{Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area originally posted by US Interior} This beautiful national recreation area on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania is the homeland of the Delaware (Lenape) Nation. Since archeological sites are a major component of the park, the website and even US Interior Instagram - which almost never acknowledges Native history - talk about Delaware history here. However, what seems to be often overlooked, especially with the emphasis of archeology and the white archeologists who “excavated” Indian graves in the area, is that the Delaware are still around and an active community not only in their reservations in Oklahoma, but also in their homeland.
Recently two Delaware tribes - the Delaware Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians - as well as the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans now in Wisconsin have developed in partnership with NPS a summer camp for youth from their communities. This gives these kids a chance to learn about and connect to their homeland as well as remind local settler communities that these people have not disappeared, merely been displaced. If you want to want to learn more, check out Kyle Harris’s 2016 documentary “The Water Gap.”