Hadrien Coumans

Hadrien Coumans’ work is grounded in lifelong responsibility and enduring commitments within communities. He is a traditionally adopted member of the Lenape WhiteTurkey–Fugate family and co-founder / deputy director of Lenape Center in New York.

Hadrien also bears the responsibility of Қара бақсы (Qara Baqsy*) within Tengrist tradition, bestowed upon him by Kazakh Baqsy Arman Nurmukhanbetov within a Turkic ancestral legacy. He has studied under the auspices of Baqsy Nurmukhanbetov for eight years.

Hadrien’s foundations were shaped through twelve formative years of study with the late Lakota Holy Man, Chief Phillip CrazyBull, who was a Medicine Man, Heyoka and SunDance Chief. As his student, Hadrien was deeply committed to supporting Chief CrazyBull and his work throughout this period.

Hadrien holds certifications from the United States Institute of Peace in Conflict Analysis, Mediating Violent Conflict, and Land Property & Conflict, along with Trauma Awareness and Resilience training. He has spoken at institutions including the United Nations, Brooklyn Law School, Pace School of Law, and Cardozo Law School’s Ferencz Human Rights & Atrocity Prevention Clinic, as well as before the governments of Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Lenape Center has the mission of continuing Lenapehoking. For close to twenty years, it has transformed New York City by restoring Lenape presence, history, and knowledge through the arts, culture, education, and institutional partnerships. Lenape Center applies Lenape peacemaking principles to institutional culture, public narrative, and policy.

Hadrien’s work extends these commitments: he is co-editor of “Lenapehoking: An Anthology,” co-published by Lenape Center and Brooklyn Public Library, and has served as Associate Faculty at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where he supported adjunct professor Joe Baker in teaching the first Lenape public health course, “Indigenous Knowledge and Public Health: Toward Wëlamàlsewakàn and Lenapehoking.”

His publications include a co-authored chapter in “Voices from Religions on Sustainable Development” and the co-authored article “Wëlamàlsewakàn: Reimagining the Right to Health through Lenape Epistemologies” in Harvard’s Health and Human Rights Journal. His legal scholarship includes a co-authored chapter, “Les lois de la nature selon l’approche croisée des peuples Lenape et Kogis,” in “Éthique environnementale pour juristes.”

*Qara Baqsy refers to a traditional ritual-intercessor (Qara means black, emphasizing earth, depth) within Tengrism. It denotes a traditional ceremonial responsibility and practice of healing and mediation through addressing difficult or disruptive forces of the Lower World that affect personal and communal life to restore balance.