Ray Booth | Special to The Times-Reporter
NEWCOMERSTOWN − Chief Netawatwees may have died in 1776, but he continues to attract visitors to the village.
Lenape tribe members from Oklahoma and Canada recently visited the Lenape Diaspora Memorial being constructed outside the Temperance Tavern Museum on Canal Street. Chief Netawatwees, who was the head of the Lenape in the region, is the first of six sculptures to be built by renowned sculptor Alan Cottrill at the site.
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Theresa Johnson vowed to come back to pay homage to her Lenape heritage.
“I am from Eelunaapeewii Lahkaawiit, which was or is still called Moraviantown in Ontario, Canada,” she said. “I worked on my family tree for many years and in 2016 we started on a road trip to visit the places where my ancestors lived.
“In 2016, I came to Gnadenhutten, Ohio, and met John Heil of Gnadenhutten, who encouraged me to find out more and keep coming. It was after that I found out we had so many ancestors who lived in this area. I haven’t spent more than a day or two at at a time here in the area, but there is so much to see.”
Harley Dakin of the Newcomerstown Historical Society, which is leading the project, said, “It was a pleasure to meet so many leaders of the Lenape and to have them visit our museum. We are proud of our connection to the Lenape through our founding father, Netawatwees. We appreciate the visit and the opportunity to showcase a portion of the long term project to create a memorial to the Delaware Indians as a whole.”
Johnson said her heritage is from the Lenape/Mohican/Oneida.
“We do have people who have visited the area that descend from Netawatwees, Captain Pipe, and many others, although…
