The Story
For more than 200 years, the Borough of Milford, a small county seat in northeast Pennsylvania, venerated Tom Quick, Jr., who was in 1733 the first white child born in the region. Quick was famous for having murdered Delaware (Lenni Lenape) Indians in the upper Delaware River Valley, after having witnessed his father’s death at the hands of the Lenape.
In the decades following his death in 1796, Tom Quick became part of local lore, lionized in books, articles, songs and on stage. The 40-year murderous rampage of "Tom Quick the Indian Slayer" was so deeply steeped into the cultural landscape of the region that for generations young children played "Tom Quick and the Indians" rather than "Cowboys and Indians."
In 1889, as part the U.S. Constitution centennial commemoration, an eight-foot zinc obelisk monument was erected in Milford in his honor. It was not without controversy at the time of the monument’s dedication; one newspaper questioned “why the good people of Milford were honoring a serial killer.” Over time, the monument increasingly became a point of deep conflict and re-evaluation, especially in recent years.
The new documentary, Burying the Hatchet: The Tom Quick Story, puts this history in context, and tells the fascinating story of how Milford sought to redress this ugly chapter in its history. It began with Milford’s Mayor Sean Strub, who reached out to the leadership of the Lenni Lenape tribes who had been dislocated from their Milford homeland in the late 18th century, inviting them to discuss how this history could be responsibly addressed.
The ensuing collaboration led to a literal "burying of the hatchet" ceremony at the site where the monument once stood, as a symbol of reconciliation between the Quick family and tribal descendants. The town also worked with Lenape historians to create an exhibit at the local historical society. And finally, local land owners began the process of a land giveback to the Delaware tribes, enabling them to reestablish a vital presence in Lenapehoking, their original land.
Burying the Hatchet: The Tom Quick Story is about how one largely white community and disenfranchised tribal leaders worked together to reconcile the past and forge a shared path forward based on trust, friendship and an inspiring and healing vision of the future.
