The Third annual United Lenape/Lunáapeew Nations Pow Wow brought Indigenous dancers, drummers, artists, food makers and families together at Prospect Park’s LeFrak Center at Lakeside on Oct. 3 and 4 for a weekend celebrating Lenape/Lunáapeew culture's continuing connection to Brooklyn.
Presented by Prospect Park Alliance, the gathering honored the history of the Lenape/Lunáapeew — Indigenous people whose ancestral homelands included what is now Brooklyn and the surrounding region.
The event opened Saturday with a Grand Entry, followed by a flag song, invocation and opening prayer. Hundreds of New Yorkers attended throughout the weekend.
Prospect Park has a history of hosting intertribal Pow Wows dating to 1916, making the return of the tradition part of a much longer relationship between the park and Indigenous cultural life.
The third annual Pow Wow also placed an emphasis on younger generations. Performers ages 6 to 17 participated in a Youth Spotlight, while Emma Hannah K. Stonefish and Javid Ridgeway served as Pow Wow coordinators. They worked with older relatives as part of an effort to develop youth leadership and help carry Lenape/Lunáapeew traditions into the future.
The event was part of Prospect Park Alliance’s ReImagine Lefferts initiative, which examines the history, resistance and resilience of Indigenous people whose ancestral lands include the park.
Visitors could also see Eelunaapéewi Ehaptoonáakanal: Voices of Lunáapeew/Lenape at Lefferts Historic House, an exhibition highlighting 400 years of Indigenous resilience through interviews with knowledge-keepers and culture bearers.
The Pow Wow was also part of a wider program of cultural events. Halumii Ktapihna: Lenape Legacies and Futures, developed with the Éenda-Lŭnaapeewáhkiing Collective and Lenape/Lunáapeew community advisers, opened Sept. 25 at the Museum of the City of New York. The exhibition gives New Yorkers a chance to learn about the Lenape/Lunáapeew as a living community, not just through the history of New York City.
