Youth spend weekend learning about Lenape life
The Churchville Nature Center’s Weekend Lenape Village Experience isn’t a typical camping trip
There’s a Native American experience coming up in Churchville — one so authentic, a tribe from Oklahoma is sending some of its children there to learn.
The Churchville Nature Center will hold its Weekend Lenape Village Experience June 27 and 28 for children ages 8 and up and their parents. It’s no walk in the park, as students will have to make their own shelter, collect their own drinking water, and shoot and prepare their own food — sort of.
Marge Custer, Lenape Village director of the nature center, writes the curriculum. She became interested in Native American customs when her children were in the Cub Scouts program.
Speaking in front of a bird sanctuary window in the center, she recently returned from teaching students about Lenape customs. More than 14,000 students annually visit the authentic village five days per week; there, they learn about Lenape gardening, cooking, hunting, farming, pottery and family customs. The Weekend Lenape Village Experience allows those students the opportunity to put what they’ve learned to use.
During the weekend, if students want a salad, they must identify several edible plants in the wild (though, after that, they’re given some washed, likely from-a-bag, spring mix). If students want water, they must identify five sources of water (then they’re given the opportunity to drink from an anachronistic cooler). And if students want meat for dinner, they must shoot a deer target. Custer firmly sticks to this rule — adding that eventually everyone winds up hitting it. Students must also make their own utensils.
“It’s primitive camping,” Custer said. “I don’t want any parent coming thinking this is the Holiday Inn.”
Built in 1991 by volunteers, the village was designed by an archaeologist, and is “as authentic as it can possibly be,” according to Custer. She writes the curriculum, but works very closely with the Lenape that live in Oklahoma — those who were ousted from this area in the 1700s. In fact, the chief of the Anadarko tribe visits the village on a regular basis — as recently as this past April.
“He was so impressed with the village, and he said, ‘Would you mind if I brought my tribal council up to see the village?’” Custer said. “I said, ‘no,’ thinking [the visit] would be in a couple of months. And that Sunday he had them up here.”
Those eight council members were impressed, and so inquired about sending some of their children to the program.
“They teach them the culture in [Oklahoma,] but it’s the modern culture,” Custer said. “Our village is the way it was in the 1500s — before European contact. So they want their kids to see what it was like before the influence of the white man.”
It turns out that students in this area weren’t learning about the Lenape, who lived in sections of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware, either. The idea for the village stemmed from the fact that local students were only learning about Midwest and Plains Indians. A board member of the Churchville Nature Center was also a member of the Council Rock School District board at the time, and decided to have the Lenape culture incorporated into the curriculum. Other school districts followed by both incorporating the Lenape into the history curriculum, and by taking students to visit the center.
The Weekend Lenape Village Experience runs from 9 a.m. June 27 to 1:30 p.m. June 28. Custer said she is expecting about 45 people to come out for the weekend. The cost is $75, and covers the cost of food and materials, and each child must be accompanied by an adult. The Churchville Nature Center is located at 501 Churchville Lane, Churchville. For more information, call 215-357-4005, or visit www.churchvillenaturecenter.org.
The Churchville Nature Center will hold its Weekend Lenape Village Experience June 27 and 28 for children ages 8 and up and their parents. It’s no walk in the park, as students will have to make their own shelter, collect their own drinking water, and shoot and prepare their own food — sort of.
Marge Custer, Lenape Village director of the nature center, writes the curriculum. She became interested in Native American customs when her children were in the Cub Scouts program.
Speaking in front of a bird sanctuary window in the center, she recently returned from teaching students about Lenape customs. More than 14,000 students annually visit the authentic village five days per week; there, they learn about Lenape gardening, cooking, hunting, farming, pottery and family customs. The Weekend Lenape Village Experience allows those students the opportunity to put what they’ve learned to use.
During the weekend, if students want a salad, they must identify several edible plants in the wild (though, after that, they’re given some washed, likely from-a-bag, spring mix). If students want water, they must identify five sources of water (then they’re given the opportunity to drink from an anachronistic cooler). And if students want meat for dinner, they must shoot a deer target. Custer firmly sticks to this rule — adding that eventually everyone winds up hitting it. Students must also make their own utensils.
“It’s primitive camping,” Custer said. “I don’t want any parent coming thinking this is the Holiday Inn.”
Built in 1991 by volunteers, the village was designed by an archaeologist, and is “as authentic as it can possibly be,” according to Custer. She writes the curriculum, but works very closely with the Lenape that live in Oklahoma — those who were ousted from this area in the 1700s. In fact, the chief of the Anadarko tribe visits the village on a regular basis — as recently as this past April.
“He was so impressed with the village, and he said, ‘Would you mind if I brought my tribal council up to see the village?’” Custer said. “I said, ‘no,’ thinking [the visit] would be in a couple of months. And that Sunday he had them up here.”
Those eight council members were impressed, and so inquired about sending some of their children to the program.
“They teach them the culture in [Oklahoma,] but it’s the modern culture,” Custer said. “Our village is the way it was in the 1500s — before European contact. So they want their kids to see what it was like before the influence of the white man.”
It turns out that students in this area weren’t learning about the Lenape, who lived in sections of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware, either. The idea for the village stemmed from the fact that local students were only learning about Midwest and Plains Indians. A board member of the Churchville Nature Center was also a member of the Council Rock School District board at the time, and decided to have the Lenape culture incorporated into the curriculum. Other school districts followed by both incorporating the Lenape into the history curriculum, and by taking students to visit the center.
The Weekend Lenape Village Experience runs from 9 a.m. June 27 to 1:30 p.m. June 28. Custer said she is expecting about 45 people to come out for the weekend. The cost is $75, and covers the cost of food and materials, and each child must be accompanied by an adult. The Churchville Nature Center is located at 501 Churchville Lane, Churchville. For more information, call 215-357-4005, or visit www.churchvillenaturecenter.org.
