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How does an American Indian tribe preserve its heritage while functioning in modern America?

The Lenape, or Delaware Indians—known as the "Grandfather Tribe"—originally lived primarily
in the woodlands of New York, Pennsylvania,
and New Jersey.

Constantly pushed westward throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, the main body of the tribe arrived in Oklahoma in the 1860s. The Delaware Tribe in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is one of the two largest branches of the Delaware in the United States.
Within the last 20 years, the tribe has begun intensive research to identify and preserve crucial aspects
of their native history.

Still Dancing: The Pursuit of Tradition in the 21st Century tells part of this story in 50 color images that show how the contemporary Delawares and the family of Dee Ketchum, former chief of the Bartlesville Delaware Indians, tackle the challenge of transmitting native traditions—including indigenous language, dances, songs, and crafts—to a new generation.

Still Dancing captures the Ketchums' intense, loving, and sometimes humorous efforts to share their cultural legacy with their children, grandchildren, and extended tribal community by teaching them crafts and dances at events such as the annual Delaware powwow near Copan, Oklahoma.

In one image, Dee Ketchum assembles eagle feathers in a headpiece for his grandson in an intimate moment that illustrates the emphasis the Bartlesville Delawares place on teaching the younger generation the skills involved in ceremonial crafts. Another photograph depicts a father and his two daughters dance at the annual powwow. The daughter closest to her father dresses and dances as a man, and the photographs show not only her skilled performance but also her heart-to-heart conversation with Ketchum. We can imagine the elder advising the young woman on handling the jealousy and disapproval of some of her male competitors.

The exhibition's photographs and selection of contemporary artifacts are accompanied by text and oral histories gathered over eight years of research by photographer James Brown and author Rita Kohn, who also collaborated on the 2003 PBS documentary Long Journey Home: The Delawares of Indiana. Brown, whose work has appeared in National Geographic, is Executive Associate Dean of the Indiana University School of Journalism. Brown and Kohn are working with Peg Williams on a collection of oral histories of Delaware Indians, which will be published by the Indiana University Press.

Still Dancing is curated by Joe Baker, a Delaware artist and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Heard Museum.