(Misinformation Page)
Right now we have just added the negative book reviews of
books which misinform folks about the Lenape People.
Other misinformation about or concerning the Lenape
will be exposed soon.
Book Reviews
I Highly Recomend Reading These Reviews
Before EVER Purchasing any of these books.
The Circle Of Lenapehoking
THE CIRCLE OF LENAPEHOKING, by Paul Tobacco Cashman (Xlibris Corp.,
Philadelphia, 2003), is guaranteed to leave your head spinning in a
circle! Wild conjecture, masquerading as informed speculation, is the
chief characteristic of this work. The author contends that certain
stone walls, rock piles and landscaped oval and circular plots of
ground--found in association with natural features and lithic formations
in the woods of eastern Pennsylvania--were fashioned by Lenape Indians,
and express particular aspects of Lenape spirituality. Chief among
these spiritual expressions is the sacred circle, on the perimeter of
which is marked the solstices, equinoxes, and other celestial events.
Never mind that no proof is cited to confirm that these "circles" and
other man-made features are, in fact, aboriginal creations. And, never
mind that there is no evidence, whatsoever, that the Lenape EVER
observed the solstices and equinoxes. (In truth, not even one of the
three comprehensively documented dialects of Lenape has words for
"solstice" or "equinox.") We need only accept Cashman's opinion that
these are Lenape sites; and, we need only follow his convoluted
reasoning in order to "see" what the Lenape must have once believed.
What we really have here is a meditation on sacred circles, based on the
author's understanding of concepts drawn from Hinduism, Buddhism,
Taoism, alchemy, Jungian psychology and numerology. In other words,
this is a hodge-podge New Age cosmology projected onto features of the
Pennsylvania landscape, and falsely attributed to the indigenous
inhabitants thereof.
There are so many errors of fact in this book, I simply haven't got the
energy to cover all of them. Here are a few:
Page 9 - "These people called their home Lenapehoking..." [Highly
unlikely, since the term, "Lenapehoking," was coined by Nora Thompson
Dean, just twenty years ago.]
Page 26 - "Grandfather Sun" [Here we go again! The Lenape called the
Sun their 'Elder Brother.']
Page 70-71 - "Amangamek ...means Frightful Snake-like Water Spirits."
[Good grief! This word means nothing more than 'big fish.']
Page 71 - "Nanaboush" [Here we go again! Nanaboush is NOT a Lenape
culture hero. He's Ojibway.]
Page 72 - "Keshelemukum" (sic!) = 'Thinking Grandfather.' [The Lenape
called Kishelemukong their 'Father.']
Pages 72-80 - "The Woman Who Fell from the Sky" - This is the most
extravagant attempt to reconcile several Lenape (and non-Lenape)
creation stories, by weaving them all together in a dizzying
phantasmagoria, that I've ever seen! This would absolutely stun a
traditional Lenape. Half of the characters (or more) are unknown from
Lenape tradition.
Page 79 - "...all Lenape consider Nanaboush to be their common ancestor
and revered grandfather." [I don't know any Lenapes who believe this!]
The Lenape language used throughout this work is, of course, abominable.
Almost every word is spelled wrong--no matter what pronunciation you
assign to the letters.
The author's vision of a circle, marked at the four quarters, thus
producing an invisible cross inside the circle, which turns into a
pyramid by extending each point of the cross to the zenith; then, an
upside-down pyramid created by extending the same points to the nadir;
thus producing a diamond-shaped three-dimensional figure is then
attributed to the Lenape! From this vision the Lenape then get the idea
for all their artistic motifs--the circle, the cross, the triangle, the
diamond, etc. And, it also generates all the religious concepts
outlined in this book (though unknown from actual Lenape culture!).
Let me leave you with a quotation to ponder:
"We suspect we have stumbled upon something reaching beyond North
America. People have used shapes and symbols all over the world. Does
the three dimensional diamond shape relate to the pyramids in Egypt, the
cross in Europe, the Star of David in Israel, the triangular mandalas of
India like Shri Yantra? Ultimately there is only one spirit path on
planet Earth." (pages 144-145)
I've got nothing against comparative religion. It's been a passion of
mine for more than 35 years. But, if anyone thinks that these
speculative vaporings have ANYTHING to do with Lenape spirituality, I've
got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you!
Ray Whritenour
LENAPE TEXTS AND STUDIES
"...Fred Werkheiser and Don Repsher could probably give you more on the
Ancient Stonework than Tobacco could ever begin to think about..."
Unnamed Source
Fred did send me their little book on some of this. Can't say that I
agree with their conclusions, but nothing really crazy in their work,
like in Cashman's. I WAS dismayed, however, to see them citing Evan
Pritchard as an authority. He's the phoniest phony in Phonyland!
Ray Whritenour
LENAPE TEXTS AND STUDIES
Folks:
In my haste to finish with this fantasy, I neglected to mention that,
true to his calling, Tobacco Cashman is another Walam Olum devotee. He
calls Rafinesque's elaborate hoax "...an ancient Lenape scripture and
history in pictographic form." (page 144)
Regarding the various stoneworks in eastern Pennsylvania, let me be
clear: I don't take any stance, whatsoever, on them. I don't know if
they're American Indian or Euro-American, in origin. To date, I've seen
nothing to prove the case, one way or the other. I certainly don't
"buy" Cashman's interpretation of their significance, though!
Ray Whritenour
LENAPE TEXTS AND STUDIES
THE GRANDFATHERS SPEAK:
NATIVE AMERICAN FOLK TALES OF THE LENAPE INDIANS
by Hitakonanu'laxk (Tree Beard)
Let's begin with the Lenape language, as found in this book. On page
vii, Tree Beard tells us that the Lenape used is what he calls "the Old
Tongue, spoken in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the eighteenth century." By
this, he can only mean the Northern Unami dialect used by the Moravian
missionaries. However, time and time again, he employs words he can
only have found in the Southern Unami works of Nora Dean, Jim Rementer,
Frank Speck, etc. For instance, he says the Lenape word for 'the Soul
or Spirit' is "lenapeakan." This is his attempt to copy the SU word,
"lenapeokan," because the word is "wtellenapewoagan" in Northern Unami.
His "api'kan" must be SU, "ahpikon"--not NU, "achpiquon." Tree Beard's
"Kishelamakang," "kukhus," "kinkinhikan," "Asiskwataja'sak,"
"Misinkhalikan," "Maxa'xak," "pawim," "Pethakowe'jak," "Tuksit," and
many other words, are all taken from Southern Unami forms. They are NOT
in his so-called "Old Tongue."
Tree Beard gives a spelling and pronunciation guide on pages vii-viii,
but it isn't properly applied. Of more than 120 Lenape words in this
book, more than 90% of them are spelled incorrectly, yielding improper
pronunciations.
Some words have been invented, to suit the case. Unfortunately, these
words don't meet the criteria of Delaware grammar. For example,
"Amankitaxkwawikan'ank" is supposed to mean, 'Place of the Great
Turtle's Back.' However, the word, "taxwox" ('turtle'), cannot be
shortened to "-taxk-," as Tree Beard tries to do, here. "Bikanaki'hat"
cannot mean 'Water Keeper,' either. "Bi" is the Southern Unami word for
'water.' "Genachgihat" is the Northern Unami word for 'keeper." But,
the two can't be put together like this. One would have to say, "Mbiui
Genachgihat"--two words, with the first being made a prenoun
(adjective).
Finally, "Kishelamilenk" is not a vocative form. It's merely the old
Northern Unami equivalent of SU "Kishelemukong"
('He-Who-Created-Us-By-His-Thought').
There's so much wrong with the Lenape used in this book that listing
everything would be a monumentally tedious task!
I was put off the instant I saw the cover art on THE GRANDFATHERS SPEAK.
I don't think Tree Beard mentions the Walam Olum once, in the text; but,
the bookcover shows at least four phony Walam Olum pictographs--and the
author includes the Walam Olum in his bibliography. Oestreicher has
shown this work to be a complete hoax, and anyone familiar with the
structure of Lenape must see that his analysis is correct.
The next thing that sends up a red flag is the title page of the book.
These are supposed to be "folk tales of the Lenape," but this page says,
"Collected and written by Hitakananu'laxk (Tree Beard)." "Collected AND
WRITTEN by"? You won't find the words, "written by," in any authentic
collection of folklore.
On the first page of his Introduction, TB states that stories which
appear only in abbreviated form "in old books and publications" are
presented, by him, in their "entirety." How'd he do that? I'd like to
know where he found the missing details.
Then he says, "There were others that had to be reconstructed, as parts
of those stories were missing, and so I went to other Algonquin
sources--Cree, Ojibwe, etc.--to make them as close to their original
tellings as possible." We need no more than this in order to reject
this entire corpus of stories. You can't fill in what you THINK are
missing details in a Lenape story by substituting story lines from
another people.
The first four stories can be immediately rejected as phony. They all
relate various deeds of the Ojibway culture-hero, Nanapush. This
personage was unknown to the Lenapes, and he only appears in
Rafinesque's ridiculous fraud, some of which is repeated herein.
In the so-called, "Lenape Creation," which is called "Lenape
Kishelamawakan"--where the first word should be an adjective
("Lenapewi") and the second word doesn't exist in Lenape (it's
made-up)--the tale begins with "Kunakwat, lowat, nuchink..." This is
supposed to mean, 'Long, long ago, in the beginning...' The first word
means 'it is high' or 'it is long.' It refers to the physical
world--not to time. The second word should be "lawat"--NOT "lowat."
The third word should be just "nuchi." It doesn't require a locative
suffix ("-nk"). Further along, this story contains the non-Lenape
honorific titles, Father Sun (should be 'elder brother'), Grandmother
Moon (should be 'elder brother'), and other non-Lenape characters, like
the "Great Toad." This whole thing was made up in very recent times.
Let me end this drudgery with some miscellaneous observations.
In the story, "How Medicine Began," on page 61, TB calls the plant,
'black snakeroot,' by the invented "Lenape" name of "sukaxkuk chipik."
This is not 'black snakeroot,' but 'blacksnake root'! No such plant!
Besides which, the real Lenape name for 'black snakeroot' is
"bleuhotik."
On page 69, TB informs us that "Misinkhalikan (as he writes the name of
the Masked Being) ...often takes on physical form, as a great, hulking,
hairy ape-like giant." According to TB, the Lenape Misinkhalikan and
Sasquatch ("Bigfoot") are one and the same! I suppose he's one and the
same as the Abominable Snowman, too!
In "Grandfather Thunder (page 70), TB calls the Moon "the first mother."
Here again, we have "Grandmother Moon" and Nanapush. None of these
characters exist in authentic Lenape folk tales.
The mention of the trickster, "Coyote," in "Rainbow Crow," clearly dates
this story to a time long after the Lenapes left Lenapehoking.
"When the Animals Left Lenape Land" begins (p.76) "Long ago ...the
animals left Lenape'hokink..." Nora Thompson Dean coined the word,
"Lenapehoking," about thirty years ago. IT DIDN'T EXIST UNTIL THEN!
Thus, this story was probably fabricated in the 1980's.
"The Seven Wise Men" (pp.86-7) is TB's "re-telling" of a real Lenape
story. He translates "Seven Wise Men" as "Nishash Chak Lepa'chik." TB
has misunderstood the pronunciation of the Northern Unami word,
"tchoak," which he should have written as "txoak," in his spelling
system.
In "Ball Player" (pp.88-93), TB makes up the translation,
"Tukhikapapa'lit." The word for 'ball' is "ptukhikan." You can't drop
the final "n" of this word, in combining forms. This story is a
Southern Unami tale, but, for reasons known only to TB, he decided to
change the SU word, "yakwahe" ('naked bear'), to the Northern Unami
word, "amangachktiat." And, what's more, he tries to make one word out
of two: "amankaxkti'atmaxkwe." This is an impossible construction!
Finally, he makes up another word for 'naked bear,' "amankaxkwe," which
would mean nothing more than 'big bear.' TB believes the naked bear was
a real--rather than mythological--animal. To date, none of them have
been unearthed by anybody!
In "The Greedy Maiden" (pp.103-4), the story begins, "Once, long ago,
before the Wapsini, White Man, came to our land..." First of all,
"Wapsini" isn't a Lenape word. It was invented by C.S. Rafinesque and
used in his fraudulent Walam Olum. Secondly, the story goes on to say,
"the young maiden did not flee like a whimpering coyote into the night."
If this took place before the White Man came, then it took place in what
we now call Lenapehoking--and there "WEREN'T NO COYOTES HERE," then!
Look: There's more, but I can't stand any more of this. This
collection of stories is simply not authentic traditional Lenape
folklore. Much of it has been invented, in recent times, and whatever
part of it is real has been tampered with and rendered suspect. The
Lenape language employed is absolutely terrible. I simply cannot
recommend this book to anyone interested in real Lenape traditions.
That's it!
Ray Whritenour
LENAPE TEXTS AND STUDIES
HANDBOOK OF THE DELAWARE INDIAN LANGUAGE
BY SCOTT WENNING
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-reviews/-/AP7BO65WLGLEF/1/ref=cm_cr_auth/102-6676428-7452922
A Philological Rewiew of NATIVE NEW YORKERS:
THE LEGACY OF THE ALGONQUIN PEOPLE OF NEW YORK,
by Evan T. Pritchard
(This Review Is A Must Read)
http://www.northjerseyhistory.org/history/lenape.htm
REVIEW
Ray Whritenour
LENAPE TEXTS AND STUDIES
THE RAMAPOUGH MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
by David Steven Cohen
The Ramapough Mountain People,
March 12, 2004
| |
Reviewer: Ray Spiegel from West Hurley, NY United States |
In this book, the author attempts to
deny the native American Indian
origins of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe.
One can immediately get an impression of his views from the cover, which is an uncomplimentary portrait of a Ramapough
Mountain man. (He likens their shamanic medicine lore to devil worship!) He has done a great disservice to the tribe, who, although
officially recognized by the states of New York and New Jersey, still lack recognition by the federal government. A much better accounting
of the history of these people would be "Indians in the Ramapos" by Edward J Lenik. He, unlike D.S. Cohen, relies on well documented
archeological evidence as well as land deeds, and oral and written history. Cohen seems to get his information from old newspaper
articles and despite claiming to live among the Ramapough Indians for some time ignores the overwhelming evidence that these
people are descended mainly from Dutch settlers, free African Americans, escaped slaves, and the original inhabitants of the
Hudson Valley, the Lenni Lenape Indians, part of the Delaware/Munsee(Minisink) culture. The book has some interesting
pictures and stories so if you are really interested in the subject, you can learn something about the Ramapough people here,
but beware the prejudice of the author, who, sadly, continues the white man's historic condescension and disrespect of the
tribe. I would be sure to look elsewhere for the real story, which is much more fascinating, heroic, and poignant then what is presented here.
One can immediately get an impression of his views from the cover, which is an uncomplimentary portrait of a Ramapough
Mountain man. (He likens their shamanic medicine lore to devil worship!) He has done a great disservice to the tribe, who, although
officially recognized by the states of New York and New Jersey, still lack recognition by the federal government. A much better accounting
of the history of these people would be "Indians in the Ramapos" by Edward J Lenik. He, unlike D.S. Cohen, relies on well documented
archeological evidence as well as land deeds, and oral and written history. Cohen seems to get his information from old newspaper
articles and despite claiming to live among the Ramapough Indians for some time ignores the overwhelming evidence that these
people are descended mainly from Dutch settlers, free African Americans, escaped slaves, and the original inhabitants of the
Hudson Valley, the Lenni Lenape Indians, part of the Delaware/Munsee(Minisink) culture. The book has some interesting
pictures and stories so if you are really interested in the subject, you can learn something about the Ramapough people here,
but beware the prejudice of the author, who, sadly, continues the white man's historic condescension and disrespect of the
tribe. I would be sure to look elsewhere for the real story, which is much more fascinating, heroic, and poignant then what is presented here.
First New Jerseyians!, March 20,
2000
| |
Reviewer: Ben Dimore from Westchester County, USA |
Though this book never states it
clearly, the Ramapo Mountain People
are actually the very first residents of
New Jersey! I have studied native American history in the New York/New Jersey region for more than 30
years and I don't think there is a more convincing case that the people Cohen identifies as Mountain People
are the native (Indian), Dutch and African American people who first settled the region in the 1600s. This is
an important book about a very important group of people! Shame on Donald Trump for maligning
these people as "hillbillies" -- no native American group has lasted as long in
the metropolitan New York/New Jersey area, and may God bless them!
New Jersey! I have studied native American history in the New York/New Jersey region for more than 30
years and I don't think there is a more convincing case that the people Cohen identifies as Mountain People
are the native (Indian), Dutch and African American people who first settled the region in the 1600s. This is
an important book about a very important group of people! Shame on Donald Trump for maligning
these people as "hillbillies" -- no native American group has lasted as long in
the metropolitan New York/New Jersey area, and may God bless them!
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