Future Goals/Fundraising Goals Within:

This (FIRST) Round of Fundraising (The Spark) – Year 1

Goal is to raise $25-50,000. This is the first level of fundraising. Call it “seed money”. With this, we plan to seek permission to travel and meet tribal leaders (elders) from existing Lenape tribes (USA and Canada). The funds would pay for needs such as:

• Travel costs (flights/driving, meals, lodging) to visit up to 4 separate Lenape tribes in the midwest and Canada.
• Presentations to any on the tribal lands who may want to listen,
• including going in to homes of elders who may not be able to gather.
• Gifts to each tribe, modeled after their ancient customs, which included extensive speeches, wampum belts, gifts and other between groups.
• Basic filmography to remember this potential rebirth. We would seek to share it with volunteers and donors.
• Anything left over would support outreach/advertising and other preparatory needs .

ROUND TWO (Getting the Fire Started) – Year 2

Second Fundraising Goal: Bring Tribal Leaders Back for 2 Week Visit/Tour. We would seek to inspire and bring willing/their selected tribal leaders, young and old, male and female from interested Lenape tribes (USA and Canada) back to their ancestral homelands. We would show them existing/former Lenape sites artefacts and museums. Native Trails. Old Growth Forests. Places Existing Tribes in other states. This is a mission to reconnect them, refamiliarize them with their PA ancestral lands. Answer questions. Research. Fire up their imaginations. So they return to their people with a good report, and hopefully an interest to rebirth their presence in their Ancestral Lands. Unused funds would be either gifted to Lenape causes or held for future fundraisers. We would seek their guidance, always. Goal $50,000

3 – 10 Years (Making It Happen – The Foundation)

314 Acres ( Read the Story Behind This) Purchase 314 buildable/usable acres in eastern PA within their ancestral lands, suitable for community habitation, contravening earlier court decisions. A rural place relatively free of interfering municipal governments. Access to water, hunting, fishing and other opportunities. Preferably with natural beauty to encourage a connection to their past, not overbuilt. Perhaps some/all might be donated. It doesn’t have to be a single tract, but smaller pieces should be near each other.

Goal: Unknown, but likely $500,000+ depending on whether nearby land is donated also

Building Fund. (Continual/Ongoing) Appropriate here is “Give a man a fish and he eats today, Teach him how to fish and he will always feed himself”. This seeks to make available funds to support internal loans to enable the embryonic Lenape community to build housing, school, church, municipal buildings and other things. It intends to be done through a legal, reliable organization (perhaps through an as-yet unidentified Lenape foundation/organization in good standing). It is believed at least 25 families, or 200 people would be the minimum to make a minimally viable community. They might need to piggyback on existing neighboring communities for awhile. Goals: unknown at this point – it is intended to support loans, that as paid back, recycle to support other Lenape projects.

Goal: 1 million – 5 million. (Long Term)

Scholarships. Making available funds to assist young Lenape who wish to attend nearby universities or trade schools and be self supporting, as is currently done with well-designed longterm scholarships and low interest loans. Perhaps existing Lenape organizations could be the way this is set up.

Goal $1 million+ (Long Term)

10-30 Years (Self-Supporting)

Bringing Back The Past

The Lenape will need employment. Yes they need the things we do. But most Native reservations, look like the rest of America. The ancient ways and skills of making your tools, homes, clothes and other things – storytelling, dances, etc – customs, languages, knowledge of the surrounding lands (plants, herbs, animals) as well as hunting/fishing/preserving/preparing – the needs for daily life drown under modern housing, furniture, stores and restaurants. Any ancient ways, are usually done by a few as part of amusing the tourists.

We are hoping that many of these potential voyagers back to their ancestral lands might relearn ancient skills at least as a serious pasttime. And pass it onto their children. Many tribes elsewhere have a museum, a cultural center, language center, Perhaps they can discover ancient burial grounds of their ancestors. Religious and other important sites from their past. Perhaps they can participate in known past, present and future planned archeological sites. They will need to recover perhaps stone artefacts, pottery, ancient village sites and more. We know of a few, but this will be a major undertaking to reconnect with their heritage.

Goal: This is more of educational/awareness/interest thing rather than a fundraising

Perhaps OTHER Lenape villages could be built on their homeand as a followup!

Heritage

Land/Federal Reservation. The goal is 1-5,000 acres. But they can expand over the decades. Perhaps donated by a person, a group, part of gamelands or an existing park. Perhaps the Lenape purchase it themselves through mortgages, purchases or other programs.

Although we are unfamiliar with the particulars for starting or an existing federally recognized tribe requesting a new reservation in a different place, these are details that they need to work out for themselves. Eventually, being recognized as a federal Indian reservation would free up sizable federal funds to help develop this new Lenape community. At this point, the hope is that they become viable and independent, and outside funding (although encouraged) would be replaced by their own enterprises and federal tribal funding. Perhaps even the state might feel some remorse and assist!