Community remembers massacre victims
Guests at the event sprinkled tobacco on the grave to honor those killed.
Members of the Delaware Tribe from Oklahoma and Canada and Tuscarawas County community members gathered March 8 to remember the 96 victims of the Gnadenhutten massacre who were brutally killed by the Pennsylvania Militia on that date in 1782.
For the members of the Delaware Tribe, the inhumanity of that day is still fresh.
“It is a difficult day,” said Jeremy Johnson, a member of the Delaware Tribe from Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Johnson has been attending the Day of Remembrance for the past three years and grew up hearing the story of the massacre.
“It wasn’t told as if it happened hundreds of years ago. It was told these are our relatives, and it happened to them,” Johnson said. “So it’s difficult to step over here. I get emotional because I think about what happened to our relatives, what they must have went through that night, sitting and waiting, what they must have went through that morning as they were taken out one by one. Those buildings, I can’t imagine the terror, the sadness as they sit there, listen to their family members be murdered, their children. This is what my grandmother told me, all these times, all these years. Our history lives within us.”
Johnson then presented a song and played the drum.
“I’m very honored and humbled to be here today to offer what little I can for what my ancestors have sacrificed for us to be able to stand here today,” Johnson said.
Velma Noah Nicholas of the Delaware town Eelunaapeewi Lahkeewiit, also known as Moraviantown in Canada, visited the site for the first time for the Day of Remembrance. She is a cultural coordinator tasked with reopening the Fairfield Museum in Canada. The site was once a Delaware community that was burnt down by the British Army, and it is across the river from their current community.
“We have this museum that was in the hands of United Church of Canada for 75 years, and it wasn’t maintained at all,” Nicholas said.
Many renovations are needed before it can be opened, but that isn’t her biggest concern. “It’s always been a place of the colonial view of who we are, and it didn’t tell the truth of who we are. My job is to change that. I want that museum to tell the truth about who we are and all the richness that we have,” she said.
Keeping the Delaware traditions alive, including the language, is important. There are only two elderly people in Nicholas’ community who fluently speak the language. The language needs to be heard, and Nicholas gave a prayer in Lenape at the opening of the ceremony.
Nicholas grieved, not only for the lives lost of the first inhabitants of Gnadenhutten, but also for the knowledge and history that was lost with them.
“We have a long story from the East Coast. How many stops have we had? How many of our things are scattered all across Canada and the United States? They’re all over the place,” Nicholas said. “Our job as Lenape people, our community, is to go back from place to place and pick up what was left there for us and that they’re not forgotten.”
She feels the Day of Remembrance is important for the people who lost their lives there.
“I’m feeling they need something from us in order to let their lives let go and go sit back by the Creator because that’s where they are,” Nicholas said.
She is passionate about continuing to work for change for the Delaware people.
“I want us to be acknowledged for who we truly are. We’re not weak, we’re not incapable and we’re not stupid. We’re very smart, rich, knowledgeable Lenape people. We’ve not gone anywhere. We’re still here, we’re still growing and we’re still learning,” Nicholas said.
Other speakers included Theresa and Larry Johnson, Chief Justin Logan, Megan Logan and her daughter Everlee, and Pat Noah, all of Moraviantown, Canada; Chief Brad Killscrow of Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Andy McMillen, president of the GHS; Joe Bonamico, an actor in “Trumpet in the Land;” Tuscarawas County commissioner Chris Abbuhl; and Moravian Pastor David Geyer.
The memorial service was organized by the Gnadenhutten Historical Society. The GHS offered handouts listing the families and names of those killed at the massacre and a history of the event. They also distributed copies of their first Echoes of the Valley quarterly newsletter.
McMillen spoke of the importance of remembering the massacre.
“Where we’re standing right now, you see the best and worst of human nature in a lot of ways. It’s a dichotomy, and I think, historically, it’s important not just to glorify the good, but also learn from the bad, especially when we’re in times such as these where there’s a lot of divisiveness as the world is seemingly getting more complex and people more at odds,” McMillen said. “I think there’s a lot we can learn from this.”
For more information visit the GHS website at gnadenmuseum.com or on Facebook at Gnadenhutten Museum and Historical Park.