Building Greater Understanding about Native American History

Leader(s)

Arla Patch is a teaching artist, author, social justice activist, and new grandmother. She grew up in Bucks County, a member of Doylestown Meeting. After 30 years in Maine, she returned to Bucks County in 2015 and now lives in Quakertown.

While in Maine, she became involved in the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first effort in the country to address what happened to Native children in the child welfare system. As Community Engagement Coordinator for Maine Wabanaki REACH, she helped create opportunities for educating the non-Native Maine population about the need for the truth commission.

Since returning to this area, Arla has partnered with the Kidsbridge Tolerance Center in New Jersey to create this evening’s educational program through a New Jersey Council for the Humanities grant. It was developed in concert with tribal leaders from New Jersey. The Rev. Pastor J.R. Norwood, of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, was her primary consultant. You may learn more about Arla on her website: http://arlapatch.com/.

Arla has provided us with this handout for followup on her talk.  It would be helpful for livestreamers and remote viewers to have this to hand on the night.

The Rev. Pastor J.R. Norwood is Principal Justice of the Tribal Supreme Court of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, which he has also served as a Councilman for over a decade. He is the Co-Chair of the Task Force on Federal Acknowledgment of the National Congress of American Indians and the General Secretary of the Alliance of Colonial Era Tribes. Dr. Norwood is the senior minister to the Nanticoke-Lenape Tribal Christian Prayer Circle Ministry and has served for over 20 years as pastor of the Ujima Village Christian Church of Ewing, NJ, a non-tribal urban congregation. He has represented his tribe nationally and internationally and written and lectured on tribal history, culture, and current concerns.

To learn more about Pastor Norwood’s work and the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, visit these websites:

The Nanticoke Lenni Lenape: An American Indian Tribe

The Nanticoke and Lenape Confederation Learning Center and Museum

Pastor Norwood authored a free downloadable e-book, We Are Still Here! The Tribal Saga of New Jersey’s Nanticoke and Lenape Indians.

Travel directions to Pendle Hill. Click to view the flyer.