To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals – this alone is worth the struggle. Wm. Penn
The legacy of Penn Treaty Park is over 330 years old. And from the early years it was always a Sacred Ground.
It took over 2 centuries to make it a public Park. Many individuals cherished and tended this place, committing their own believes and hopes on the importance of preservation. Finally, after years of efforts Penn Treaty Park was recognized and registered by Philadelphia Historical Commission.
To Celebrate this important milestone, Penn Treaty Museum organized a ceremony on May 12, 2012 in Penn Treaty Park. Many neighbors and supporters gathered to commemorate this important step in preserving Penn Treaty Park as a Historic Landmark. This place is much more than just a park. It’s more than just “where it all began”. It is a Place of Peace and Harmony, a place of Spirit that lives among us.
Penn Treaty Museum leading the Celebration of the registration of Penn Treaty Park as a Historic Landmark.
Many supporters at the May 12th. Celebration
Behold, my brothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed has awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land. - Tatanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull), Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux
The actual Way of Saint James, el Camino de Santiago
towards the Spanish and Le Chemin de Saint Jacques is actually a 1,000-year old pathway from France to northern Spain.
Millions of pilgrims stepped throughout the years. Some journey by foot, a few cycle bikes as well as some also by horse back. There are a number diverse tracks and beginnings of the trail. The actual walk leads to the town of Santiago de Compostela exactly where the remains of Saint James are laid to rest.
Backpackers walk the trail as a quest and a way of experiencing and uncovering personal life. There are a lot of unique causes for trekking the Camino de Santiago.
Catholics tend to be hiking as a faith based pilgrimage, a journey of amazing christian importance adhering to in the actions of many other pilgrims. Some others tend to be walking for a spiritual magnitude, seeking to restore to discover or …..
It’s Never Too Late to Find The Way
The WAY (taken from Facebook)
“THE WAY” a film on the Camino de Santiago trail.
“THE WAY” delivers numerous messages for those who desire to hear.
It had been created as well as directed by Emilio Estevez, and had been filmed fully in Spain and France alongside the actual Camino de Santiago.
THE WAY is a strong as well as inspirational tale around family, friends and the obstacles all of us encounter while walking this ever-changing and challenging entire world.
Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American physician who arrives to France to recover the remains of his grownup son (performed by Emilio Estevez), who died while trekking the particular Camino de Santiago.
To pay tribute to his son’s wish to complete the trail, Tom makes a decision to embark on the famous pilgrimage.
As many walking the trail, so is Tom, will discover their own personal significance in the journey, and the powerful outcome this trip will have. En route, Tom encounters various other pilgrims from around the globe, each and every one with their individual quest and searching for higher significance within their existence.
Little by little Tom starts to understand exactly what it signifies to be a citizen of the world. Through many unforeseen encounters along “The Way”, Tom learns the actual distinction between:
“The Life we Live and the Life we Choose.”
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Estevez has pointed out in interviews that the film is really a spiritual movie and not a religious one. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post writes that “The Way” rewards are as rich for the secular as for the more spiritually inclined.”
The Galleries at The Gershman Y 401 S. Broad st. Philadelphia, Pa 19147
“Corporeal” & “Trail of Hope”
RECEPTION: – THURSDAY, JANUARY- 19, from 6-8pm
January 6 – February 19, 2012
Alumni artists from The Center for Emerging Visual Artists:
Maria Anasazi, Susan Benarcik, Ava Blitz, Brooke Hine, and Leslie Speicher
Photographs of an amazing walk to Olkahoma: Peter Prusinowski
a.k.a., Image Whisperer
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holydays and a Wonderful New Year!
Every day should be like it is a holiday, being thankful, grateful and spending time with family, and looking with Hope to the future surrounded by Love.
May the true Spirit of the Season find you and fill your heart with health, joy, and abundance of happiness.
We all have different paths in life, but no matter where we go the Spirit of the Holyday brings back the beautiful moments and happy memories wherever we are.
To you and your family; Love, Peace and Amity this Holyday and always.
The principle of goodwill and friendship toward all men laid at the very root of William Penn beliefs.
Well before he left England, he was determined to treat Native Americans as brothers and win their confidence and friendship. It was his deep sense of humanity and conviction that Indians, no less than whites, were entitled to love and respect. Here’s a letter dated October 18, 1681 William Penn sent to the Indians:
“My Friends
There is one great God and power that has made the world and all things therein, to whom you and I and all people owe their being and well being, and to whom you and I must one day give an account for all that we do in this world. This great God has written his law in our hearts, by which we are taught and commanded to love and help and do good to one another, and not to do harm and mischief one unto another. Now this great God has been pleased to make me concerned in your parts of the world, and the king of the country where I live has given unto ma a great province therein, but I desire to enjoy it with your love and consent, that we may always live together as friends, else what would the great God say to us, who has made us not to devour and destroy one another, but to live soberly and kindly together in the world.
Now I would have you well observe, that I am very sensible of the unkindness and injustice that has been too much exercised towards you by the people of these parts of the world, who have sought themselves, and to make great advantages by you, rather than be examples of justice and goodness unto you; which I hear has been matter of trouble to you and caused great grudgings and animosities, sometimes to the shedding of blood, which has made the great God angry.
But I am not such a man, as is well known in my own country. I have great love and regard toward you, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable life; and the people I send are of the same mind, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly. And if in anything any shall offend you or your people, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same by an equal number of honest men on both sides, that by no means you may have just occasion of being offended against them.
I shall shortly come to you myself, at what time we may more largely and freely confer and discourse of these matters. In the meantime, I have sent my commissioners to treat with you about land and a firm league of peace. Let me desire you to be kind to them and the people, and receive these presents and tokens which I have sent to you as a testimony of my good will to you and my resolution to live justly, peaceably, and friendly with you. I am your friend.
Here’s a letter of Wm. Penn to Delaware Indians
and these are exactly my feelings:
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William Penn’s Letter to the Pennsylvania Indians
London, October 18, 1681
*** My Friends——
There is one great God and Power that hath made the world and all things therein, to whom you and I and all People owe their being and well being, and to whom you and I must one Day give an account, for all that we do in this world: this great God hath commanded to love and help and do good to one another and not to do harme and mischeif one unto one an other . . . .
I have great love and regard towards you, and I desire to win and gain your Love and friendship by a kind, just and peaceable life. ***
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——– in the Spirit of Love, Peace, Amity
from the Trail of Hope. – August 12, 2011
Peter Prusinowski. ———-
Almost three years ago, an idea came to me from the depths of my heart. After being involved with the Lenape Indians, Penn Treaty Park and the Penn Treaty Park Museum, I felt a certain connection, uniting my present associations with an understanding in my past. Growing up, I was always inspired by William Penn’s Treaty of Amity and Friendship. I too, wanted to spread the values of love, peace and amity to all walks of life I encountered.
When the idea for the Trail of Hope came to me, I felt that the decision to walk 2,000 miles tracing the migration path of the Lenni-Lenape Indians was already decided for me. My heart showed me a destination and it was up to me to figure out how to get there. I spent two and a half years planning the Trail. I studied maps, learned important Lenape history, and prepared physically and mentally to undertake this journey of a lifetime. Then the day I had been waiting for finally came.
On March 23rd, in the midst of a light drizzle, I began my journey after a special sendoff under the comforting branches of the Great Elm. I happily walked in the rain, 11 miles to Haverford, the home of the oldest and closest living descendent of the Great Elm Tree.
From there I walked westward though Pennsylvania. Almost immediately I encountered snow. My terrain went from rolling hills to intense mountains. The snow gave way to a consistent rain. I began to face the challenging elements that the Lenape also faced on their journey. Despite the elements, I enjoyed visiting various historical sites, forts and battlefields throughout Pennsylvania.
In April I crossed into Ohio where I encountered several “interesting” motels, was nearly killed by an angry man at a bar, and had to walk in the rain almost every day. I spent some time paying my respects at the site of the Gnadenhutten Massacre in Newcomerstown. I explored many small towns and villages along the way. By early May, I had grown a rather wild beard and continued to trek through intense thunderstorms and unrelenting rain.
When I reached Indiana in mid-May, I received a surprise of a lifetime. While walking down a road surrounded by fields, I came face to face with a wolf. At first I feared he might attack me, but gradually my mind and body felt as if a blanket of peace and safety had washed over me. This beast and I gazed into each others eyes until he let out a long mournful howl and we set off in opposite directions. My unique encounter with this beast surprises me to this day.
Near the end of May, I reached the 1,000 mile point. My buddy John Connors flew out to Indiana to share that special milestone with me. Shortly after this milestone, I wasn’t sure if I’d reach another one. As I was heading to Layfayette, Indiana, I got caught in a horrendous storm. The wind could literally lift me off of the ground. I clung to a tree for dear life until a Good Samaritan invited me into his home until the storm had passed.
May rolled into June, I crossed into Indiana and the heat started to rise. Little did I know just how hot the weather could get once I reached the last legs of the Trail. Before I headed to St. Louis Missouri, I was privileged to have another visitor. My daughter, Violet, flew out to walk with me to St. Louis and explore the city for a few days. She helped me get rid of my beard, which was becoming a nuisance in the heat. Her visit came at a great time, for her presence was able to renew my spirit and refresh my soul.
As I walked through the heat in Missouri, I felt called to spread hope in a different way. After some phone calls, I got connected with a church in Joplin, Missouri and was able to spend a week assisting the clean up and recovery process after a devastating tornado leveled the area. The week I spent in Joplin was one of the most fruitful weeks on the Trail. I met so many wonderful people and despite the fact the temperature exceeded 100 degrees almost everyday, I loved every minute I spent there. I found it hard to leave and continue on my way but was grateful and humbled that I was able to lend a small hand in restoring hope in a ravaged community.
The final month and a half on the Trail proved to be the hardest. The sun shone down brightly each and every day, bringing crippling heat and humidity. I would set out at 6am and by 10am my water was as hot as tea. My mind stopped working, my legs didn’t want to move forward, and at times I’d walk 30 miles in these conditions just to reach my motel for the night. The terrain was made up of endless stretches of land and fields with little civilization in between.
By the end of July I had crossed into Kansas. I visited the Shawnee Indian Mission and the Haskell Indian Nations University. My walks began at 3am and ended mid to late in the day. It was all I could do to survive the dangerously hot conditions.
Now I am within days of walking to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Four and a half months and 2,000 miles later, the Trail of Hope is coming to a close. I’m honored that this idea came to me and I could pay tribute to the Lenape Indians. I am grateful that I could share the Trail with everyone I met along the way and spread hope to all different walks of life. I hope that today, different cultures can live in peace together and that my Trail has lit a flame of hope in the hearts of those I encountered.
Ignoring the service of Delaware and Shawnee to the Union, the Kansas legislature in 1863 called for the removal of all Indians from Kansas.
On July 4th, 1866 the Delaware signed their final treaty with the United States which allowed the Secretary of the Interior to sell their remaining Kansas lands to the Missouri River Railroad Company.
Individual Delaware, if they wished, could keep their 80 acre allotments and become American citizens, but in a situation reminiscent of the burnings in the Wyoming Valley in 1763, the Delaware Council House mysteriously burned afterwards. Most Delaware took the “hint,” and of the 1,160 Delaware in Kansas, 985 of them decided to move to Oklahoma.
The main body of Lenape arrived in the northeast region of Oklahoma in the 1860s. Along the way many smaller groups left, or were told to stay where they were. Consequently today, from New Jersey to Wisconsin to southwest Oklahoma, there are groups who retain a sense of connection with ancestors who lived in the Delaware Valley in the 17th century and with cousins in the Lenape diaspora.
The two largest groups are the Delaware Nation (Anadarko, Oklahoma), and the Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville, Oklahoma), the only two federally recognized Lenape (Delaware) tribes in the United States.
The Oklahoma branches were established in 1867.
The Delaware were required to purchase land from the reservation of the Cherokee Nation; they made two payments totaling $438,000.
A court dispute followed over whether the sale included rights for the Delaware as citizens within the Cherokee Nation.
While the dispute was unsettled, the Curtis Act of 1898 dissolved tribal governments and ordered the allotment of tribal lands to individual members of tribes. After the lands were allotted in 160-acre (650,000 m²) lots to tribal members in 1907, the government sold “surplus” land to non-Indians. It soon became obvious that the land was not suitable for subsistence farming on such small plots.
In 1979, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs revoked the tribal status of the Delaware living among Cherokee in Oklahoma.
They began to count the Delaware as Cherokee. The Delaware had this decision overturned in 1996, when they were recognized by the federal government as a separate tribal nation.
The Cherokee Nation filed suit to overturn the recognition of the Delaware. The tribe lost federal recognition in a 2004 court ruling in favor of the Cherokee Nation, but regained it on 28 July 2009.
After recognition, the tribe reorganized under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. Members approved a constitution and bylaws in a May 26, 2009 vote.
At the end of our lives there are only two things that will matter: the actions we took while alive and the difference that we made in the world. During our lifetime we are obsessed and fascinated without thoughts, dreams, and aspirations. Sometimes we even spend our whole life dreaming without acting upon these powerful ambitions. For in the end, the only thing that will matter is the dreams where were accomplished, not the dreams which were thought about.
During life, we are offended and we offend other people. We want to prove we are right and that others are wrong. We sometimes hurt others and we have most certainly been hurt as well. Many of us keep pretending that our existence is a never ending game. Especially when we are younger, we don’t consider the fact that life will come to an end. We believe we have ample time and ample chances to become the person we hope to be.
We make goals, we plan to do great things, we dream of extraordinary and even imaginary things and we live and breathe the thought that one day, some day we’ll do these things. But for most of us, that day will never come. We spend our lives planning to perfect ourselves and our existence yet we do not take time to put the plans into action. We tend to be content with plans and goals, knowing we will always have something to strive towards, even if we never take the first steps to do so.
The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to. If you are passionate about this task, than most of the time it will benefit humankind. You will change a heart, spread a message, inspire a soul or create a destiny. We can own our lives instead of pretending that our lives belong to fate. The only way to take ownership over our very beings is to combine motivation, willpower and aspiration to become what we were meant to be and live life hard and fully.
When that day comes and we leave this world, we will be at peace knowing that we lived everyday as if it were our last and we kindled every passionate fire that life has to offer.
