Sculptor honors roots with Lanape Diaspora Memorial

Chris Crook, Zanesville Times Recorder
·3 min read
Sculptor Alan Cottrill talks about the models for the Lenape Diaspora Memorial in Newcomerstown on display in his Zanesville studio.
Sculptor Alan Cottrill talks about the models for the Lenape Diaspora Memorial in Newcomerstown on display in his Zanesville studio.

ZANESVILLE — Six figures, bathed in golden afternoon light rest on a table in sculptor Alan Cottrill's Zanesville studio. They represent one of the most personal projects of the artist to date.

The figures, about 18 inches tall, are models for a larger project planned for downtown Newcomerstown called the Lenape Diaspora Memorial. Cottrill is related to each of the figures represented, having traced his family tree back more than 300 years.

The figures tell the story of the Lenape, or Delaware tribe of Native Americans. Pushed out of their original home in the Mid-Atlantic region, they continued to relocate as white settlers pushed them further west. Eventually, around 1759, they settled in Newcomerstown, known as Gekelmukpechunk to the Lenape.

The six statues will stand seven feet tall and represent some of the most important figures in Lenape history. First is Chief Tamanend (1625-1701), who signed treaties with William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. Both believed the natives and the white settlers could coexist in peace.

Tamanend's son, Chief Nutimus (1650-1756), signed the notorious Walking Purchase treaty, which pushed the tribe away from the Delaware River valley between modern day Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Nutimus' son, Chief Netawatwees (1686-1776), moved the tribe to modern day Ohio, settling at both Newcomerstown and Coshocton.

Bemino “John Killbuck Sr." (1704-1779), Netawatwees' son, aligned the tribe with the French during the French and Indian War, fighting mostly in eastern West Virginia.

Miatoka Nyeswanon (1740-1779) was Bemino's daughter. She married John Schoolcraft and had several children, including Jacob Schoolcraft (1761-1850). Schoolcraft was captured by another tribe during a raid. He escaped four years later.

As part of his family's oral history, Cottrill always heard Jacob Schoolcraft married an Indian princess. Miatoka was the daughter of Bemino, who was known as the King of the Delaware by white settlers despite the fact the Delaware had no royalty. Thus, Miatoka would have been a princess.

The completed clay bust of Tamanend stands in sculptor Alan Cottrill's Zanesville studio. When cast in bronze, a seven-foot-tall statue of Tamanend will be part of the Lenape Diaspora Monument in Newcomerstown.
The completed clay bust of Tamanend stands in sculptor Alan Cottrill's Zanesville studio. When cast in bronze, a seven-foot-tall statue of Tamanend will be part of the Lenape Diaspora Monument in Newcomerstown.

Miatoka married an American and the family settled near Buchanan in what is new West Virginia. She and 10 of her 14 children were killed in a series of Indian raids and Jacob was captured. "Fortunately for me, he and his brother Simon escaped," Cottrill said. Schoolcraft's granddaughter married Cottrill's great-grandfather, Henry.

Cottrill remembers finding arrowheads while wandering the fields and woods around Zanesville growing up, and reading every book he could find on Native Americans. "I felt a connection," he said. "I'd pick something up and think 'somebody made this thousands of years ago.'"

Cottrill said the timing for the memorial is fitting. "At this point in time we have all these Confederate statues coming down, the oppressors, but here we are putting one up to the oppressed."

The monument will be placed in a grassy lot near the Temperance Tavern Museum on West Canal Street in downtown Newcomerstown. In addition to the figures, 20 bronze plaques will detail both the history of each figure and that of the Lenape people.

The Newcomerstown Historical Society had been thinking of ways to honor the Lenape for many years, said Harley Dakin, the society's vice president. "Netawatwees was the founder of our town, so this helps us pay homage to him."

It will also clear up some misconceptions about where the village got its name, he said, including stories once published in the front of the phonebook linking the town to Mary Harris, an early settler in the Coshocton area, and whom Whitewoman Street in Roscoe Village was named after. "We are going to dispel a lot of those inaccuracies," he said.

Dakin said the project has started attracting donations, including one from as far away as Massachusetts. "We have gotten a lot of attention," he said.

Fundraising for the $584,000 project has begun under the auspices of The Newcomerstown Historical Society. To donate, send a check to Park National Bank 220 East State St. Newcomerstown OH 43832. Add account number 8454 in the check's note line.

ccrook@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Sculptor honors roots with Lanape Diaspora Memorial