Bert Wetzler of Highland Lakes, who donated his artifact collection from the
Black Creek Site to the Vernon Historical Society, speaks with Glen Meadow
Middle School eighth grade students who participated in the grant project.
VERNON TOWNSHIP HISTORICAL SOCIETY RECEIVES
SAVE OUR HISTORY GRANT FROM History™
VERNON, September 16, 2008— HISTORY™ today awarded the Vernon Township Historical a $10,000 Save Our History grant to partner with Glen Meadow Middle School for a project entitled “Bringing the Past to the Present: Teaching About the Lenape Through the Black Creek Site,” an educational program.
The Vernon Township Historical Society's objective in this grant project is to introduce the history and culture of the Lenni Lenape that has been revealed through the archaeology of the Black Creek Site to the members of our community.
Thousands of artifacts from 8500 BC to 1700 AD were found at the Black Creek Site in Vernon telling a compelling story of 500 generations of human history during the Great North American Stone Age. For 10,000 years, this land was home to a series of Native American hunting and fishing camps, but as the Lenni Lenape had contact with Europeans, their population was decimated. In the 1700s, the surviving Lenape were forced to abandon the region. For the next 200 years, Black Creek was forgotten and lost. The Black Creek Site was rediscovered in the late 1990s and nominated in 2001 for the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, drawing national attention to the site. In 2004, the Black Creek Site brought together Lenape from throughout the United States and Canada for the first time in 300 years, calling their meeting a "homecoming." Last year, the Historical Society held the grand opening of the site, and through this project would now like to educate our students and community about its cultural and historical significance. The Society’s project is important because the Black Creek Site has yielded and will continue to yield information important in prehistory or history. Specifically, the Society’s goals with the grant are as follows:
•To teach those students who live in Vernon, New Jersey today about those who inhabited this land as early as 10,000 years ago
•To develop in our students an appreciation and respect for the culture and history of the Lenni Lenape
•To prepare portable museum quality display cases with the archaeological artifacts uncovered at the Black Creek Site to be used as instructional tools throughout the school district
•To use photographs of the various stages of archaeology at the Black Creek Site in an educational power point presentation to document the site's history
•To record interviews with members of the Lenni Lenape tribe on video so that students can better understand the feelings, beliefs, traditions and history of these Native Americans through the words of their descendants
•To prepare the physical Black Creek Site with maps, trail markers, signage, and an outdoor classroom area to enable teachers to bring students onsite for educational field trips
•To provide Vernon's elementary, middle and high school teachers with sufficient background information about the history of the Black Creek Site that can be adapted and applied to their specific grades and curriculum
•To reach out to residents of Vernon Township and visitors to the Black Creek Site with informational maps, brochures, and presentations to community groups
Glen Meadow Middle School will work in conjunction with Grade 8 history, geology, technology, photography, language arts teachers to enlist volunteers from their classes to assist the Vernon Township Historical Society in creating the various resources described in the grant objectives. The students' participation in the project will result in a personal ownership of the Black Creek Site that could lead to their continued stewardship in the future.
The Vernon Township Historical Society is one of eleven history organizations nationwide that received Save Our History community preservation grants. These grants fund innovative preservation projects designed to bring communities together, actively engage children in the preservation of their local history, and communicate the importance of saving local history for future generations.
In addition to this project, HISTORY is also awarding Save Our History grants to historic organizations in California, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
“History receives stacks of applications for Save Our History grants,” said Dr. Libby O’Connell, Senior Vice President, Corporate Outreach and Chief Historian, History. “The Vernon Historical Society demonstrated the creativity and commitment to preservation and education that we believe is fundamental to giving our past a bright future. Building partnerships within the community is key to achieving long term preservation goals.”
About Save Our History
Save Our History is an Emmy® Award-winning strategic initiative of History™ that launched in 1998, designed to further historic preservation and history education. The program supplements the teaching of history in America’s classrooms, educates the public on the importance of historical preservation and motivates communities across the country to help save endangered local historic treasures.
Schools and organizations wishing to see the Save our History grant
project, “Bringing the Past to the Present: Teaching About the Lenape
through the Black Creek Site,” may contact the Society at 973-764-8554.
The Society will bring the presentation to your organization free of charge.
E-mail the Society
The historic marker above, at the entrance of the Black Creek Site,
was purchased with the Save Our History grant funds and installed
in September 2009.
The Society created an outdoor classroom at the Black Creek Site, above, with a kiosk with an interpretive marker about the history of the Lenape Indians. Township classes may now visit the site with their teachers to learn about the history of the Lenape Indians in New Jersey. The Society offers many educational programs for schools. Schools from throughout New Jersey and New York have already visited the site and taken advantage of its educational benefits.
The kiosk features the above interpretive panel about the Lenape.
The artwork is courtesy of John Kraft of Lenape Lifeways.