Hannah’s World | 2023

This video and stop-motion animation project is inspired by the story of Hannah Freeman, or “Indian Hannah,” who was purportedly the “Last” Lenni-Lenape of Chester County, Pennsylvania. The research of Hannah began in Fall 2022, when I spent many weekends in this area where she lived in the late 18th century, toward the end of her life.   

I filmed along a 1 mile offset of the western branch of Brandywine Creek, a stretch where Lenni-Lenape were allowed access for hunting, fishing, and cultural practice, by the colonizing political body in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.   

Through the writings of Dawn G. Marsh’s book A Lenape Among the Quakers and other research about the indigenous groups of Pennsylvania, I became interested in how Hannah has been memorialized and quasi-commemorated in these landscapes today. This animation aims to offer some insights into the current day place of Hannah’s homeland, and explores the question of what it means to capture and memorialize history, and “historic places” --- and through whose eyes? 

In the animated scenes, I imagine figures and ghosts of all the species who had lived in her landscape, and some of the characters are from “non-native” objects I’ve gathered from outside of Chester County. The techniques utilized in the animation studio include running video through a TV monitor, screen by screen, and animating these objects in front of the screen.  

In addition to other North American regions, today many Lenni-Lenape live on the East Coast of the United States.  In states such as Pennsylvania, there are no federally recognized tribes, making it difficult for Native Americans to gain recognition, engage in cultural practice, and access resources and their ancestral homelands. 

Their past and present stories as well as future imaginings, deserve equal voice, place, and presence in our shared, collective landscapes.  In this, Lenni-Lenape citizens are denied the opportunity to steward their lost landscapes; to evolve culture in relation to these places; and indeed, to live life deeply. Without this perspective, we are allowing for half-truths to persist and stories to remain buried. With this work of animation, I hope to highlight these aspects of Lenni-Lenape people, and bring these to light.