Long Journey Home
Best nonfiction book 2008 Society of Professional Journalists
My new book "Long Journey Home: Oral Histories of Contemporary Delaware Indians"
Mike Pace, a former assistant chief said, "The stories contained in these pages have many things to tell, the pride of a people, their personal histories, their determination to remain who they were and are as a people. . . . Sometimes we as individuals take our heritage for granted and do not learn the lessons of history. The study of our heritage can truly tell us why we are who we are today."
Through first-person accounts, Long Journey Home presents the stories of the Lenape, also known as the Delaware Tribe. These oral histories, which span the post—Civil War era to the present, are gathered into four sections and tell of personal and tribal events as they unfold over time and place. The history of the Lenape is one of forced displacement, from their original tribal home along the eastern seaboard into Pennsylvania, continuing with a series of displacements in Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian Territory. For the group of Lenape interviewed for this book, home is now the area around Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The stories of their long journey have been handed down and remain part of the tribe's collective memory and bring an unforgettable immediacy to the tale of the Lenape. Above all they make clear that the history of seven generations remains very much alive.