Day of Remembrance

Starts at 9 a.m. Contact John Heil, Gnadenhutten Museum Curator at 330-691-1474 or email gnadmuse@tusco.net

John Heil, in his last year as coordinator of the Gnadenhutten Museum, is looking forward to a large crowd at their first event of 2022, Day of Remembrance, an event to honor the memory of the 96 Christian Delaware Native Americans who were killed March 8, 1782, by the Pennsylvania militia.

The site is located at 352 S. Cherry St. and is operated by the Gnadenhutten Historical Society.

Because the museum is developing more ties to the Delaware and Munsee people, additional representatives of the tribe will attend the event, and Heil looks forward to having more of their influence at events.

“Right now we have quite a group coming. There are several different clans,” Heil said.

Heil expects representatives from Oklahoma, Missouri, Wisconsin, Canada and more to be at the Day of Remembrance.

There also will be a firestarter there to tend to a ceremonial fire they’ll keep burning all day. The event will start at 9 a.m. on March 8 at the burial mound at the Gnadenhutten Historical Park with a public observance. The program will open with a prayer in Lenape and will feature speakers from the Delaware Lenape Tribe and others from Tuscarawas County.

The final program is still in flux due to the pandemic. They are hoping to have enough Delaware representatives to sing “Amazing Grace” in Lenape