Mr.Grondine
In my opinion you have not Justified to me why this should not be in the fraud section.
I've stated the reasons why in my opinion research is still needed, and the problems I have accepting Oestreicher's analysis. I think Educated Indian in his earlier post summarized well the thinking of others with similar views.
this seems to me that it is all about you and your book?
NO.
Originally I had intended to write 3 books "Man and Impact in the Americas", "Man and Impact in the Ancient Near East", and "Man and Impact in Europe".
Fearing the nationalist and religious problems I would encounter with "Man and Impact in the Ancient Near East", I decided to do "Man and Impact in the Americas" first. (There's a good joke) At the time, one wrote old world history and sold it, and I thought that one could sell traditions. Hooo boy... (Second good joke.)
Originally, my book was simply going to be a collection of impact accounts from traditions and the archaeological/geological record. After reading David Cusick's "Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations", I realized I had a very reliable tradition; further, I realized that none of the other traditions which I was quoting from were easily available, and it came to me that I should do what I could to correct this.
I also knew that there were young Sioux fluent in their language and traditions, and recovering their memories of the impact events would be their work. The same holds for the peoples on the west coast. The Hopi, Navajo, and Zuni elders will share that part of what they remember of the comet and asteroid impacts when they think it is proper. So that was not my work either.
(I have found an young Arapaho fellow to work through their traditions, and I believe I have located the Oglala to work through their part of Siouxian traditions. That leaves Dakota and Lakota yet to be found, as well as some for the North east, which problem Rich knows about.)
Now at the time I worked through the Walam Olum, the year 2000, Oestreicher's analysis was not widely known. I trusted Brinton's opinion, but did read one short paragraph dismissing of Oestreicher's analysis, and pursued it no further. As I pointed out above, the Walam Olum and the archaeological record lock, so I had no reason to suspect the extent of Rafinesque's "palingeny" (reconstruction) at the time of my book in 2004.
I knew he was strange, having read some of his other works, but again, given the environment he worked in and the hostility he encountered for treating the peoples and their remains with respect, I still liked him, especially in comparison with some of the genocidal and delusional people operating around him.
NOTE THAT EVEN IF YOU ACCEPT THAT ALL OF THE PERSONAL NAMES ARE RAFINESQUE'S "RECONSTRUCTIONS", THAT STILL LEAVES EVERY OTHER LINE UNACCOUNTED FOR, AS WELL AS DR. WARD OF PENDLETON, AND THE ENTIRE COURSE OF EVENTS FROM ABOUT 1000 AD ON. TOO MANY TOPONYMS AND ETHNONYMS ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE.
So one of my bottom lines is that I think that Oestreicher has missed a source or sources that Rarinesque used, and the Lenape and all of us deserve to have that portion searched for exhaustively. I would like to see graduate students working through Rafinesque and the Lenape material for many years to come. I want that research to be done, which is why I would like to see this left in Research Needed.
My other bottom line, and far more important than my book, is Oestreicher's refusal to admit that the "Hopewell" remains in Ohio are Shawnee, and that goes gut deep. They're not Lenape, they're not Siouxian, they're not Wendat, they're Shawnee/ Cherokee (Tsulagi). As I mentioned earlier, I'd rather be spending my time with the Shawnee Principle Narrative than dealing with this further. I hoped to leave this matter with my note "Reconstructing Rafinesque".
the correct spelling is Mide or Midewiwin
Among Ojibwe, but not Lenape. Please keep in mind that I was trying to recall with stroke damage what I had read at Anderson, which was recorded by English writers at that.
Note that in Lenape the Ojibwe "wi" is "wak", and in Shawnee "we" or "wi". Locatives in Shawnee are compounds with "the" (pronounced "tha").