November 2 , 2009
FIRST LADY MICHELLE PAIGE PATERSON ANNOUNCES THE OPENING OF LENAPE EXHIBIT AT ELLIS ISLAND
First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson today announced the opening of Lenape: Ellis Island’s First Inhabitants, a new exhibit at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum sponsored the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial. Governor David A. Paterson issued a citation in honor of the native New Yorkers who greeted Henry Hudson 400 years ago.
“As Honorary Chair of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission, I have had the privilege of participating in our year-long celebration of New York’s 400th anniversary. Today’s opening of Lenape: Ellis Island’s First Inhabitants marks another exciting milestone in our commemoration of our State’s people and past,” First Lady Paterson said. “This exhibition provides New Yorkers with another exciting opportunity to rediscover their incredible history. I congratulate the men and women who worked to make this newest addition to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum a success.”
The opening ceremony was attended by Pete Grannis, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation; Dr. David M. Oestreicher, Lenape scholar and exhibition curator; John Haworth, Director of The National Museum of the American Indian in New York City; Michael Pace, former Assistant Chief of the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma; William T. Reynolds, Captain of the Replica Ship Half Moon; and Mary Ellen Flynn, who shared her extensive collection of artifacts to the exhibit.
DEC Commissioner Grannis said: “Today, as one of the signature events of this Quadricentennial year, we celebrate and honor the native people who inhabited this region long before Henry Hudson sailed through New York Harbor on the Half Moon. This exhibition is a fitting tribute to the first inhabitants of Lower New York — and it is my tremendous honor to be part of this long overdue homecoming for the Lenape People.”
Dr. Oestreicher has spent more than three decades studying the Lenape, working directly with the remaining traditionalists and speakers of the native language. This exhibit was created hand-in-hand with the Lenape people and helps to fulfill the wish of their traditionalists that their people be remembered and honored.
Lenape: Ellis Island’s First Inhabitants examines the extensive history of the Lenape people from prehistory through the 21st century. A series of six galleries explores the Lenape linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, integrating a variety of artifacts, archival photography, dioramas and sculptures, and also features oral histories. The original, smaller version of the exhibition, In Search of the Lenape: The Delaware Indians Past and Present, has appeared at numerous historic sites. It won the 1995 award for excellence from the Lower Hudson Conference of Historical Agencies.
The exhibit is made possible by the generosity of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission, the National Park Service, New York Council for the Humanities, the Burns Foundation, the Furthermore Foundation, the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Yale University Art Gallery and numerous individuals.
The Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission has coordinated the yearlong commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the explorations of New York by Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain, as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s maiden steamboat journey up the Hudson River.
