Long Journey Home: Oral Histories of Contemporary Delaware Indians

Long Journey Home is a collaborative effort among the members of the Delaware Tribe of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and editors Brown and Kohn. The authors worked closely with Delaware community leaders to edit and organize the material into a broadly accessible collection. Each account stands alone, but collectively it transmits a story of cultural resilience. This volume grew out of an earlier project, Always a People: Oral Histories of Contemporary Woodland Indians.

The compilation is organized into four sections. The first is a selection of transcripts from the Indian Pioneer Papers held by the University of Oklahoma. It is unclear whether or not these are complete or abbreviated from the originals. In general, this section presents Delaware community life in Oklahoma at the turn of the last century. Many of these recollections are memories of Delaware childhood and youth. Enrollment, allotments, and their Delaware lineage infuse this group of interviews.

The second section is very brief and contains three interviews that were edited from original transcriptions also available at the University of Oklahoma. Two of the three interviews provide detailed information from a woman's perspective about ceremonials and gender-specific customs pertaining to puberty, marriage, and childbirth. One of the interviewees is Nora Thompson Dean, honored by the Delaware for her work in preserving the Delaware language and traditional knowledge.

The third section contains two edited interviews conducted in 1995. The first is a lengthy interview with Mary Townsend Crow Milligan. The depth of the interview provides richly detailed accounts of Delaware women in Oklahoma. Mary Crow's recollections reveal the ways in which Delaware women were instrumental in preserving their cultural legacy through social organizations and gatherings, passing on recipes and ceremonies, and teaching a new generation the ways of their grandmothers. These two interviews also convey how new demands on Delaware identity and culture inspired change and innovation and created new traditions in their community. Throughout the text Delaware women stand out as resilient pillars of their families and communities.

The fourth and most extensive section contains thirty-one interviews conducted between 1998 and 2004. The bulk of these interviews represent a generation of Delawares who grew up without knowing many of their cultural traditions and language. For the most part their collective memories express a desire to learn more about their heritage and reconnect the songs, dances, clothing, and foods of their grandparents and great-grandparents. They also express a community effort not only to explore and restore their heritage but also a commitment to transmit that knowledge to the younger generation.

For scholars this work is a tantalizing sampling of Indian oral histories that continue to be underutilized. For the general reader the stories shared by the Delaware people are lessons in the resilience and tenacity of a community.