The Real Deal

by Jordan Luther

On a humid Saturday night, a few hundred people gather in grandstands at the Fall Leaf Family Memorial Pow Wow Grounds in Copan, Oklahoma. A center drum with a dozen players pounds a steady heartbeat. The head singer starts a song and a dozen voices respond to him, their voices soaring higher than eagles. A hundred dancers move in a circle around the center drum, stomping and shuffling their feet to the center drum’s heartbeat. 

“This is the real deal,” says Jermey Johnson, the Cultural Education Director of the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. “My ancestors have been dancing for millennia. People think we [Delawares/Lenape] have gone away. But we’re still here; we’re still dancing.” 

I had the honor of being one of the people in the grandstands that night. I was there with a small group from Pennsylvania called the Friends of Delaware Tribe. The Friends of Delaware Tribe is an ecumenical network of congregations committed to building relationships of mutuality and trust with our Lenape neighbors, and several southeastern PA Mosaic congregations are a part of this group.  

Our group started last year in response to an impassioned request from tribal member John Thomas and Chief Brad KillsCrow at the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, PA. They are looking for friends to walk alongside them as they rebury the bones and artifacts of their ancestors currently stored in museums across the East Coast. 

Our trip to Oklahoma was 12 months in the making. It was an opportunity to reciprocate travel and visit with our partners in Oklahoma. The annual Delaware Pow Wow is a social gathering where many tribal members gather to camp, socialize, and share their cultural traditions. 

What I experienced at the Delaware Pow Wow was a miracle of resiliency. I heard stories of grief about loss of homeland, and I saw three and four generations of families laughing and spending time with one another. I heard their legal and financial obstacles for tribal sovereignty, and I saw a community that prioritizes affordable housing for elders on their tribal campus. Amazingly, I also heard youth and adults speaking the Lenape language, a language that nearly went extinct a generation ago had it not been for the commitment from elders like Nora Thompson Dean.  

I experienced a people who have many gifts to offer to our Mosaic. Our story as a people is interwoven with their story as a people through Lenapehoking, the land where Mennonites first settled and worshiped in North America. It is in the heartbeat of center drum where I felt the heartbeat of one of Jesus’ core teachings. Love your neighbor as yourself. 

This is the real deal. Our Lenape neighbors are still dancing, and Jesus’ call to love our neighbor still stands. 

The Friends of the Delaware Tribe is hosting a Right Relationship Training with the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery on Friday, Aug. 2 (evening) and Saturday, Aug. 3. This interactive training will help participants become better allies to indigenous peoples and will take place at Conference-Related Ministry the Mennonite Heritage Center (Harleysville, PA) and virtually. Coalition director, author, and Tewa descendent Sarah Augustine will be present virtually for the training. Information and registration is available here.