American Elm

Ulmas americana

lokanahunshi

Recognized by the combination of alternate, 2-ranked, lanceolate or narrowly elliptic leaves with double-toothed margins and a mostly symmetric base, and samara margins fringed with whitish hairs.

In Lenape culture the elm is referred to as a 'bowl making tree" and its bark was used to cover their homes.

The Treaty of Shackamaxon, as it was called, was a legendary Treaty between William Penn and Chief Tammanund of the Lenni Lenape in 1682 and is depicted in a famous painting by Benjamin West done in 1771 showing Penn with the Lenape gathered below the branches of the Giant Elm.

Unarmed, clad in his somber Quaker garb, he addressed the assembled Native Americans, uttering the following which will be admired throughout the ages:

"We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good-will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. We are the same as if one man's body was to be divided into two parts; we are of one flesh and one blood."

The reply of Tammanund, is equally noble:

"We will live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the creeks and rivers run, and while the sun, moon, and stars endure."

The peace between the Lenape Turtle Clan and Penn’s successors would endure almost a century, until the Penn’s Creek Massacre of 1755. It was remarked upon by Voltaire, who called it “… the only treaty never sworn to and never broken.” Quaker doctrine prohibited Penn from making oaths.