Hidden in Plain Sight: The American Indian Movement and the Revival of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, 1969-1982

Abstract

This paper explores the resurgence of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape of New Jersey in the latter half of the 20th century. This thesis argues that the American Indian Movement, with its strong advocation for Native existence and pride, along with Pan-Indianism, unity amongst all tribes, acted as a driving factor in the revival of the Eastern Woodland tribe, the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape. From the eighteenth century, tribes on the East Coast were forced westward and north, but the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape people remained hidden in plain sight on their native lands, to which they had been tied to for over 10,000 years. Parents taught their children to hide their native heritage in hopes that they would not be forced from their home as well. Generation after generation, fewer and fewer children were aware of their “Nativeness.” The Lenape traditions, language, and cultural practices which had only been passed down orally were beginning to fade away. By the 1960’s, what started off as a survival tactic to cope with white encroachment metamorphosed into an everyday part of life and as a result, this tight-knit community’s Native identity had been displaced. In the early 1970’s, a number of inspired Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape families worked to reverse the loss of their community’s traditions and identity, unify, and retain a collective recognition of being Native American and a pride in that ancestry.