Not knowing what to expect and without having any previous experience. I made the snap decision to ride in the 2023 Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Pow Wow motorcycle run held by a local MC chapter. This is an annual event that brings together native american riders from along the east-coast and as far away as New Mexico.

The run is a seventy-mile loop. It starts at Delaware Memorial Bridge in Salem Co., tours rural south jersey with a mid-way stop at the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indian tribal grounds in Cumberland Co and ends back at Salem County Fairgrounds just in time for the pow wow Grand Entry ceremonies. This is a very well thought out travel route and precisely timed ride.

Ultimately, this run would serve as my first experience with this particular MC and as a rider in such a large organized group ride. This would be far from my longest group ride to date, but by the end of the day...it would surely feel like it.

I'm not new to riding motorcycles, I come from a family of riders and I got my first bike when I was 11 years old. With over 30-years behind me, I am far from a beginning rider. With that being said, when it comes to Motorcyle Clubs and registered group-ride events I am a complete newbie and have no idea what I'm doing!

Last year in 2022 marked the inaugural pow wow run event and I was not able to participate. My bike, a 2005 Harley Electra Glide, was ready to go but my wife and I decided to make a family trip out of state that weekend.

Since that time, I followed the MC’s social media page to view the post of the event I missed and in the process I learned more about the community work they perform and the social causes they support. Surprisingly, their goals and mission statement actually aligned well with the work that we currently do at the non-profit. The more I learned about the MC it motivated me to participate and be a part of this year's 2023 Annual Pow Wow Run!

I had a year to get ready for this years ride. I’ve been upgrading it for months and I knew it wouldn’t be ready for the June pow wow ride, but I had convinced myself that no matter what,  I would be a part of this year's Pow Wow ride.

I kept my promise to myself to make the ride! So with only 72hrs before the Saturday Morning run I scrambled around and bought a dirty ‘03 1200XL just based on the market place pics. This snap decision would come back to bite me in the ass!

The filthy 20-year old sportster fired right up and it would be good enough to get me to the Annual run.
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It was a balancing act for me to sit back and take in the dynamics at play and understand who the players were and how I would fit into this wild ecosystem. I felt like I didn’t want to appear too cocky or too weak for that matter.

​The protocols were hard to follow and I didn’t know who was in charge and who was not. At some point it felt like I was being thrown into a new school, sports team or with all the machismo…a crowded boxing gym!

Most of the club guys were friendly but the two main organizers of the local chapter were stern, serious and had a very dry sense of humor.

Deadpan and I honestly had no idea if they were serious or screwing with me.

One second they were concerned about everyone’s safety and the next they were breaking balls about something minor.

This also was very understandable as it was clear they were responsible for the event and everyone attending it.

I was 10-minutes late to the meetup and was nervous about going there in the first place. As I rolled up to the meetup part of me hoped I had missed them. It would give me a reason to not complete the run, facing my fear of riding and save me the humiliation and judgment that I knew I was subjecting myself to.

When I finally pulled up, I was shocked to see so many men that looked like me! Same skin tone, same features, family names and demeanors. This immediately gave me a sense of familiarity that allowed me to relax enough to take it all in!

I wasn’t sure who to talk to and who not to talk to. The whole damn thing was confusing.

We began with a bike blessing and smudge before a pre-ride briefing and instructions.

Smudging the bikes and riders set an intention for the day and became a theme that permeated the run.

Members and their families were first to smudge and friends of the club followed. Everyone watched as each person smudged until all were received. The smell of cedar and tobacco filled the air and was a powerful ceremony that transfixed all that watched and participated.

I allowed my excitement to participate in the Run to get the best of me. I wasn’t finished putting the ultra back together and it was in no shape to ride, so I took a bike that I just bought days before. A sportster XL1200C, which gave me apprehension from the start riding anything other than a touring bike. I figured I’d be ousted just for the fact I was on a sportster. In reality the bigger factor of ridicule was me breaking down 3-times and holding up the entire pack of 50 motorcycles. It happened once on the way to the grounds and then again on the ride to the pow wow!

Yeah that was me…the capital ASSHOLE of the day with a broken down bike responsible for being late to both the club breakfast and pow wow grand entry. I can’t forget the look on the faces of the chapter leaders, I didn’t see any president or officer patches, was less than impressed! So it was no surprise they weren’t running over to ask me to hang around. One actually yelled out “Fix your shit before the next time you ride with Us!”

Regardless of the searing embarrassment I felt, there was a sense of pride I hadn’t experienced in a long time. Also, it was good to be out in the open air and with like minded men in service for our community.

At the outset of entering a new hobby, most of us are very enthusiastic, filled with excitement and great intentions. We want to learn as much as humanly possible about the new subject that captivates us. We’ll stay up late night after night, any time we get a chance during the day, scrolling and scrolling pages of search results in order to build and expand our knowledge base until we are reciting information in our sleep.
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After weeks of research, we emerge a puffy faced, red eyed self-appointed “authority”...the “subject expert”...the “GURU” because we have close to one hundred hours of subject matter burned into our brains.

It’s funny how proficient we become after just watching videos and reading blogs.

In reality, we have no real practical knowledge of our new fascination but we get the euphoric delusion, even an air of arrogance, that we are the NEW thought leaders of whatever field we crashed landed into.

The next stage is becoming a fact snob, sharing random information with anybody that will listen to us, we talk to the guy sitting next us at the local tire & lube shop, the mail lady, the other parents watching our kid’s soccer practice. The best target is any captive audience prime for a brain dump. The tell tale sign is when we begin correcting people when they mention anything remotely vague about OUR subject matter.

I had a Guru moment years ago when I fell in love with a puppy named Danko and instantly wanted to become an expert K9 Owner, Handler and Breeder. I jumped into the information deep end with both feet and fueled my vision of grandeur with online pedigree charts, books, magazines and even signed up for an online obedience trainer course.

Fast forward 5 years, 15 dogs and many thousands of dollars later, That dream literally almost cost me my marriage and family. I still have 3 small family dogs but the whole dog business empire thing is a long afterthought.

The ideas and intention behind our new ventures are fast and true, but the firm reality of any quick success is a hard No. That's a main drawback to being a thinker, a visionary, pioneer...we have so many brilliant ideas, but no practical way to approach and execute them. Hey, isn't that somebody else’s job anyway?

​All those hours during the day and night searching articles and viewing videos has to account for something...right?
As we think,  "I must spread all this meaningless information to the masses!"

The confidence that is bred from our information overload is a tricky thing because it's only half of the equation.

​We run arounnd bursting from infinite amounts of facts and information. Combine this with one of many fervent online communities that share our knowledge-thirst and kaboom! We are launched into the land of Gurus...a place where...the entire population is quarantined away from any basic normal friendly conversation between friends.

It all reminds me of a phrase my dad always told me as a kid growing up, "Remember Son...nobody likes an Asshole or a Know-it-all!"

For many very good reasons our local community, much too-often, is consumed with the exhaustive
process of our never-ending challenges for "recognition". Recognition that we merely exist and that our ancestors were here pre-settlement era and that not every single inhabitant was ethnically cleansed from the region. Uncovering the unpopular, but even more accurate account that our surviving American Indian communities both assimilated with the incoming european settlers and remained hidden in plain sight. 

In the fever of our recognition movement for equality and acknowledgement, the result is an intense tunnel vision that sometimes blocks out the view of our greater surrounding community and at a greater level the country as a whole.

With the recent events of social injustice in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Minnesota the result further splinters our national view and strains our emotions. Especially in ways that have us searching for common ground allowing us to move in a more positive direction for ourselves, community and country.
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The social fabric of our country is changing at such a head-spinning pace that we struggle daily
for a glimpse of clarity, helping us move to a place where everyone is represented, feels
acknowledged and heard.

For decades our community has battled for mere recognition of existence and basic civil rights. As a result, we must not allow the process to callus our hearts and cause us to become withdrawn from the issues of those with a similiar burden around us.
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As our surrounding communities now rush to the banks of the river, we assume a natural
position as guides and facilitators of the River we have co-existed with for generations. As sons
and daughters of the river, we have an understanding of the tide, we understand when to launch
our vessels and when to remain calm and move forward.

We've been navigating the river for so long that we take for granted our experiences and
understanding of the currents and the tide, we know when to anchor in place and when to
paddle, we understand that all that come to the river and banks are not enemies. We know how
to work with those that gladly work with us in order share resources and prosperity as the
creator intended. Regardless of origin our true friends always reveal themselves.

We celebrate our differences from our neighbors and believe our cultural identity and pride is a
necessity, it must be preserved and respected just as we respect all others. History
demonstrates that only when we sit down with each other and meet in the middle does dialogue
and understanding begin.

It's no secret that there are deep divides within this country but we must never forget that our
community has a very long and rich history of working together with others to share, learn and
grow.

It's these innate qualities of our people that continue to benefit us today. There any many of our
neighbors that are in a state of panic as they see the water of the River rise and our story shows
they will make many impulse decisions that will not only hurt their chances for survival but also
harm the relations of true friends who share the river bank.

The mainstream of this country is just now understanding the river is a very powerful living thing,
it's rising tide will continue to ebb and flow, it's energy never contained or controlled by any
group or individual.

Remain steadfast and watch as others panic and jump into the waters just because the tide is
now quickly rising, trust your understanding of the river, how it lives and breathes, take the lead
in navigating and help move forward to prosperity for all!