Pottstown police officers donate benches to Native American site

POTTSTOWN >> Those visiting a Native American memorial down near the Schuylkill River will now have a place to sit thanks to the Pottstown Police Officer’s Association.

Taking advantage of some unseasonably warm weather after a cold snap, more than half a dozen officers helped to install two benches they had constructed for the purpose.

They were built by Eric Boysen of Brownstone Woodworking, who is a friend of Pottstown Police Detective Heather Long, who is also the president of the PPOA.

“I was at the meeting where Ron Williams came to council and said he had been trying to get Mascaro to donate money to pay for the benches and I thought, ‘we can do that,’” said Long, who was the Officer of the Year in 2015.

Williams, who has just returned from a mission of mercy, bringing winter coats and Christmas toys to needy residents of the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota, was effusive in his thanks.

“I hope to build a meditation circle here as well and people can gather to do some story-telling,” said Williams, who is one of the prime organizers of the annual PowWow on Manatawny Creek in Memorial Park, now in its sixth year.

The site was marked by a large stone in 2000 at a spot where an 1859 construction crew uncovered a Native American burial ground.

Williams said one of the bodies uncovered was of a man who was “very welldressed with intricate jewelry and his flintlock rifle and was obviously a person of some importance.”

For a time, the remains were displayed in the library, but no one knows where they are now.

After the benches were installed, Williams and an associated, Angel Thundercrow, performed a ceremony to cleanse the site of negative energy, by burning sage, and to invite positive energy, by burning sweetgrass.

EVAN BRANDT — MEDIANEWS GROUP The volunteers who paid for, built and installed two benches at the Native American Memorial Site in Pottstown Dec. 23 pose for a photo.

EVAN BRANDT — MEDIANEWS GROUP The second of two benches donated by the Pottstown Police Officers Association is installed at the Native American memorial site on South Franklin Street on Dec. 23.

EVAN BRANDT — MEDIANEWS GROUP Ron Williams, left, and Angel Thundercrow, perform a cleansing ceremony at the Native American memorial site in Pottstown on Dec. 23.

EVAN BRANDT — MEDIANEWS GROUP Activist Ron Williams said a body found among others at the site in 1859 where this memorial now stands was “very well-dressed with intricate jewelry and his flintlock rifle and was obviously a person of some importance.”