Speaker will give history of state's earliest people

Cathy Chadwick-Ciccone

JAMESBURG - Local residents will have the opportunity to learn about the life of the state's native people from an enrolled member of the Delaware Lenape tribe this weekend.

Cathy Chadwick-Ciccone, of the Six Nations Reserve in Canada, will present the "Daily Life of the Lenape" during the monthly meeting of the Intertribal Indians of New Jersey, set for 2 p.m. Saturday in Thompson Park.

Chadwick-Ciccone's talk will provide an overview spanning 400 years of Lenape history, culture, daily living, clothing, farming, hunting, food ways, spiritual beliefs, music, traditional story telling and language. It culminates with a discussion of the present-day Lenape.

A member of the Inter-Tribal Indians of New Jersey, Chadwick-Ciccone is director of education for the Northeast Woodlands Department of the Museum of Indian Culture, Allentown, Pa. She is also an advisory board member to Wheaton Village Down Jersey Folk Life Center, Milville.

She is also a native artisan, specializing in basketry, pine-needle weaving, gourd art, beadwork, and hairpipe jewelry, and is adviser to several museums and art galleries.

"What's great about this presentation is that we are finally hearing about the lives of the Indian people from a real Indian, who is talking about her own history and culture," said Mary Anne Ross, a member of the Intertribal Indians of New Jersey. "People often think of Indians in historic terms, but these kinds of events and the other activities of Intertribal Indians of New Jersey bring home the fact that these are living cultures and people, and that there are many American Indians living in New Jersey."

The Middlesex County Cultural Commission is sponsoring the event with Intertribal Indians of New Jersey.

The presentation will take place at the log cabin located near the animal enclosure. For more information, call Mary Anne at (732) 238-3792 or e-mail maryanneross123@yahoo.com.

To reach Chadwick-Ciccone for information about historical consults, lectures, story telling and native workshops, e-mail lenapelore@comcast or call (609) 505-2363.