselves, how and why and where
we build our villages and the ways in

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which we hold ceremony.
So our identity is uh very interwoven

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with the river itself and with the
bodies of water.

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There are many different uh traditions
that I won't go too deep into today, but

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around uh traditional dugout canoes and
the ways that they were made um specific

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ways to hunt our fish depending on the
season and um methods around

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peacekeeping between tribes that
understood that the river was

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essentially a port for you know not just
the the Lape people, but uh the Irkqua,

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the Mohawk is one of the Iricqua tribes
that um overlap with both Lape land and

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with the Delaware River. So, it would
not just be us traveling along Lape

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Cipu. It would be many people. And the
Lape are traditionally considered a um

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tribe that mediates,
a tribe that is involved in problem

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solving with other tribes in the
northeast. So the river really can be a

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way station for how this happens. And I
find this to be relevant even in the

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modern age because when it comes to the
politics of native nations, when it

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comes to the politics of protecting our
waterways, when it comes to uh

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preventing ecological damages, all of
these things, we still have this highway

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of knowledge that is embodied by the
river. And I find honestly more than in

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a lot of other areas that the river
still symbolizes this now. So gathering

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here today is another great example of
how we can carry that on and maintain an

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open discussion.
So

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um another aspect is considering that
the way that legislation may view uh you

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know human resources and environmental
resources and budgeting is very

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different than indigenous knowledge and
again the way that we relate to the

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ecology of the land.
But these things don't necessarily have

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to exist in separate categories. They
don't have to be one without the other.

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Um, if we dedicate ourselves to
learning, as I'll talk about a little

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bit later, then we can have these spaces
where all of these different

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perspectives begin to mesh together. And
it doesn't have to be a conflict of

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interest with well, the indigenous
people would really like to do this and

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the budget would really like to do this.
So when we are incorporating in

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decision-m
um on you know multi-jurisdictional

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levels
the understandings that indigenous

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peoples and their communities our
communities have then that creates a

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benefit for everyone honestly. Um the
value in that is the planning knowledge

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really expands
and that's a type of knowledge that

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western society might not otherwise
have. Um,

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as I've
mentioned uh a little bit and as I'll go

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into a bit more as we go on, we have
these cycles around our lives and the

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ways that we develop our community that
really pay attention to how the river is

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responding
and upkeeping. um not just the you know

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numbers, not just the statistics, not
just the industrial projects that are

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happening around it, but upkeeping the
sense of the health of the river also

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really denotes the health of ourselves.
So some of this knowledge that bureaus,

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legislation, non-governmental
organizations might not otherwise have

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is really just a matter of inheritance
of familiarity. It's not anybody's

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fault. It's um just a beautiful
opportunity that again we can come

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together. So that familiarity that we've
inherited really comes around these

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natural developmental uses for the land
that are not industrialized. And this

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can really assist in projects that are
looking at how we can approach things

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like
mitigating flooding for storms.

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uh native plants, for example, many of
which are endangered, are having their

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own issues or overh harvested, even
commercialized.

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Native plants and their diversity can
really take a part in this, can really

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take a part in how we're managing the
environment. Um things like erosion for

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example are certain bacteria outbreaks
can be mitigated, prevented or even

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resolved with these understandings that
you know you might have an environmental

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biologist who knows a little bit about.
But if you have somebody who has been

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exposed to these things for generations,
whether they were raised in it or not,

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that reconnects with their community and
exists within this network, then that

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opens up an entire possibility.
So, uh, that really

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invokes the best ways to care for the
plants, the animals, the river, the land

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by optimizing the environment, by
working with the environment, not just

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on top of it. an example that I really
love to use. Um, and this is much less

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water related, but I think that it's a
very extreme example of how our

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earth really depends on these native
ecologies to survive. Uh, the example

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that I like to give is the Gobi Desert.
Obviously, it's a desert. there's not

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water running through it in the same way
that we're familiar with here in Lape

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Hoking, the land of the Lape.
But um

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deserts essentially still need water.
Deserts have their own ecologies. So the

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Gobi Desert is in parts of uh Central
and East Asia, part of uh where another

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branch of my family is indigenous to.
And the Gobi Desert started having

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issues uh especially around the 80s
where it was expanding. It was expanding

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to the point where it was creating dust
storms for cities that were thousands of

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kilometers away and uh it was making it
very unhealthy for people. Plants were

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dying. There were species that had
totally vanished. And um

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what they found was that there was the
last type of wild horse that had

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actually disappeared from this area. And
this species was extremely endangered.

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So at one point before this project in
the 80s and '90s occurred,

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um at one point there were absolutely
none of these wild horses actually left

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in the wild. They were entirely in
captivity.

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But a very daring project decided to
reintroduce these horses back into the

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Gobi Desert. And it took time. Uh it was
not, you know, just run free and call it

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a day because that would be negligent.
There were many steps and it was very

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well planned but also very very
difficult and not without struggle and

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not without sadness. But when these wild
horses were reintroduced, they found

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that even in a desert because of the
pounding of their hooves, which who

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would have thought it actually helped
the desert retain water better in a way

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where otherwise it was creating these
dust storms. It was making the entire

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desert crack and plant species that
hadn't been seen in 20 years started

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popping up in places that were not
expected to be. And it was because of

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the role that these horses played in the
native migration patterns in the

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exchange of the ecology
and this really rehabilitated this

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desert from a hazard level. So, I like
to give this example because I think

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it's a really beautiful reminder of the
extreme versions that just a bit more of

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that attention and care to uh the
creative thinking about how we can work

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with our environment and what our
environment would originally look like.

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Be it uh through people, be it through
animals, be it through plants, be it

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through geology. what that can tell us
about how we can optimize and not in an

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industrialized way but in a naturalistic
way that again helps everybody.

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So that being said, I'm going to scooch
a little bit into uh the concept of

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allyship itself. So for native people,
we consider everything to be our

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relations. You know, I I'm sitting at
home right now and I have plants here

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with me and they're my relations.
They're with me all the time. I have my

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cat here, my cat's my relation. Um but
also the stars, the moon, and of course

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the river. So that's a much more
intimate um understanding of allyship

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and connection than a colonial western
world has really enforced on many

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people. And I personally believe that
everybody has suffered from this, you

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know, not just native people. But to
make it short and sweet and simple,

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according to Miam Webster, allyship is
the state or condition of being an ally.

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Uh being a in supportive association
with another person or group. So what

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I'm interpreting this as in the context
we have here today

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would be understanding where you end and
where others begin in order to show up

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in your fullness for and with others for
that collective benefit. Being committed

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to listening, learning, and continuously
growing in the presence of another. and

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admission to receiving guidance and
heeding how a person or group would or

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would not like to be advocated for.
So this is going to be my one slide. Uh

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like I said, I I do really want to keep
this a discussion, but I found a really

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wonderful resource from the creator the
center for creative leadership. So I'm

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going to put that up now and everybody
can see. I will also put a link at the

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end of my little spot
so you can see it in the chat.

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Can everybody see that? Okay,

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» I see a thumbs up. So,
this is a little bit about what to avoid

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in terms of showing allyship. So what it
is not

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according to the center for creative
leadership uh performing platitudes

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positions and perfection.
So let's talk a little bit about

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performing. It says take meaningful
actions to show real support and that

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can come in many different forms. Taking
that meaningful action is what to do and

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what not to do. Um, I will say that
performing and masking is something that

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is really society taught to many of us.
It's taught to us when we're sitting

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under fluorescent lights working on a
computer. Um, it's taught to us in, you

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know, going to the DMV.
So, learning

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when that's not necessary and allowing
us to drop that guard and again be more

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um
warmly intimate with our relations, with

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the people next to us, with our neighbor
in a way where it's not about us. giving

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from the heart, giving without expecting
anything in return, but also not

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overgiving, not trying to prove anything
with your actions.

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And those meaningful actions that show a
genuine sense of support might be

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something that you ask first. You don't
have to know all of the answers.

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Platitudes,
uh, committing authentically without

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empty gestures. This is something that I
see a lot, especially when it comes to

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more legal realms of advocating for
native peoples and the land. Um,

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if you make a promise, make it an
attainable promise. If you can't promise

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something, be honest with that from the
get-go. If you have a specific capacity

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or a scope, we'll talk about this a
little bit more, too.

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um then you know that is the circle of
what you can promise or not even

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necessarily promise but what you can
give and there's nothing wrong with

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that. Uh if anything native nations are
going to appreciate it more when you are

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upfront and when you're not forcing
something when you're not pushing

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yourself too too far. Um, again, because
we're meeting each other where we're at,

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positions, focusing on listening and
learning, not titles or labels. Uh, I

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cannot emphasize this enough. Um, I'll
give a first responder example where

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when somebody comes to a really bad
accident, there's something called

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incident command system. And when
incident command system starts, um, you

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know, it might be a first responder
who's a bit lower on the totem pole who

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initially is there and who starts as
incident commander who's really

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delegating how this is being managed.
And it's only later when maybe somebody

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with a little bit more experience comes,
then they can shift out with them. So I

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bring this example up uh because
everybody has wisdom to share. Everybody

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has something that can guide us and
maybe something that other people would

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miss. So while the understanding of
roles is really helpful for boundaries,

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positions and titles don't necessarily
um you know create that same

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coming together that we could otherwise
have. There's nothing wrong with having

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a position or a title, but you know,
nobody is holier than thou. native

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people aren't um you know people in
other seats aren't directors aren't. So

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when we can all be at the round table
together and make those decisions as a

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team listening and learning um
equilaterally but also with equity

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understanding when somebody maybe isn't
heard enough when somebody has doesn't

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have as much of a chance. that can
really elevate our allyship and

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perfection. Be humble. You won't get it
right every time. Um, you know,

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[clears throat] we all are learning.
It's a constant process. I myself have

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had to learn and adjust and I think that
is just part of being human. Um, so I'm

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going to take this down.
I will put it back up at the end. But

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again, you know, the whole uh point of
develop the developing these allyships

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is going back to humanity, going back to
the original humanity of an environment

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in order to better understand that
environment and seeing each other as

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that human team that can embrace that.
All right.

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How much time, Upper Delaware Council,
do I have left?

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about five minutes.
>> Five minutes. Okay, that sounds good. I

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will go through these notes and then
I'll hang around until the end for Q&A

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and that kind of thing. So, if anybody
has questions about what I've said so

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far, uh please note them down or hang on
to them.

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But that being said,
allyship and partnership are kind of

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different things. Uh so according to
again Miriam Webster the state of being

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a partner is the definition. I see this
as two or more parts to a whole in this

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context. It can be groups coming
together for the sake of accomplishing

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something whether it be social,
environmental, transformative,

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structural or policy change. tribes
around Turtle Island uh are the United

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States
mostly down west and down south uh have

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been very forefront in the fight for
environmental protections and asserting

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the public's desires for natural
resources to be preserved. So, one of

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the really big things um that isn't
quite getting enough news airtime right

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now, but is amazingly powerful to watch
is that Native nations are very involved

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in uh rejecting data centers taking over
very um ecologically sensitive sites.

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So, we can follow their example.
So, how do we know when a partnership,

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allyship or connection is healthy? When
it's cohesion? when we're working

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together.
So, first and foremost, we have

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compassion and care. That respect is
always going to be the biggest

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indicator.
We have honesty and transparency,

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checks and balances, and this can be
designed by the community or the board

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or the group that's working together.
delegation of power, distribution of

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responsibilities, and honoring
everyone's capacity and scope.

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Now,
how do these partnerships, these

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allyships and their health impact the
earth, the water, nature?

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Well, like I said, nature is our
relative and requires a sense of

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perceptive listening to decipher its
state and communication with it. we can

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learn this from each other. You know,
we're speaking the same language right

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now, which really helps, but like
somebody who speaks a different

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language, we have a little bit of that
communication gap, a little bit of that

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language barrier with nature.
So when we're open to learning this from

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each other, we're giving rise to the
cooperation that allows us to hear

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nature. And the people who have been in
a particular area listening to the signs

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of that version of nature for thousands
of years

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are probably going to have some really
great pointers and that can merge with

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things like modern science. So embracing
that evaluation of needs is very

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traditional to us. You know, if you're
cold, you don't have to pay for a

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blanket because somebody in the village
is going to give you one. And that's

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also how we see filling a need within
the environment. If there's a certain

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type of erosion that's starting on a
river bank, well, we would know which

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plants would be beneficial with their
specific root systems to tie together

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that bank so less of that erosion is
happening.

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If the trout are low, we would seek shad
instead and by paying attention to their

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breeding spots and seasonal patterns.
That being said, we all know the phrase

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that water is life. And we can protect
our communities and water simultaneously

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by paying that attention. And I say this
because attention, especially in the

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modern information age, becomes a bit of
a currency of value.

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And appreciation is how we cultivate
that value. exchange, care,

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follow through is how we cultivate that
value. So like a farmer would appreciate

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their harvest, a tribe would appreciate
the resources to live with a harmony to

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nature that modern society often doesn't
have in the same way because we're

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connect disconnected from those same
patterns. Uh, you know, I love being

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able to go get some canned soup from the
grocery store, but it's very different

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when I'm growing corn in my yard or when
I eat tomatoes that I plucked them off

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the vine myself. That attention and that
appreciation becomes different. So, when

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we can hold both, we can greater embrace
the sustainability that weaves these

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things together. So value is discovered
from not only embracing these concepts

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but finding a link of symbiosis, finding
the mutuality, finding how one person

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helps another helps another. And that's
what gets the food on the table.

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Um
I'm going to switch a little bit as

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we're finishing up um and close out.
So, I hope that so far this has been

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really informational.
Um, a couple tools that you can use for

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honoring the tribes of the land that you
are working on. Uh, there is a tool

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called nativeland.ca.
I will look up that link for you too and

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I will put it in the chat. But that is a
great service. Um, and it is completely

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free for seeing a map of where
not only you are, but the local native

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peoples. And it actually gives
references to the tribes directly. So,

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you can contact them if you'd like. But
land acknowledgements are one of the

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primary ways that we
and not just we but our allies uh can

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honor the people that are from a
specific place. Um if you would like to

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know a little bit more about land
acknowledgements, there will be a

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00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:21,360
upcoming phone interview going over the
radio that I'm doing with a friend of

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Upper Delaware Council named Tim. So,
we'll go in a bit more on that because I

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know we're limited time today. Uh, but
what really makes them matter is not

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speaking for a tribe, but speaking to
what they give, speaking to what they

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represent in their own words and why.
And when approaching a tribe, my best

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advice for people seeking to be the most
supportive ally that they can be, um, is

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asking instead of just
what your ideas might be, asking that

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00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:06,720
person or that tribe what they need,
what their priorities are instead of

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your own. And that really opens a space
for greater discourse. Um, and also

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asking what their capacity may be.
tribes are very often short staffed. Um,

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I will say that there are many
organizations that do frame themselves

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as Native American when that's not
necessarily the case. Uh, this is

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sometimes museums. This is sometimes
nonprofits. Um, usually a quick Google

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00:33:32,559 --> 00:33:40,720
search can give you a little bit more
information. um if some not so nice

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00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:45,039
words pop up next to those folks,
especially from other tribes, then you

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00:33:42,399 --> 00:33:48,960
can usually vet them out a little bit.
Um but you if you're ever having trouble

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00:33:47,039 --> 00:33:55,279
with that, you are more than welcome to
reach out to me. With all that being

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00:33:52,000 --> 00:34:01,279
said, um I very much hope that
meaningful reciprocity is something that

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you can carry into your partnerships
here on out and that this is only the

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beginning of a conversation that we can
continue to have. Um [laughter]

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00:34:08,079 --> 00:34:16,800
admittedly, I have many more notes, but
we will save them for another day and

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I'm very grateful to share this space
for you with you. Um, so I will send

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some resources in the chat that can
bring this into the future.

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00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:37,079
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you for bringing this program to

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us. Does anyone have any questions?

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00:34:37,359 --> 00:34:45,599
» I wondered if Ed could um summarize what
will happen on October 17th if you can

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give us a preview of that Indigenous
People's Day.

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00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:56,480
All right, that sounds good. Uh, thank
you for, you know, giving me an extra

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minute to, uh, summarize that. But
October 17th at the Calun Depot, uh,

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we're going to have the pleasure of
hosting our first Indigenous People's

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00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:12,400
Day together. So, myself and my family
will be coming out um as well as

377
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possibly some of our community members
to do some educational programming with

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00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:25,040
Upper Delaware Council and we're going
to go a bit into native plants. We're

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going to go a bit into regalia and craft
making. We're going to go a bit into

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language, which I also teach the Unami
dialect of the Lape language. Um, and

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we're very excited. So, it is going to
be our first year. We're, you know,

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00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:47,119
starting off with humble beginnings. Um,
but this is going to be a really

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formative time to
have this space for hopefully many years

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00:35:49,599 --> 00:35:57,200
to come. And we'll also be able to
receive feedback from you and from the

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00:35:54,240 --> 00:36:03,560
people who show up um on what interests
you and what you'd like to learn more

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00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:03,560
about in terms of native education.

387
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:16,880
Mhm.
>> Thank you.

388
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:23,320
» Thanks a lot.
>> Thank you very much.

389
00:36:19,839 --> 00:36:23,320
» Thank you too,

390
00:36:32,079 --> 00:36:38,720
Move to the next
>> approve

391
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:41,599
6 meeting.
>> I'll move that.

392
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:44,800
» Is there a second?
>> A second.

393
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:51,000
» Okay. Motion made and seconded. Is there
any discussion?

394
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:51,000
Hearing none. I'll call for a vote.