On the Turtle's Back

Stories the Lenape Told Their Grandchildren

Camilla Townsend, Nicky Kay Michael

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781978819146, 9781978819153
• eBook ISBN: 9781978819184
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Literature

NJSAA Collected Primary Sources Award Winner (2023) 

The Lenape tribe, also known as the Delaware Nation, lived for centuries on the land that English colonists later called New Jersey. But once America gained its independence, they were forced to move further west: to Indiana, then Missouri, and finally to the territory that became Oklahoma. These reluctant migrants were not able to carry much from their ancestral homeland, but they managed to preserve the stories that had been passed down for generations. 
 
On the Turtle's Back is the first collection of Lenape folklore, originally compiled by anthropologist M. R. Harrington over a century ago but never published until now. In it, the Delaware share their cherished tales about the world's creation, epic heroes, and ordinary human foibles. It features stories told to Harrington by two Lenape couples, Julius and Minnie Fouts and Charles and Susan Elkhair, who sought to officially record their legends before their language and cultural traditions died out. More recent interviews with Lenape elders are also included, as their reflections on hearing these stories as children speak to the status of the tribe and its culture today. Together, they welcome you into their rich and wondrous imaginative world. 

 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction: The Storytellers’ History
• 1. Creation Stories
• 2. Big House Stories
• 3. Culture Heroes
• 4. Humans Learning Lessons
• 5. Talking to the Dead
• 6. The Coming of the Whites
• 7. Tales of Ordinary Life
• Appendix A: The Turtle’s Back (Iroquoian and Munsee Versions)
• Appendix B: Dutch Arrival at Manhattan (John Heckewelder’s Version)
• Appendix C: The Woman Who Wanted No One (as told to Truman Michelson)
• Appendix D: Elected Leaders of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, ca. 1800–Present
• Acknowledgments
• Glossary
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Authors