Pumusiitookw waak Kulustaakw : an Indigenous Soundwalk at Wave Farm

Land Acknowledgment

Wave Farm respectfully and humbly acknowledges the past, present, and future indigenous peoples on whose ancestral lands Wave Farm and our radio station, WGXC, operate and broadcast. The Mohicans named themselves “The People of the Waters That Are Never Still” following their arrival along the Mahicannituck, the “great-ebb-tide-river” also known as the Hudson. The Mohicans stewarded this land, over many generations, in dynamic communication and interaction with diverse indigenous peoples including the Haudenosaunee Mohawk and the Munsee Lenape. Mohican descendants today live in communities in Ontario, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma. For further information on Mohican history and the contemporary community of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, please visit mohican.com

Introduction

“Welcome to Pumusiitookw waak Kulustaakw: an Indigenous Soundwalk at Wave Farm. Pumusiitookw waak means "let's walk" and Kulustaakw means "let's listen," and it comes from the Munsee-Delaware language that is still spoken in our communities today. When I speak English my name is Kristin Jacobs, and when I speak Delaware my spirit name is North Wind Woman. I'm from the Wolf Clan, and I live in Delaware Nation in Ontario, Canada. You are standing in the homeland of the Lunaape people. For countless generations, we cultivated corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers in the rich bottomlands nearby, fished and gathered edible plants in the wetlands of the Hudson River, and hunted for deer, elk, and bears in these mountains. Our neighbors, the Maahiikaneew, speak a similar language and lived here as well. On this soundwalk, you will learn a little bit about our homeland. We were forced out of our land over two centuries ago, but today, our communities can be found in Ontario, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.” - Kristin Jacobs

Station Descriptions

Station 1
“The plants in this meadow or clearing, pahkwtéeyeek, represent the great diversity of species that rely on full sunlight for their survival. Local Lunaapee people once improved their hunting grounds and cleared their fields with prescribed burns. In doing so, they created a mosaic of habitats and enriched biodiversity. Some contemporary Lunaapee people set fire to their yards to encourage the growth of morel mushrooms and to clean yards, which is still done today.” - Wild Hudson Valley

Station 2
“The juxtaposition of mountains and waters is characteristic of the Lunaapee homeland of the Hudson Valley. For centuries, local Lunaapee people visited their fishing camps on local tributary streams to catch springtime runs of spawning xwaamuw, or shad, and maskanameekw, or striped bass. Today, their descendants continue to fish for springtime spawning waasiingw, or walleye, in their exiled communities in Ontario.” - Wild Hudson Valley

Station 3
“The red cedar tree, or mohkwxakwus, has red-colored heartwood. This slow-growing tree is highly valued as a purifying medicine by Lunaapee people. In some traditional stories, cedars and hemlock trees are associated with the sacred Pleiades constellation.” - Wild Hudson Valley

Station 4
“Gray and white birches are called wiikwaymiinzhuy, a name which may reflect the ancestral use of birch bark as shingles for wiikwahmal, or houses. This word for house was borrowed into English as wigwam.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Station 5
“The shagbark hickory tree, or teshkwatiimiinzhuy, was once one of the most highly valued trees for Lunaapee people. The strong, flexible wood provides hunting bows, poles for house frames, and excellent firewood, and the delicious nuts were harvested in great quantities for meal, milk, and oil. In some Lunaapee dialects, the word for nut is pakaan, which was borrowed into English as pecan.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Station 6
“The white pine, or wchupkwahkw, is the tallest tree species in the Lunaapee homeland. The straight trunks tower over the other forest trees, and are often full of holes created by the meemeew, or pileated woodpecker, our largest woodpecker species.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Station 7
“The Catskill Mountains are full of layered sedimentary rocks, such as shale, sandstone, and mudstone. Just to the east, veins of maahŭlus, or flint, once provided knives, drills, scrapers, and arrowheads for countless generations of Lunaapee people. Lunaapee people make beautiful one-piece leather shoes called mahksunal that protect the feet in rocky places. The word was borrowed into English as moccasin.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Station 8
“This Northern Red Oak is one of many oak tree species found in Lunaapee country. The sustainable land management practices of the Lunaapee people, which included prescribed burning, encouraged the growth of different species of wŭnaxkwiimiinzhuy, or oak trees, which supported a vast diversity of pollinators with their leaves and game animals with their acorns. Such animals included the eastern elk, or moos, a majestic species whose bugling calls once echoed among the Catskill Mountains in the autumn. This word gave the English language the word moose.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Station 9
“The Lunaapee language is extremely descriptive, and names for birds are a good example of this. Spend some time under this dense white pine and listen for the songs of local birds. You might hear a maxkwchiiliiliis, or black-capped chickadee, a tíitiis, or bluejay, or even a kóokhoos, or barred owl. All of these names describe these bird species’ calls.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Station 10
“The Lunaape homeland is full of stone walls. These stone walls or fences often follow property boundaries, and are a legacy of the farms of New England settlers in the early 19th century. They are now crumbling into the ground. In contrast, the white oak trees, hickory trees, and many other plant species that dominate huge swathes of the region today are a legacy of the native Lunaapee people, whose land management practices greatly enriched the biodiversity of the region over many, many centuries.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Station 11
“The staghorn sumac is a small tree of edge habitat, and thrives after disturbance. This tree is of great medicinal value. The fruit-bearing cones are sour in flavor, providing a delicious drink when infused in water, and can also be used in a poultice to treat infections. The roots and bark are likewise used for medicines and dyes, and the scarlet autumn leaves are traditionally mixed with tobacco as kulukuniikan. The English word kinnikinnick comes from this word.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Station 12
“The aspen or poplar tree is called paawsúwahkw. Watch as their leaves tremble in the slightest breeze. This and its common relative, the cottonwood, are trees of disturbed areas, and often grow up around beaver ponds, where they are a favorite food for the beaver, known as amóxkw. Beavers enrich biodiversity by creating wetlands and clearing the forest, and beaver meat is still highly valued by many native people.”- Wild Hudson Valley

Credits

"Wave Farm gives thanks to Wild Hudson Valley for their ongoing effort in bringing awareness to this land and its original peoples. This soundwalk was created by Wild Hudson Valley with voice recording by myself, Kristin Jacobs, a member of Moraviantown also known as Delaware Nation. For more information, you can visit wildhudsonvalley.com or delawarenation.on.ca Anushiik." - Kristin Jacobs

Exploring Pumusiitookw waak Kulustaakw: an Indigenous Soundwalk at Wave Farm with Wild Hudson Valley

Oct 28, 2023

A guided tour of Pumusiitookw waak Kulustaakw, Wave Farm's soundwalk that honors the native people of the region and their ancestors. At multiple stops along the soundwalk, co-creator and local ethnoecologist Justin Wexler delved into the history of local Lunaapee people, their relationship with the environment, and talk about their communities today.