Hadrien Coumans

Hadrien Coumans’ work is grounded in lifelong responsibility and enduring commitments to Indigenous communities. He is a traditionally adopted member of the Lenape WhiteTurkey–Fugate family and Co-founder of Lenape Center in New York.

Hadrien also bears the responsibility of Qara Baqsy* within Tengrist tradition, bestowed upon him by Kazakh Baqsy, Arman Nurmukhanbetov, within a Turkic ancestral legacy; Hadrien 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 Chief, Medicine man, and SunDance leader.

Lenape Center has the mission of continuing Lenapehoking and has been restoring Lenape presence, history, and knowledge in Lenapehoking through the arts, culture, education, and institutional partnerships for close to twenty years. Lenape Center applies traditional peacemaking principles to institutional culture, public narrative, and policy. 

Hadrien’s editorial and academic work extends these commitments: he is co-editor of Lenapehoking: An Anthology and has served as Associate Faculty at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. His publications include a 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 in Les lois de la nature selon l’approche croisée des peuples Lenape et Kogis in Éthique environnmentale pour juristes.

Hadrien has advised Nations, institutions, organizations and individuals for over twenty-five years. 

*Qara Baqsy refers to a traditional Black Shaman within the Kazakh tradition. In this context, it denotes a ceremonial responsibility and role of ritual practice, healing, mediation, and work with difficult or disruptive forces of the Lower World affecting personal and communal life. 

This is root-level work.