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As one of the oldest cities in the nation, Philadelphia offers a rich collection of Indigenous culture, art, artifacts, historical lands and sacred legends.
The sites and stories from the region’s long (and often complicated) relationship with the Lenape dot the landscape and can be explored through area museums and public art, at historic sites and battlefields, and among the 14,000 Philadelphians of Indigenous ancestry.
The Lenape are the Indigenous people of the lands we now call Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and parts of New York for countless generations.
Today’s federally recognized Lenape (aka Delaware) tribal nations are: Delaware Nation (Anadarko Oklahoma), Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville Oklahoma), the Stockbridge Munsee Community (Bowler Wisconsin), and the Munsee Delaware Nation and Eelūnaapèewii Lahkèewiit (Delaware Nation at Moraviantown), both in Ontario Canada.
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As a result of centuries of colonial violence, broken treaties and dispossessions, the Lenape were historically forced from their homelands, causing their tribal governments and the majority of Lenape citizens to be relocated outside of their ancestral homelands.
However, the Lenape exist as sovereign nations today and maintain significant relationships with their homelands.
Before William Penn founded Philadelphia in the early 1680s, before the British took control in 1664, and before Swedish and Finnish colonists arrived in the area in 1623, the region that is now Philadelphia was part of the ancestral homeland of the Lenape peoples (whom Europeans called the Delaware) since time immemorial.
By the 1680s, Sakimauchheen Ing — referred to as Shackamaxon by colonists and located in what are now Philadelphia’s River Wards neighborhoods of Fishtown, Kensington and Port Richmond — was an important village to the Lenape people, a key location in their territory along the Delaware River watershed. It was at Shackamaxon (fittingly a Lenape term meaning “a place where chiefs meet”) in the early 1680s (the exact year is debated) where William Penn and local Lenape sakima Tamanend signed a formal agreement to live in perpetual peace, under an ancient elm tree in modern-day Penn Treaty Park.
What was meant to be a peaceful relationship later turned into a time of broken accords, forced migrations and sham agreements. The most egregious aggression: the Walking Purchase of 1737, when Penn’s heirs swindled over 1 million acres from the Lenape through a land grab disguised as a deceitful treaty. Historical markers throughout Bucks County denote important sites of that deception, though they are largely void of the Lenape’s perspective, primarily focusing on the colonialists’ viewpoint. (More on those below.)
Decades later, the region’s Indigenous peoples fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War. Some allied with the British to protect their culture and curtail land encroachment, while others supported the colonists over personal beliefs, important relationships and British exploitation. (Visitors can learn more about this at the Museum of the American Revolution.)
One such example of exploitative behavior during the Revolutionary War is events that followed the Treaty of Fort Pitt, signed on September 17, 1778. It was the first treaty between the newly formed United States and the Tribal Nation, particularly the Delaware/Lenape people. After helping America win the war, they were promised protection, trade goods, representation in U.S. Congress and a sovereign state in the new nation. The U.S. did not hold up its end of the deal.
Today, these stories of allyships, conflicts and culture come to life at sites like Valley Forge National Historical Park and the Museum of the American Revolution, and during events around Indigenous Peoples Day (October) and National Native American Heritage Month (November). Visitors to the region can view public art like the towering Tamanend statue and explore Indigenous artwork and study important artifacts (including the wampum belt presented to William Penn at Shackamaxon) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The spirit of the region’s Indigenous culture and history is integral to and bonded with the country’s post-Revolutionary culture and history.
Below, find our guide on where to experience Indigenous culture and history today at museums, galleries, businesses and more in Greater Philadelphia. The historic preservation offices of the federally recognized Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians were consulted on the suggested locations.
At the intersection of Front and Market streets in Old City is the towering 21-foot-tall statue of Tamanend. The artwork depicts the eponymous chief — the venerable Lenape leader who welcomed William Penn and signed the region’s first land agreement — atop a turtle, while an eagle carrying a wampum belt sits perched on his shoulder.
The statue of the chief known as “the Affable One” was constructed by artist Raymond Sandoval from bronze and schist and dedicated in 1995. Tamanend faces the statue of William Penn atop Philadelphia City Hall.
Where: Tamanend, 2 N. Front Street, Philadelphia, PA
The Association for Public Art provides walking tours and information for public art throughout the city, with numerous works of art with Indigenous themes, including:
Where: Swann Memorial Fountain, Logan Square, Philadelphia, PA
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Stone Age in America, Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA
Located along the Delaware River banks in Bucks County is William Penn’s 43-acre estate, the first parcel of land he obtained from the Lenape on July 5, 1682. This included the future site of his home, Pennsbury Manor. (Note that the home is a reconstruction from the 1930s.)
Today, visitors are welcome to experience the estate’s gardens, guided tours and farm animals. Plus, the site hosts cultural and educational programming and events open to the public, which feature stories of the servants, colonists, enslaved individuals and Lenape people who once inhabited the land.
Where: Pennsbury Manor, 400 Pennsbury Memorial Road, Morrisville, PA
Before shaking hands over the famous Treaty of Shackamaxon, William Penn’s representatives and Lenape leaders first met in present-day Morrisville, Bucks County to negotiate Pennsylvania’s original land-purchase survey.
That event is honored at Graystones, a memorial at Crown Street and Highland Avenue consisting of a large rock display marking the site of the agreement signed under a long-gone oak tree and the entrance to six acres of Graystones Forest preserved woods.
Situated in a grassy median surrounded by a quiet residential neighborhood, the site features a bronze plaque accompanying the 20-foot high outcropping of gray bedrock protruding from the ground.
Where: Graystones, 840 Highland Avenue, Morrisville, PA
The contributions of Indigenous peoples serving in the Continental Army during the Valley Forge encampment are remembered among the exhibits across Valley Forge National Historical Park.
These allyships from tribes across the colonies are celebrated in the park film Unsung Heroes of Valley Forge, which tells their oft-overlooked story within the well-known main narrative.
Where: Valley Forge National Historical Park, 1400 N. Outer Line Drive, King of Prussia, PA
Battlefield enthusiasts shouldn’t miss the Battle of Barren Hill site, where 50 Oneida and Tuscarora warriors fought alongside a rebel reconnaissance force, losing six Oneida soldiers in the skirmish, who were then buried at nearby St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.
A historical marker can be found outside the church here.
Where: St. Peter's Lutheran Church, 3025 Church Road, Lafayette Hill, PA
While it seemed William Penn strived for peace with and respect for the local Lenape nation, his sons did not follow suit after Penn’s death. See: the infamous 1737 Walking Purchase for 1.2 million acres of land. Although it was historically considered a treaty, it was not a fair agreement.
Pennsylvania proprietors and Penn’s sons presented a misleading document to the Lenape leaders, falsely claiming that Penn already owned a parcel of land that they desired to seize.
The difficult history of the Walking Purchase land and its associated agreements can be explored by uncovering historical markers throughout Bucks County in Springtown, Ottsville, Wrightstown and Washington Crossing. Many of the markers, however, problematically exclude the Lenape perspective.
Where: Various locations including 8007 Easton Road, Ottsville, PA
The handshakes that finalized the Walking Purchase land grab occurred at the Stenton house in Germantown in 1737, where the duplicitous land agreement’s last negotiations between the plotting Penns and unsuspecting Lenape representatives were held.
The plantation-turned-museum once belonged to James Logan — William Penn’s former secretary, future Philadelphia mayor and namesake of Center City’s Logan Square — and is a surviving example of early Georgian-style architecture.
It houses Logan’s 2,700-volume library used for research by revolutionaries like Benjamin Franklin and John Bartram.
Where: Stenton, 4601 N. 18th Street, Philadelphia, PA
Henry Chapman Mercer — a prominent archaeologist, anthropologist and ceramist — founded Bucks County’s Mercer Museum to house his incredible collection of pre-industrial tools, early manual technologies and crafts related to American life before mechanization.
Among his 40,000-piece collection are numerous Indigenous artifacts dating back to between 6,000 and 8,000 B.C.
Where: Mercer Museum, 84 S. Pine Street, Doylestown, PA
During the Revolutionary War, Indigenous peoples allied themselves with forces on both sides of the conflict. These often-overlooked contributions, conflicts and preservation efforts involving over 80 different precolonial nations are celebrated at the Museum of the American Revolution in a self-guided tour entitled The People Between: Native Americans in a Revolutionary Era.
The collection includes art, exhibits and historical pieces, including The People Between case exploring how Indigenous peoples viewed the independence movement, immersive presentations in the Oneida Nation Theater, and displays on Seneca leader Ki-On-Twog-Ky (Cornplanter) and Oneida warrior Thaonawyuthe (Chainbreaker).
Where: Museum of the American Revolution, 101 S. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
The Philadelphia Art Museum is renowned for its incredible works from masters like Rodin, Cézanne and Dalí. (Also: the Rocky Steps.) The museum also features the Early American Galleries collection, which tells the story of Philadelphia as the young nation’s cultural capital, including how Black, Indigenous and Latin American artists contributed to the development of American art.
The 10,000-square-foot space for the Early American Galleries has been part of the art museum’s ongoing renovations, with galleries 202-218 closed through spring 2026.
Where: Philadelphia Art Museum, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
Coming to The Penn Museum on November 22, 2025: a brand-new Native North America gallery.
The 2,000-square-foot interactive exhibition features more than 250 items from the museum’s historic North American collections, alongside contemporary Native art pieces.
The museum worked in partnership with eight Indigenous consulting curators to develop the new exhibit space that shares the complex histories of Native peoples in early America.
Where: Penn Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA
The famous Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 to 1806 is retold through an Indigenous lens in Botany of Nations, a brand-new exhibit running from March 28 to September 13, 2026 at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
The exhibition — timed to coincide with the nation’s 250th anniversary — focuses on plants, which act as portals to under-shared stories, cultures and sciences of the Indigenous people who Lewis and Clark met on their journey.
The exhibit blends botany (the study of plants) with ethnobotany (the study of how people use plants) to reshape the way we interpret the colonial journey — not as something “discovered” but as an interaction with cultures and traditions with long, rich lineages.
Where: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
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