LENAPE LITERATURE TEXT

The following are works which will comprise the content of a Lenape Literature Text, now in progress.
These works consist of newly and previously collected samples of Lenape language.
They have been transcribed/transliterated, and rendered into modern spelling conventions by
students in the Lenape Language class at Swarthmore College.
(This section is under construction. Works will be added as they are completed and edited.)

Richard C. Adams
From: "The Ancient Religion of the Delaware Indians" (1904)

Song of the Thanksgiving Dance
Manitou Song to Little Boy

Frank G. Speck
From: "Oklahoma Delaware Ceremonies, Feasts and Dances" (1937)

Spring Prayer
Rain Making Prayer
Origin Legend of Bear or Brush Arbor
The Lost Boy Adopted By a She-Bear
Mask Dance Addresses
Origin of the Corn Harvest Ceremony
Thunder Prayer
The Messengers of the Corn Harvest Feast
The Scratching Ceremony
Preparations for Burial
Consanguinity of Tribes
Origin of Witchcraft
The Nanticoke Skeleton Dance

M. R. Harrington (1882-1971)

Chant
Dance Song 1
Dance Song 2
Crow in the Corn Song
Animal Vision Song
Mother Corn Song
Dance Song 3

Big White Owl, aka, Jasper Hill (b. 1902)
From: Jasper Hill Documents. Lenape Nation Archives

The Ten Commandments in Delaware
Lenni Lenape Invocation
Delaware Indian Calendar

Charles (Carl) Frederick Voegelin (1906 - 1986)
From: Delaware Texts. International Journal of American Linguistics 11: 105-119. (1945)

Mermaid
Disbelief  in Mermaid
Cannibal
Crazy Jack
Hold-Up in Gambling House
Early Life in Indian Territory
Taboo on Feeding Corn to Stock
Grandmother From Indiana
Hunting in Indian Territory
How Wampum is Made
Sickness and Vision
Loss of the Big House

Nora Thompson Dean (1907-1984)

Robert Harold Adams
From: Songs of Our Grandfathers

Chief Robert Red Hawk Ruth (1953 - )
Stories Told by Robert Red Hawk Ruth
Lenape Nation Archives

The Creation Story
The Creation of Names
The Fourth Crow
How Moccasins Were Made
The Last Track
The Maple Tree
The Meesink Story
The Mountain Goats
The Rabbit
Seven Wise Men
The Squirrel Council
Wampum
The Wawa Clan
We Are All Face
The Weasel in the Hen House

Collected Language Samples

Ceremonial Songs – Lenape Nation Archives
Lenape Naming Ceremony
Lenape Pipe Offering
Chief’s Honor Song
Veteran’s Honor Song

Miscellaneous Contemporary Authors

Original Stories in the Lenape Language
by Swarthmore College Students

The Animal Council
The Big Squirrel
The Chicken
Big Crow
Cooking Soup
A Day With Father
The Dog
A Good Day
At the Lake
Hanna and Her Uncle
The Little Bird Goes Hunting
Little Wolf and Butterfly
The Lost Puppy
The Lost Wolf
The Oppossum
The Other Woods
My Birthday
My Brother is Sick
A Squirrel's Day
The Star
The White Deer
To The Woods
What Color am I?