EASTON, Pa. — Terri Windtalker Clah stepped into Scott Park Tuesday morning with a small cluster of friends, playing Indigenous drums and other instruments as they approached the stage.
She had been on the road since early May, traversing state after state in a mission of healing and connection with Native peoples across the country.
And on this morning in Easton, the location of the infamous Walking Treaty, Clah was ready to raise awareness of Native history, and promote a mission of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Clah, a Navajo Nation member from Shiprock, New Mexico, is a passionate member of the march, carrying along with her a wooden staff striped with colored ropes that has seen people across the country pray for reconciliation and unity over it.
“We have traveled through ten states, and Pennsylvania is the 11th state, and we have been carrying the glory of God, of forgiveness, repentance, healing, reconciliation, restoration,” Clah said.
“Those are our seeds that we are sowing in the land as we cross over to state to state, and I'm just thankful for all the coordinators that had stepped up and offered their talents and their gifting to help make Moccasins Across America happen with their leadership and with their calling. We thank you for their sacrifice. We thank him for their dedication and commitment to this.”
The meeting in the city's park was but one stop along Moccasins Across America, which Clah started on the San Pasqual reservation in California on May 3, venturing through the country, with an anticipated end set for Oct. 3 in Washington, D.C.
Along the way, Clah said, she and her group met with First Nations people and many others, carrying a message that the wrongs committed against those people could be made right.
“We're finding such people along this trail that never heard of the reconciliation movement, forgiveness across the land, and we have been honored and blessed to meet them,” Clah said.
“They are coming out of the woodwork when they hear our drums, our sound, as we carry the good news downtown, and we worship and we make joyful noise, and we just dance our prayers.”
On Tuesday in Scott Park, passersby could hear those same chants, drums, and calls as Clah and her crew danced in the park, celebrating a sense of healing.
Curious pedestrians stopped by, engaging with Clah and her companions, asking questions, and learning about the wrongs committed, and the voyage's mission to bring peace through healing and unity.
Pastor Peter Smith gave a brief overview of the Walking Purchase, and how the city and its grounds should serve as a place of healing which could spread even further.
In 1737, William Penn’s sons, John and Thomas, signed an agreement with the Lenape people in which the tribe would honor a supposed deed entitling the Penn family to the land.
In the agreement, it was stated that the distance traveled by a man in a day and a half would fall under the Penn’s control, with the Indigenous people estimating it would amount to about 40 miles.
However, a provincial secretary hired three of the fastest runners in the colony to increase the boundaries of the land. In the end, one runner was able to reach modern day Jim Thorpe, about 70 miles from the starting point in Bucks County.
“We want to see this city being a shining light on a hill and being the eastern gate of the state of Pennsylvania into New Jersey and New York, that this would be an amazing city, that people would say, ‘This is a place where restoration begins,’” Smith said.
“This is a city where healing begins. And we want to pray for every people group, for every nation, that no matter what minority group that you're connected with, that you would know that that you are welcome here.”
Mayor Sal Panto Jr., a former history teacher, spoke about the numerous tribes that congregated in Easton over the centuries, and the injustices done to them by settlers over that time.
“Unfortunately, not all history is good. Not all history is good, but we don't wipe it out. We remember what we did to the Native Americans,” Panto said, adding he would like to see a monument dedicated to the Lenni Lenape in Easton before he retires from government.
Steve TravelingEagle Fisher spoke on a recent powwow at Mauch Chunk State Park, where he was able to convene with his group and speak, congregate, and engage in intertribal dancing – just one example of the incredible healing journey he said he had been on, and one he hopes to continue.
“My heritage is Osage from Kansas. Windtalker and I were brought together about four years ago, when the creators gave a special vision passion for this walk," Fisher said. "And I've been so honored to be participating in this Moccasins Across America. We've had so many special situations and experiences.”
