Penn Treaty Park Speech

The Indigenous site in Philadelphia that I chose to travel to was Penn Treaty Park. When I was much younger my mother took my brother and I to that park to ride our bikes. However, this time I had a different vendetta and the park was significantly more important. One of the first things I noticed when I walked into the park was a statue of William Penn. Surrounding his statue was a multitude of plaques with different types of scripture on them. One that caught my eye explained the history and importance of Penn Treaty Park. It explained that the treaty was made between William Penn and the Delaware Valley Indians in 1682. It is said that they made the peace treaty under an elm tree called, “The Great Elm of Shackamaxon.” While there I was
For example the elements; the sun, water, wind. The same could be said for the grasses of the park, which lead me to think of one of Layli Long Soldier poems in her book Whereas. Long Soldier talks about grasses when she says, “Myself I paddle deep in high grass waves I’m safer outside than in / in house” (pg. 31). This quote helped me to reflect the feeling of the park, both in present and past tense. I assume that centuries ago the original inhabitants of the Delaware Valley River felt safer in their lands. That is a similar way to how people feel when they are in parks, most people come to parks to relax or forget the difficulty of life. However, at the same time the poem, “Steady Summer”, can also be seen as a contradiction. This rebuttal can be made when Long Soldier writes, “Potent grass songs a grass chorus moves shhhhh” (pg. 31). The onomatopoeia of “shhhhh” that Long Soldier used in her poem helped me to see that it is in fact contradictory. In the poem the grass silences that of any other noises through its song, but in the park the grass seemed to be silenced from mowing and
This connection was made prominent to me when she says, “The solemn covenant with the land we share” (pg. 89). I chose this particular quote and poem because it had a similar message to that in the park. While observing my surroundings in the site, I realized that there was an American flag with a plaque underneath of it. After examining the flag I tried to decipher the red loopy script on the clear plaque. It read, “As long as the creeks and rivers flow, and the sun, moon and stars endure”. I believe that there is a relationship between Long Soldier’s poem and the script on the plaque have a similar message. I feel as though they both are indicating that we both share the land now and that it is now our duty to protect and share