The red prayer boulder is shown Tuesday morning, Aug. 15, 2023, after being lifted from its base at Robinson Park.

As local leaders consider reimagining Robinson Park after a rock sacred to local Indigenous tribes was removed from the Lawrence park to tribal land, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board unanimously approved the installation of educational panels about Indigenous history in the area.

The unanimous vote to install a pair of panels — one describing the history of a boulder sacred to the Kaw Nation, the other a general overview of Indigenous history in Lawrence — at Robinson Park, a tiny park in downtown Lawrence.

The park previously featured, Iⁿ’zhúje’waxóbe, a 28-ton red quartzite boulder that was taken from the Kaw’s traditional homelands nearly a century ago and made into a monument to Lawrence’s white settlers in the park. Last year, the Sacred Red Rock Project group led the effort to remove the rock from the park and return it to the Kaw, and it was installed in late March of this year at the Kaw’s Allegawaho Heritage Memorial Park just outside of Council Grove.

During a presentation to the Parks and Rec Advisory Board Monday Night, Jay T. Johnson, a distinguished professor at the University of Kansas’s Department of Geography & Atmospheric Science, and Tai S. Edwards, the director of Kansas Studies Institute at Johnson County Community College shared the final designs of educational panels that are a part of the Sacred Red Rock Project’s plan to better honor Indigenous history in the area.

With Iⁿ’zhúje’waxóbe gone from the park, Johnson said the group did not want there to be a void or “dearth of information” regarding the park’s history. The educational panels are just one way the Sacred Red Rock Project is thinking of reshaping the park. In September, as the Journal-World reported, the group heard from the public about a proposal that would rename the park to honor the Indigenous community and brainstormed ideas for a monument to fill the void left by the removal of the boulder.

The fact the boulder was transformed from a sacred object to a monument to white settlers was what led to the returning of the boulder in the first place, Edwards noted. She said the group worked carefully with Kaw representatives to make sure the history was properly told.

“The problem with the monument was erasure and denial,” Edwards said. “Our agenda with the content and imagery in the panels was to not replicate that erasure again.”

Edwards added that the panels featured imagery that was meant to “bust stereotypes” that people may have about Indigenous culture and history. Additionally, the panels will have references to Watkins Museum as a way to highlight the broader history as well.

Porter Arneill, the city’s assistant director for arts and culture, said the panels were also approved by the Historic Resources Commission. The next step in the process would be a vote by the City Commission, which is expected to take place in a December meeting.

photo by: Contributed

This rendering shows what panels explaining Indigenous culture could look like at Robinson Park in Lawrence.