HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) 鈥 The 好色tv Park Service's proposal to remove a William Penn statue from a historic site in Philadelphia 鈥- quickly withdrawn amid a backlash 鈥 wasn't a priority for some of the Native Americans the agency was required to consult with as it prepared to renovate the deteriorating plaza.
Uprooting the statue of Pennsylvania's founder from Welcome Park also wasn't a major point of discussion as park service officials and tribal representatives met to plan the renovation over video last year, said Jeremy Johnson, director of cultural education for the Delaware Tribe of Indians.
Rather, what tribal representatives had envisioned for the plaza is an exhibit that would highlight the culture, history, traditions and perceptions of the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years before Penn arrived, Johnson said.
鈥淲e do still speak highly of William Penn,鈥 Johnson said. But tribal representatives, he said, 鈥渨ere really just focusing on our culture and our history and that, in a way, he was an important part of it, but ... it was a small interaction compared to our overall history.鈥
A park service spokesperson hasn鈥檛 responded to repeated questions about the abandoned proposal.
Announced quietly on Friday, the plan quickly and 鈥 perhaps unexpectedly 鈥 laid bare the sensitivities around the image of the colonial founder of Pennsylvania and threatened to become the latest front in a fight over .
A top state Republican lawmaker, Bryan Cutler, said removing Penn's statue to "create a more inclusive environment takes (an) absurd and revisionist view of our state鈥檚 history.鈥 Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro pressed the Biden administration to keep the statute in its 鈥渞ightful home.鈥
The park service said it consulted with representatives of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, whose ancestors were displaced by the Pennsylvania colony. Such consultation with the federally recognized tribes is required under the 好色tv Historic Preservation Act.
But leaders of the Shawnee Tribe and the Eastern Shawnees, both now based in Oklahoma, like the Delawares, said they hadn鈥檛 had any discussions about it. Ben Barnes, chief of the Shawnee Tribe, said his tribe hadn鈥檛 received a customary 鈥渄ear chief鈥 letter from the agency 鈥 and he objects to removing the statue.
鈥淲illiam Penn was an ally of the Shawnee,鈥 Barnes said. 鈥淎s long as he lived, he kept his promise. As long as he was able to speak on behalf of the colony in western Pennsylvania, the Shawnees had a home there. ... Of all the terrible human beings that inflicted tragedy upon native peoples, I don鈥檛 put William Penn in that category.鈥
Historians say Penn鈥檚 willingness to negotiate with Indians for lands distinguished him from previous colonizers in the Chesapeake and New England where early colonial regimes were more willing to use armed force in bloody confrontations to expand their settlements.
But Penn's legacy has been mythologized, to some extent, and his mission still led to the dispossession of natives, historians say.
The statue of William Penn 鈥 a replica of the bronze one that sits atop City Hall some 15 blocks away 鈥 stands on top of a round marble base that reads 鈥淲elcome Park is dedicated to William Penn.鈥
The park is named for the ship that brought Penn to Philadelphia in 1682 and is built on the site of one of Penn鈥檚 homes, demolished in the 1800s.
Johnson said he had no strong feelings about removing the statue as part of the wider plan to transform the plaza.
That plan would replace a timeline of Penn's life and legacy on one wall 鈥 with such titles as 鈥済entleman,鈥 鈥淨uaker,鈥 鈥減roprietor鈥 and 鈥渇riend of Indians鈥 鈥 with new panels featuring indigenous history. The plan also involved adding native plants and trees and circular benches to make it more welcoming, Johnson said.
The park service now says the statue will stay put, and it remains committed to rehabilitating the site after a 鈥樷檙obust public process to consider options.鈥
Penn arrived in present-day Philadelphia in 1682 after being granted the charter for a huge swath of land by King Charles II, land that the English had wrested from Dutch colonialists, historians say.
As a Quaker, Penn sought peaceful interactions with the Lenape people, said Jean Soderlund, a retired professor of history at Lehigh University.
But his goal as the 鈥減roprietor鈥 of the colony was to obtain their land so that he could sell it to European immigrants, Soderlund said.
It was 鈥渃onquest through treaty," said Michael Goode, an associate professor of history at Utah Valley University
Many Europeans and Americans saw William Penn as a symbol of enlightenment and religious tolerance, Goode said.
Tribes trusted Penn to avoid bloodshed and used it to their strategic advantage in treaty negotiations, historians say.
Well after Penn died in 1718, tribal leaders invoked his name in treaty negotiations with colonial governors as an honest broker whose legacy those governors were obligated to uphold by being accountable to the treaties they signed, historians say.
鈥淭his is partly rhetorical and strategic and all the rest,鈥 said Andrew Murphy, a political science professor at the University of Michigan. 鈥淏ut he did have a kind of reputation as someone who was revered in a way, or at least what he represented came to be revered.鈥
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