Poster illustration by Aly Miller

Expanded Resources for

“The Place Where Plants Grow - Enta Sakink Epëmawsiwikil”

This website is a complimentary resource to the poster “The Place Where Plants Grow - Enta Sakink Epëmawsiwikil.”

We hope this page will help you foster a greater understanding and respect for the people who have always called the area we now know as Delaware home. We encourage you to:

  • Identify the 22 native plants and the habitats where you can see them in the region

  • Use the pronunciation guides and speak the Lenape and Nanticoke languages while identifying these plants in their first languages

  • Learn the plants’ stories and the reciprocal relationships Indigenous people have had with them

  • Foster a greater understanding and respect for the people who have always called the area we now know as Delaware home.

Learn more about each plant in "The Place Where Plants Grow - Enta Sakink Epëmawsiwikil"

We also encourage you to purchase your own poster via the link below.

purchase your poster to add to your home, office, or give as a gift
 

our team & our research

In the 1800s, after more than 200 years of European contact and colonization in the area we now know as Delaware, a silence fell on the state’s two recognized Indigenous tribes: the Nanticoke and the Lenape. In 1856, the last fluent speaker of the Nanticoke language passed away. And in the 19th century, the last fluent Lenape speaker in our region passed away. In recent years, however, the languages and voices of these ancestors have been restored. Audio recordings of resettled Lenape elders speaking the language in the 1920s and 1930s have been compiled as an online public resource: The Lenape Talking Dictionary. A dedicated team revitalized the “extinct” Nanticoke language and published the book “Once It Has Been Spoken…It Cannot Be Unspoken: Kutiikiitowaakanun (our language)” in 2023.  

This project is a partnership between The Nanticoke Language Project, illustrator Aly Miller, and Native Roots Farm Foundation (NRFF). The Nanticoke Language Project conducted extensive research and worked diligently to recreate the Indigenous names for each of the 22 native plants. The team has reconstructed the languages to the best of their ability. Aly Miller created a visual representation of the native plants’ notable characteristics –  including flowers, fruits, and leaves. She situated them on the Delmarva peninsula as our ancestors saw it: with waterways and land masses and without manmade state boundaries. The NRFF team created this online multi-media resource that includes audio recordings for each plant in Nanticoke and Lenape - to allow listeners to immerse themselves in the beauty and subtleties of each of these languages. The plant profiles also highlight the diverse relationships Indigenous people have with the 22 select native plants. 

A forthcoming chart will provide a brief summary of each of the 22 native plants featured on “The Place Where Plants Grow - Enta Sakink Epëmawsiwikil.”

 

The PEOPLE BEHIND “The Place Where Plants Grow - Enta Sakink Epëmawsiwikil”

Wanishi, thank you, to our collaborators: The Nanticoke Language Project with contributions from Raymond Whritenour, illustrator Aly Miller, and Native Roots Farm Foundation.

“The Place Where Plants Grow - Enta Sakink Epëmawsiwikil” has been made possible in part by grants from Delaware 250 and Mid Atlantic Arts - Cultural sustainability: Community Roots and we say wanishi for their support and dedication to this project.