As a result of the conference hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in May 2008: "Endangered Languages: Exploring the Interface Between Academia and Native American Communities", the dispersed Lenape groups were brought together in their homeland for the first time since the removal, to work together concerning Lenape Language revitalization efforts. Goals were set to continue discussions from the conference and to begin to explore ways in which the Colleges and Universities in the Delaware Valley could provide useful support for those efforts. As a result of those discussions, Swarthmore College invited Shelley DePaul, Educator and Language Specialist from the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, to teach Lenape Language courses in the Linguistics Department in the Spring of 2009 and 2010. A second conference was held at Swarthmore College in May of 2010. Since then the college is the only institution in the world which continues to offer classes in this extremely endangered language as part of the curriculum. The resources on this website consist of textbook materials and research projects in the language completed by students in these classes.

 

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0946585