Ms. Laverne has put the six of us in the ARTT room. We are going to go there every Friday for an hour to talk. Me, Amari, Ashton, Esteban, Holly and Tiago. Our story starts in Ms. Laverne's class in the borough of Brooklyn in the city of New York. But it's a story on top of a story. It's a story that's started and ended a whole bunch of times. When we were studying the history of New York, we talked about the Lenape people—they were the real Native New Yorkers, but it wasn't called New York then. Their name for it was Lenapehoking. But then the Dutch settlers killed them and took their land. That means wherever we put a single foot—it's land that belonged to the Lenape. It's land they might be buried under. It's land that they died for. Ms. Laverne said that we should always remember this. That even though we have our dreams, the Lenape had dreams too. That even though we're here now, they were here first. I think this is what the world is stories on top of stories, all the way back to the beginning of time.
Ms. Laverne asked us if we were living in Lenapehoking, would we fight alongside the Lenape or would we try to take the land for ourselves? We all said we'd fight with them. We all said we'd try to help them hold on to their land.
This paragraph, Ms. Laverne gives a crucial history lesson on the Lenape people. Think about what she says about histories being written over others and those who need protecting. Would you fight for what's right even it doesn't affect you? Short and simple