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Philadelphia celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day at Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown on Monday, marking the 10th year of growing festivity and connection.
City Council first recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2011, originally observing it on the first Saturday in October. Since then, Council has passed resolutions almost every year honoring Indigenous communities and their contributions, including in 2023, 2024 and this year. The resolutions recognize the holiday without permanently establishing it in city law.
In 2021, then-Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an official city holiday. However, a state appeals court ruled in 2025 that only City Council had the authority to make that change. The city’s holiday calendar now lists both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day, as advocates push Council to pass a law permanently establishing the latter.
A campaign organizer with Indigenous Peoples’ Day Philly, Carolin Mejia, made it clear that their organization wasn’t pushing to move Columbus Day but wanted concrete yearly recognition of Philadelphia’s original people.
“People want to see the history and continued culture and impact of the indigenous people who’ve called this land home for thousands of years,” said Mejia.
That history and culture were quite literally on display at Penn Treaty Park Monday. Around the park’s field was a circle of vendor and educational booths representing five Lenape (Delaware) tribal nations or communities, along with other Native peoples. At one end of the vendor circle was a stage where indigenous song, dance and language were taught and performed. Such public displays were once restricted by the federal government, which banned certain Indigenous ceremonial dances in 1883, restrictions that remained in place until 1934.
The Lenape, whose ancestral homeland includes Philadelphia, historically lived in numerous communities throughout the region. Today, five major recognized Lenape tribal nations and First Nations communities are based in Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada, following centuries of displacement.
Tonya Anna, of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, came down to Philadelphia from Oklahoma for her third Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Philadelphia, returning to her people’s homeland. This year was her first time driving to Philadelphia for the celebration; Anna said she took the same route her ancestors took when they were forced off the land hundreds of years ago.
“I was trying to imagine the detours, the obstacles that they encounter in their journey from here all the way out there,” said Anna. “They froze to death. There was starvation, all that, and so it was heartbreaking. But then when I got here this morning, when I pulled in, it turned into a blessing because I’m back on the same ground that my ancestors were born on and they danced on and they cooked on. It’s full circle, and it all comes together.”
Penn Treaty Park holds particular significance to Philadelphia’s Indigenous history. According to tradition, William Penn and Lenape leaders met at the site in 1682 and agreed to live peacefully alongside one another. While historians debate whether the meeting occurred exactly as described, the park has become a symbol of early relations between European settlers and the Lenape, whose ancestral lands included present-day Philadelphia.
By returning to the park each year to celebrate, Indigenous attendees can connect with people who share their ancestors. Sonya Hough, another member of the Delaware Tribe who grew up on a reservation in Oklahoma and now lives in Chester County, ran the Delaware Tribe booth with Anna on Monday.
“I think about my grandparents who were Lenape, and they never got to come back to the homeland,” said Hough. “So much of our culture is around this land here on the East Coast and how nourishing it is, and in Oklahoma, where we end up being forced, I don’t wanna say it’s barren, but it can be very barren.”
It’s been 160 years since the Delaware Tribe moved to Oklahoma in 1866. In Philadelphia, the fight to recognize those people, Philadelphia’s original people, continues in City Hall. But in Penn Treaty Park on Oct. 12, the skies cleared after a rainy weekend, and members of the tribe could come home and reconnect with the land their ancestors lived and breathed on so long ago.
“We’re not extinct,” said Janis Stacy, a descendant of the Dakota and Cherokee nation. “If we can make this a living event where they can teach about the history, we actually keep people alive.”
Among the lessons shared that day, one stood out for its simplicity: learning to say “thank you” in Lenape. The Delaware Tribe’s word is Wanìshi (WAH-nee-shee).
