Every four years, members of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, with an open invitation for anyone who feels called to join in, paddle down the length of the Delaware River on the Rising Nation River Journey. The journey includes intentional stops along the way for Treaty Signing events, in which organizations and individuals can sign a Treaty of Renewed Friendship that aims to protect the environment and spread indigenous awareness.

The treaty signings—documented here in photographs for the River Reporter by Eva Bednar—call for a new harmony between all nations, residents of the Delaware River valley old and new. 

“We look around the room at how many people and how many organizations show up to be part of this meeting, and we say, this has to be the fourth crow. This is that harmony.”

“We hear the fourth crow telling us of a new harmony that takes place now, not a Lenape harmony, not even a Native American harmony, but a human harmony, with us and all of our new neighbors who are here today.”

At the end of the journey, Waterbear emphasized, after sharing a Lenape story about four crows representing different points in time, that now is the time for humanity to come together.  

“The level of atrocities that befell our people, I don’t know if that can ever be corrected, but what we can do is gather in healing the generational trauma of that time by becoming aware, learning about each other, sharing our cultures together.”

“The fourth crow is about all of us coming together to become the friends we should be organically and should have been from the start, and to join together in protecting our homelands, our environment, our water and each other.”