Customer Reviews

The Grandfathers Speak: Native American Folk Tales of the Lenape People (International Folk Tales)

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My husband is one quarter Lenape and three quarters German. He grew up hearing a few stories from his Grandmother but she didn't know a lot of her own people's history. He's always been interested in knowing more about his heritage. We moved to New Jersey, near the Raritan River and imagine our suprise when we realized that he'd moved very near to one of the places his people once lived in. I got him this book for Christmas and we LOVED it. We read about Rainbow Crow and Nanapush. He read to me every night in bed, the stories of his people. We found much to be sad over but much more to be joyful for. Whenever we see a Crow now, we smile and we look at eacother. This is a highly recommended book for anyone interested in the history and stories of the Lenape People.

This is an excellent resource for persons who are interested in the Lenape (Delaware) Indian people. The stories are clear and have the use of the Lenape language.

The Grandfathers Speak: Native American Folk Tales of the Lenape People is a marvelous small book: it preserves important historical and pre-colonization information about the people who lived in the core of the United States east coast Megalopolis (Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware). The people the Europeans called Indians appear to have lived a relative peaceful life in harmony with nature for thousands of years. The outline of their history is dramatically altered for the worse as Europeans flooded the land. Unlike peoples of Europe and Asia the pressures of population growth were apparently not as great; therefore the stimulus for competitive technological development was apparently less. Advances in weapons, agriculture and medicine occurred at a much slower rate, nevertheless the Neolithic culture outlined in this book was much more advanced and civilized in many ways then it is portrayed in popular media (especially in mid-twentieth century).

I was surprised to learn details of the history of the Lenape people I had never learned of before: my eyes were opened to many more negative effects brought about by the arrival of the colonists. The Grandfathers Speak: Native American Folk Tales of the Lenape People has become an epiphany for me and has lead me to acquire and read several more books about the Lenape people such as:

William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania: A Documentary History, 1683 by Albert Cook Myers

The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes by M. R. Harrington and Clarence Ellsworth (Illustrator)

I highly recommend this book to be included in a list of supplemental reading for students of American History.