A panel about Iⁿ’zhúje’waxóbe, a rock sacred to the Indigenous people in Kansas that once stood in Robinson Park. The city installed the panel Monday, and has long-term plans to add a monument honoring Indigenous people at the site of the boulder.

A downtown park where a boulder that’s sacred to the Kaw Nation once stood now has new signs celebrating Indigenous history in Lawrence, and there’s still talk of adding a more long-term monument there.

Cori Wallace, a city spokesperson, said two educational panels were installed on Monday in Robinson Park, which is across the street from City Hall, next to the Kansas River bridge. The Lawrence City Commission had approved the installation of the panels in December, as the Journal-World reported.

The park used to house 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. Over several years, the Sacred Red Rock Project group led an effort to remove the rock from the park and return it to the Kaw, and it was installed last March at the Kaw’s Allegawaho Heritage Memorial Park just outside of Council Grove.

One of the new panels at the park has information about the rock, including its history of being taken, installed in Lawrence and then returned. The other panel is a general overview of Indigenous history in Lawrence.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Historic panels about Indigenous history in Lawrence in Robinson Park. The panels were installed Monday.

Although Wallace told the Journal-World the city has not had “any substantive discussions” on further projects, she did note that the new Parks, Recreation and Culture Master Plan, which the City Commission approved Tuesday night, specifically outlines a goal to add a new monument to the park in the next three to five years.

In the planning document, the department lays out a goal to recognize the “lasting impact of Iⁿ’zhúje’waxóbe” by exploring the addition of a new monument to “honor the stories of Indigenous people of Lawrence” at Robinson Park.

A new monument was one of the possible projects the Sacred Red Rock group was exploring to reshape the park. Last September, along with asking feedback for ideas for a monument, the group also discussed potentially renaming the park to honor the Indigenous community, as the Journal-World reported. Other topics of discussion were exploring ways to make the park more accessible to the community by adding a pedestrian bridge or connecting it with the Lawrence Loop trail network.

The Sacred Red Rock group is still seeking public feedback about the future of Robinson Park. The project has a survey available online for public input.