Trail of Hope Trekker Celebrates Anniversary on Campus

Last weekend, to celebrate the first anniversary of his Philadelphia-to-Oklahoma Trail of Peace walk, which stopped on campus last year, Peter Prusinowski returned to Haverford to gather people under the Penn Treaty Elm for a reading, a Native American peace dance and the planting of a new peace elm.

This time last year, history buff and photographer Peter Prusinowski walked all the way from Philadelphia to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to commemorate the Lenape Indian’s forced migration more than 150 years ago. The 2000-mile journey took more than five months and was chronicled on his blog.
The first leg of his walk brought him to Haverford’s campus to visit our Penn Treaty Elm, the longest-surviving direct descendant the original tree under which William Penn and Lenapi Chief Tamanend signed their Treaty of Friendship in 1692. And on Saturday, March 24, Prusinowski returned to campus to celebrate the first anniversary of his trek, whose aim was to spread Penn’s message of peace and brotherly love.

(From left) John Conners from the Penn Treaty Virtual Museum, Arboretum Director Bill Astifan and Peter Prusinowski.

 
On this visit he retraced the 11-mile walk from Penn Treaty Park in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood, where the Penn Treaty Elm once stood. After arriving at Haverford, Prusinowski once again gathered people under our own Penn Treaty Elm for a reading, a Native American peace dance and the planting of a new peace elm on campus.
Planting the Peace Elm

 
Barbara "Bluejay" Michalski of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania under the Penn Treaty Elm.