TO: 

Hon. Eric Adams, Mayor; 

Hon. Carmen de la Rosa, Councilwoman of District 10; 

Katherine Diaz, Chairperson, Community Board 12;

Sue Donoghue, NYC Parks Commissioner;

Sreoshy Banerjea, Executive Director of the NYC Public Arts Commission

As signers of this petition, we are asking you to remove the plaque on the Shorakapkok Rock in Inwood Hill Park and replace it with a plaque written by the leadership council of the Delaware Nation. 

Since it was installed in 1954, the current plaque has told visitors to the park a false history of Manhattan, perpetuating the colonial violence that created it. In one sentence, the plaque says that on the place where it stands - once a Lenape gathering place called Shorakapkok - a Dutchman named Peter Minuit “bought” all of Manhattan Island from the Lenape in 1626 for some “trinkets and beads.” The rest of the plaque discusses a commemorative tree which was planted on the site. 

This story erases the truth that, according to Lenape historians and other scholars, the exchange between Peter Minuit and the Lenape was not a business transaction but a ceremony welcoming the strangers to stay in Lenape territory until the time they needed to return home. It ignores the fact that the Lenape, unlike the Dutch, did not conceive of land as a commodity that could be owned and exchanged. It avoids the fact that the Europeans’ 400+ year stay in Lenape territory has never been consensual. It paints the Lenape as ignorant, unaware of their land’s value, and unable to develop it, and thus undeserving to keep it. It stays silent about the murder and displacement of entire Lenape communities to reservations as far as Oklahoma and Canada to make space for settlers.

For visitors who read the plaque when they walk into the Forest, it only serves to mislead, reinforcing harmful stereotypes and a false justification for the European settlement of Manhattan. For Indigenous folks and others who have studied the history of this land, residents and visitors alike, the plaque stands as a daily reminder of the violence, deceit, willful miscommunication, brazen entitlement, and white supremacy that have shaped this nation.

The people who occupy the Lenape territory now known as New York City need a new memorial to honor Lenape history and their stewardship of the land. We need a new plaque that tells this history from the Lenape perspective, written by the descendants of the people who were betrayed by Peter Minuit. Delaware Nation's Historic Preservation Office is supportive of and willing to consult on creating new signage for this memorial.

This plaque is one of the few - possibly the only - public, city-approved memorial that mentions the Lenape by name. We have an obligation to our ancestors and to the coming generations to set the story right. 

We thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

(CHANGE.ORG will ask for donations after signing. PLEASE DON'T DONATE. That money does not reach us or help promote this petition.)