Some tribal leaders oppose a federal plan to move a statue of a Lenape chief two blocks in Philadelphia, with one official saying his people are “tired of moving.”
A statue of Chief Tamanend, who signed a peace treaty with William Penn in 1682, now adorns the Interstate 95 exit leading into the Old City neighborhood.
The National Park Service now wants to move the bronze likeness to a more prominent location: the newly planned Tamanend Square, which is part of the historic Market Street renovation and just two blocks from the statue’s current less-than-ideal home, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Despite the feds’ seemingly good intentions, the plan was held up by Native American leaders.
“After 300-plus years of forced removal, it feels like it’s just another metaphorical forced removal from our own land,” Jeremy Johnson, director of cultural education for the federally recognized Delaware Indian Tribe in Bartlesville, Okla., told the outlet.
British statesman William Penn (in dark coat) receives a belt from Chief Lenni-Lenae Tamanend as part of a deal in which he bought a plot of land for the colony of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1682. Getty Images “We are tired of moving,” Johnson told the paper. “We have been told several times in our history that we are on the road to progress.” NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tribal chiefs said Tamanend was exploited by colonialists to sign land sales because the natives did not believe or understand that land could be an asset that could be sold as it was in Europe.
Eventually, the Lenape were stripped of their land in the region and forced to move to Oklahoma.
The statue of Chief Tamanend is now placed on the highway off-ramp, where it is not accessible to pedestrians. associationforpublicart.org
“We’re tired of moving,” Johnson told the newspaper. “We have been told several times in our history that we are on the road to progress.”
A 1995 statue depicts Tamanend standing on a turtle with an eagle near his shoulder, symbolizing his clan’s connection to the Earth and messenger of the Great Spirit.
Officials want to transform Market Street by 2026, just in time for the US’s 250th birthday celebrations.
Under the plan, Tamanend Square will be anchored by a statue at Second and Market streets and connected to existing parks and redesigned corridors.
Stakeholders in the initiative claim that moving the statue will allow it to be “more easily appreciated.”
“We aspire to move the statue from its current location,” said Bill Marrazzo, chairman of the Independence Historical Trust, which is raising money for the project, and host of Philly’s public radio station.
Marrazzo reportedly hopes the statue will “be some kind of monumental piece to educate the public about Chief Tamanend’s role in the creation of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
Tribal groups considered stakeholders — including the Delaware Indian Tribe, the Delaware Nation and the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape — have yet to reach a consensus, he told the newspaper.
News of the rift comes as New York’s Museum of Natural History removed a prominent Native American display in compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which mandates that stolen and permanent Native American artifacts be returned to their ancestors.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
