Akron Indians

For a short time (1785-95) the western border of the United States passed through Eastern Ohio. Ohio was the nearest part of the Northwest Territory. Secondly, Ohio has a watershed. The northern tier of the streams empty into Lake Erie, the rest of the state's rivers empty into the Ohio River. In the east, there is a portage trail between the southwest to northwest flowing bend of the Cuyahoga, and the Tuscarawas. The Tuscarawas merges into the Muskingum, which in turn empties into the Ohio. There is an eight mile path between the two systems, and for centuries Indians carried canoes from the one to the other.

The north Indian is between the Cuyahoga river, the intersection of two roads, and a railroad.

In 2003 a monument trail was completed. Three foot bronze statues of fifty flint arrowheads with an Indian profile completed the path to twin statues by the Onondaga-Seneca artist Peter Jones.

a home owner has an Indian in the front yard, also a bear This statue was cast in 1905, and has received a new pedestal. He is on the intersection with West Market (Route 18). In the past years he was disturbed at Hallowe'en. His right hand had held an arrow at times. In Akron he is called 

'Unk'.

At the time of American Independence the chief of the Wolf Clan of the Delaware's name was privately Konieschquanoheel, publicly Hopocan (Tobacco Pipe), the English speaking called him Captain Pipe *1725/1740?, 1794/1818?†. He enters the historical record at Fort Pitt in 1759, allied with the British against the French. During the next war he wished neutrality. The American side massacred his people in 1778, and much of his immediate family. He and other chiefs signed the first treaty with the Continental Congress. The rebel American forces proved bad allies. The Delawares (Lenape) continued a forced westward movement. The Delawares were a divided people, some allied with the British, some with the Americans, and some were pacifist Christians amongst the Moravians. On 19 April 1781 the main village of Coshocton was destroyed by Americans. Continued pressure would remove the Indians from Ohio.
Rotaynah is Peter Toth's second Akron wooden Indian. The first one, that he made was in nearby Sand Run Park. It was destroyed through vandalism. Toth has carved at least one in each of the fifty states. The first one was in stone on the beach at La Jolla California (Romney has a beach house in La Jolla). The rest all in wood, the first being the ill fated one in Akron. This one is also on Rte. 18, west of the bronze statue.

the second portage Indian is by the Tuscarawas and canal

the southern terminus marker is behind the Indian, a very few feet behind the statue

Barberton's Hopocan

William Demuth began a company in 1862 supplying tobacco stores. He hired artists to carve Indians. Such Indians were carved from the beginning of English imports of tobacco. Some of the artists had carved ship statues. Samuel Anderson Robb, perhaps, carved the original of this Indian in the 1860s. Demuth listed the model as #53 Indian chief. J.L. Mott Iron Works bought the design in 1873, and cast statues in zinc on an iron base with or without bronze finish, or paint. Schenectady New York has the statue as Lawrence, a Mohawk ally of the Dutch. In Calhoun Georgia, he is Sequoyah. At Walter Reed Hospital in Silver Springs Maryland, he is Hiawatha. In Cincinnati, he is Tecumseh. He is also at Mount Kisco New York, Fargo North Dakota, San Jose California, and Cuzco Peru. In Barberton Ohio, he is Hopocan, and last year at the Mum Fest he celebrated his centenary.