Seeds Planted in Scranton Symbolize Relationship with Lenape People

Earth Day week will be especially enriched by Lenape heritage during special events on Sunday, April 19. A new “Spirit of Lenapehoking in Nay Aug Park” Interpretative Sign will be dedicated at The Greenhouse Project in the city of Scranton’s Nay Aug Park from 12 noon – 12:30 p.m. Following the dedication ceremony, the community will be invited to enjoy a Lenape Cultural Program that includes language, storytelling, and the planting of indigenous seeds to take home for their own gardens. The program will be led by Lenape leader, Curtis Zunigha, from 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Zunigha is an enrolled member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. Through programs in culture and art, he helps build understanding and community around the return of Lenape people to their ancestral homeland, Lenapehoking, after generations living through the traumas of forced removal. His educational programs seek to connect people through developing relationships with one another and with the earth.

“This new Interpretive Sign is another seed planted in the soil of the relationship between Scranton and the Lenape people, which is flourishing thanks to Curtis’ gracious leadership and collaboration,” said Julie Schumacher Cohen, assistant vice president of community engagement and government affairs at The University of Scranton, who initially brought Zunigha to Scranton during the “Scranton’s Story, Our Nation’s Story” project in 2023.

Funding for this project and these events has been provided in part by The University of Scranton, the Greenhouse Project, the Lackawanna County Arts & Culture Department, the Lackawanna Heritage Valley National and State Heritage Area in partnership with the National Park Service, and in local partnership with Scranton Municipal Recreation Authority and The City of Scranton.

Both the dedication and the program are open to the public, reconnecting residents to the deep roots of Lenape people in this region they call Lenapehoking, and the role that the Lenape historically and currently play in the journey of our nation.

To learn more about these two events, please visit this link: https://scrantongreenhouse.org/lenape/