People of Conshohocken, May 16th, 2016

People of Conshohocken

Debbie Cieslewski and Charlie Pickul

with Very Special Guest the Wood Carved Lenape Indian at Borough Hall

5/16/16

by Brian Coll

This is part of our People of Conshohocken series…

We have close to 10,000 people in our borough, add in the residents of West Conshohocken, Plymouth and Whitemarsh and we have a large community. Some of the people that will be featured will be well known in the area, some will have just moved into the area, some will have been here their entire lives. Some of them may be business owners, or people who walk around the area, or maybe work in the area. Maybe you know them, maybe you don’t. Everyone has a story. While we are only going to take their picture and maybe ask a question or two, we want to share these stories with you.

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On Saturday I was walking through New Borough Hall and the Police Station. I was just about done and ready to go back to work when I spotted a couple and honestly smelled her outfit walking towards our group and talking. After listening to them thank Mayor Frost and the Chief of Police Michael Orler for the tour and wish them luck on the new facility, she started to talk about her outfit, how it is from 1850 ( the year Conshohocken was incorporated as a borough) and how it still smells of the hickory that was used by the Indians who made it, now known as native Americans. The outfit is known as a Ghost Prayer Shirt, and she explained to me that the warriors would wear these shirts after a dance and expected them to protect them in battle. They soon realized that balls from the muskets made their way through the protective Ghost Prayer Shirts.

     Debbie Cieslewski is half Cherokee Eastern Band Wolf Clan, her father was full blooded and the tribe calls her Little Wolf, I just call it cool. Her and Charlie were checking everything out and I asked them to pose with the new wood carved Indian. They couldn’t thank Bill and Chris Ciaverelli as well as Tonya enough. The Ciaverellis had the piece cut and carved from a tree that was around for as long as the Borough itself. The fact that they donated it to the borough is amazing and a wonderful tribute to the people that called Conshohocken home long before it was Conshohocken. Conshohocken is a Leni-Lenape Indian word meaning Pleasant Valley. They had another term for the area as well which roughly translated to a Long Fine Land.

     I could talk more about the people that called Conshohocken home long before us, but my dad Jack Coll has touched on that in a number of the local books we have worked on covering the Conshohockens.