Honor the Treaty

The most important of the first treaties which was signed in 1653 by William Penn and Delaware Chief Tamanend established peaceful colonization and coexistence and promised that the two peoples would "live in love as long as the sun gave light."

When Wm. Penn passed away in England - his son Thomas had other ideas. In 1737, he tricked the Delaware Indians out of 1,200 square miles of land in what was called the Walking Purchase (as far as a man could walk in three days) by hiring several runners. http://www.anthro4n6.net/lenape/

Lenape leaders assumed that about 40 miles (60 km) was the longest distance that could be covered under these conditions. Provincial Secretary James Logan, the legend continues, hired the three fastest runners in the colony, Edward Marshall, Solomon Jennings and James Yeates, to run on a prepared trail. They were supervised during the "walk" by the Sheriff of Bucks County, Timothy Smith. The walk occurred on September 19, 1737; only Marshall finished, reaching the modern vicinity of present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, 70 miles (113 km) away. At the end of the walk, Sheriff Smith drew a perpendicular line back toward the northeast, and claimed all the land east of these two lines ending at the Delaware River.

This resulted in an area of 1,200,000 acres (4,860 km²), roughly equivalent to the size of Rhode Island, located in the modern counties of: Pike, Monroe, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northampton, Lehigh and Bucks.

The Delaware leaders appealed for assistance to the Iroquois confederacy, who claimed hegemony over the Delaware. The Iroquois leaders decided that it was not in their best interest politically to intervene on behalf of the Delaware. James Logan had already made a deal with the Iroquois to support the colonial side. As a result, the Lenape had to vacate the Walking Purchase lands.

Chief Lappawinsoe and other Lenape leaders continued to protest the arrangement, as the Lenape were forced into the Shamokin and Wyoming valleys, already crowded with other displaced tribes. Some Lenape later moved west into the Ohio Country. Because of the Walking Purchase, the Lenape grew to distrust the Pennsylvania government, and its once good.

In 2004 Lenape Indians sued the federal government in district court to recaim part of the land. This resulted in a lot of legal mumbo jumbo and the ruling went against the Lenape. They appealed resulting in the following ...

The Third Circuit affirmed.[3] The Circuit affirmed the holding that aboriginal title may validly be extinguished by fraud, and further held that the tribe had waived the issue of whether Penn was actually a sovereign purchaser below.[3] Moreover, the Circuit held that any grants to the tribe subsequent to the extinguishment could not re-establish aboriginal title.[3] Therefore, the Circuit did not consider the merits of the tribe's argument

The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_Purchase

Conclusion

Thomas Penn was a prick. Honor his fathers treaty with the Lenape. We live in Lenapehoking.- not Poittsville or Minersville or Saint Clair - we can keep our addresses but we don't have to continue to make the same mistakes, we don't have to continue to kill ourselves and each other. If we could have STFU and listened, we might not be in the pickle we find ourselves today. Will you honor the treaty. and live in love as long as the sun gives light.