Acknowledgement of Lenape Lands

In Dawnland through five centuries  
Lenapes fight:  
Spanish, Swedes, Dutch,  
            English, and United States settlers. 

Blood-stained roads lead  
away from New Jersey—  
escape routes shared by Lenapes  
            and runaway Africans. 

Blood-memory stories mark  
murders at Dutch Pavonia, at Coshocton,  
at Gnadenhutten—where militia killed  
            pacifist Lenape Christians. 

Blood passes through mothers’  
red wombs to landless children:  
my mother, my grandfather,  
            his parents and theirs. 

Descendants live in Ramapough Mountains,  
Appalachians of Pennsylvania and Ohio,  
Canada, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri,  
            Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho: 

Lenape people are alive,  
hearts beating streams of red blood. 

All the lands and waters where we continue,  
            I acknowledge.