Native American Genealogy in the New York City Area

The following is an excerpt from an article by Natiba Guy-Clement published in the Brooklyn Library’s web site :

Tribal leaders and historians from Canada, Delaware, Oklahoma and the Lenape Center here in New York, engaged with us about their history, customs and traditions. From Chief Chester Brooks, the oldest chief in attendance, we learned about 7 generations of his family bloodline that he was able to recite to us from memory. This was quite a privilege for me to witness, the oral recitation of family ties that takes genealogists time and effort to compile. I learned that it was borne out of the aftermath of colonization, since many families were decimated or reduced very quickly, it was necessary to know who your family was to prevent intermarriage. Other Tribal representatives shared their stories about the present conditions of their respective groups and talked about their efforts to educate newer generations about their history and culture.

You can learn more about the “Lenapehoking” or the Land of the Lenape, an offspring of the Algonquin civilization; and includes present day New Jersey, New York and Delaware, until forced displacement started with European “discovery” of the land and continued well into the 19th century at: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2019/11/08/our-native-land .

My thanks to newsletter reader Bob Friedman for telling me about this article.