PBS Kids Cartoon Heads To NJ To Learn Lenape Culture

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ — A new episode of an educational children's cartoon is set in North Jersey, teaching viewers about the Native American Lenape culture.

“Molly of Denali” is a PBS cartoon that debuted in 2019. The award-winning series is the first American nationally distributed children's show to feature an Alaska Native as the lead character.

The show is primarily based in the fictional village of Qyah, Alaska, and follows 10-year-old Molly and her friends on adventures throughout the state. The show focuses on cultural traditions, problem-solving, environmental consciousness, cross-cultural communication, and more.

In a new episode, lead character Molly, joined by her Grandpa Nat, leaves Alaska and travels to Rutan Hill in Sussex County to learn about Lenape language, art, and traditions.

The episode, titled “Big Gust to a River Rush,” was brought to the screen with the help of Monique Tyndall, who served as the Lenape Story Advisor.

“There were other aspects to this project, especially like working with the interstitials, that I had the opportunity to work with our tribal youth and their families, to bring them all together,” Tyndall said. “To share a little bit of our culture, especially with the traditional pottery making traditions, that, I think, is so meaningful for our youth.”

The episode specifically focuses on the Stockbridge-Munsee Lenape, and features Munsee dialects and discourse on the “material culture of the three Lenape sister nations.”

Molly, her grandfather, and viewers learn about the culture’s relationship with the North Jersey landscape, its rich history, and more.

“Lenape communities — We are still here, we’ve always been here. We are established communities and also sovereign nations,” Tyndall said.

To learn more about "Molly of Denali," and to see how you can watch the episode, click here.