Lenape (Delaware)

• Touching Leaves Indian Crafts, in Dewey, Oklahoma (operated by SSILA member Jim Rementer), is the best source of teaching and reference materials for the Lenape (Delaware) language. Two sets of Lenape Language Lessons are available, produced by Nora Thompson Dean. Set 1 (Lessons 1 & 2) covers the sounds of Lenape, greetings, common phrases, weather expressions, kinship terms, and numbers. Set 2 (Lessons 3 & 4) covers names for food, prayers, more kinship terms, Lenape grammar, birds, the ages of men & women, and more numbers. Each set consists of a cassette tape with one lesson to a side, accompanied by an illustrated booklet with vocabulary. Sets are $15 each, $28 for both. (They are also available from the Delaware Indian Gift Shop, The Delaware Tribe, 108 S. Seneca, Bartlesville, OK, 74003).Touching Leaves also sells reprints of a number of older and more recent works on Lenape language and culture, including Zeisberger's Delaware Indian Spelling Book (1776), Brinton's Lenape-English Dictionary, Bruce Pearson's A Grammar of Delaware, and John O'Meara's Delaware Dictionary (Munsi dialect). For further information and a complete catalogue write to: Touching Leaves Indian Crafts, 927 Portland Ave., Dewey, OK 74029 (e-mail: Lenape@cowboy.net) or visit them at <A href="http://www.cowboy.net/native/tlc>their website. [July 1996]

• Lenape Language Lessons is also available from Audio-Forum (96 Broad St., Guilford, CT 06437; 1-800-243-1234) for $29.50. [Order # AFLE10].
  [Jan. 1993]
• The Delawares at Moraviantown (Ontario) have recently published an illustrated dictionary of the Munsee dialect of Delaware. It is entitled Lunaapeew Dictionary: Basic Words, Part One (Delaware Nation Council, 1992). The cost is $20 (Canadian), plus $4 for shipping. To order, contact: Dianne Snake, c/o Delaware Nation, Moraviantown Reserve, RR 3, Thamesville, Ontario N0P 2K0, Canada (tel: 519/692-3936). [Jan. 1993]

• Raymond Whritenour has edited and self-published a new edition of the Lenape (Delaware) and Onondaga dictionary compiled by the 18th century Moravian missionary, David Zeisberger. He includes only the Lenape words, and omits Zeisberger's German translations. This 12-year labor of love (hardcover, ca. 300 pp.) is available directly from the editor for $20 plus $4 shipping & handling. Write him at: 70 Kakeout Road, Butler, NJ, 07405. Copies can also be purchased from Touching Leaves Indian Crafts (see above). [July 1996]
• Lenape Language Lessons is also available from Audio-Forum (96 Broad St., Guilford, CT 06437; 1-800-243-1234) for $29.50. [Order # AFLE10]. [Jan. 1993]
• The Delawares at Moraviantown (Ontario) have recently published an illustrated dictionary of the Munsee dialect of Delaware. It is entitled Lunaapeew Dictionary: Basic Words, Part One (Delaware Nation Council, 1992). The cost is $20 (Canadian), plus $4 for shipping. To order, contact: Dianne Snake, c/o Delaware Nation, Moraviantown Reserve, RR 3, Thamesville, Ontario N0P 2K0, Canada (tel: 519/692-3936). [Jan. 1993]
• The Delaware Language, an 88-page volume, is the collaborative effort of Lucy Blalock, a native speaker of the language now in her 80s, SSILA member James Rementer (an adopted member of a Delaware-speaking family), and Bruce Pearson, a linguist at the Univ. of South Carolina. It is an outgrowth of language classes conducted by Blalock and includes basic noun and verb patterns with practice exercises, a few short texts, and a 600-item English-Delaware and Delaware-English dictionary. It is priced at $12.- Order from: Yorkshire Press, 6248 Yorkshire Drive, Columbia, SC 29209 (tel: 803/776-7471). There is a $3 shipping and handling charge. [April 1996]