Tribal leaders are showing opposition to the proposed plan to move a statue of a prominent Native American chief in Philadelphia, writes Jesse O’Neill for the New York Post.

The statue of Chief Tamanend, who signed a peace treaty with William Penn in 1682, currently sits on an I-95 exit ramp that leads into Old City.

However, the National Park Service wants to move it to Tamanend Square, part of a revamping of Market Street, two blocks away from its current location.

Some Native American leaders are speaking out against the move.

“After 300-plus years of forced removal, it just seems as if it’s just another metaphoric forced removal from an area of our own land,” Jeremy Johnson, cultural education director of the federally recognized Delaware Tribe of Indians in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, said. 

Ultimately, Johnson noted that he and other leaders are tired of moving. 

Officials plan to have Tamanend Square anchored by the statue and connected to existing parkland and a redesigned corridor.

Stakeholders believe moving the statue to that location would allow it to be more easily appreciated.

Read more about the plans to move the Chief Tamanend statue from its location and why there is opposition at the New York Post.

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