The Pike County Historical Society is opening a new permanent exhibit, “The Lenape, Original People, Reconciling the Past, Embracing the Future,” at the Columns Museum in Milford. The exhibit will open on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 1 pm.
The exhibit is the result of a five-year collaboration between the Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Delaware Nation and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community (the three federally recognized Lenape tribes) in partnership with Milford Borough, descendants of the family of Tom Quick and the Pike County Historical Society.
The exhibit tells the story of the Lenape Indians, the indigenous people of the region, from the pre-Colonial era through today. The exhibit addresses, among others topics, the forced relocation of the tribes, the legend of Tom Quick (the so-called “Indian Slayer of the Delaware”) and the Walking Purchase Treaty, a land swindle perpetrated on the Lenape that includes part of Pike County.
“We are proud to be able to tell this important part of Pike County’s history,” said Lori Strelecki, the Columns Museum curator. “The fact that the exhibit was created in partnership with the Lenape tribes, the Quick family and the Borough makes it especially meaningful.”
Brad Kill’s Crow, Chief of the Anadarko, Oklahoma-based Delaware Tribe of Indians, said “We have not vanished or even diminished as a People. We are, however, far from the hearts and minds of the people of Pike County and the Borough of Milford. Over 1,300 miles, in fact, due to the United States Indian removal policies. The removal from our Homelands still hurts our hearts today. We hope this exhibit will remind people that we are still here today — the Original People of Pike County.”
For 100 years, a zinc obelisk honoring Tom Quick was displayed as a point of pride in Milford Borough. In 1999, the…
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