Throughout my life as a Native American, I have experienced many beautiful, and terrifying things. I come from a tribe we call the Delawares. We were named the Delawares by the English because we lived on the bay named in honor of Lord De La Warr, Governor of the English colony at Jamestown in 1610. We are members of the Algonquian linguistic family, and are also known as Lenni Lenape, or, the "common people."
             Throughout my childhood, I was told stories of our family and my tribe's past. Every story became more and more interesting to me. I wanted to know the entire history of the Delawares and make sure I would carry on the traditions and lifestyles the best way I could. It has been said that in my great grandfather's time the Delawares owned and occupied a vast and magnificent territory extending along the Atlantic coast from Virginia to Massachusetts. Before the 1620s the Delaware were very powerful people. The traditional home of our tribe at that time was the River Basin, an area that extends from what is now Southern New York to Delaware Bay. But the location of our tribe on the Atlantic coast brought the tribe into early contact with the English colonists.
             The Delawares' style of living has not changed much since my great grandfather's days. The Delaware tribe has never depended solely upon the chase for subsistence. We grow large fields of corn, squash, beans, sweet potatoes, and tobacco. We manufacture pottery, dressed deerskins, beads or wampum, feather mantels and other ornaments. We also use considerable native copper, which we hammer into ornaments or use for arrowheads and pipes. I sometimes use copper to make stone pipes and bows and arrows. Throughout the many years our implements of war have continually been war clubs, tomahawks, bows and arrows, scalping knives, and spears. We often use spear for killing fish and game. But we also catch fish with hooks made of bone, dried bird claws, and brush nets.
             My g...