SCRANTON — A striking, massive mural honoring the indigenous Lenape people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley is essentially complete in Scranton as officials prepare for a formal dedication ceremony Aug. 1.
Native American artist Ben Scott Miller — a registered citizen of the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe of the Lenape — and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spanish artist known as Belin, began work earlier this month on the mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton.” A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the 8,000-square-foot piece of public art adorns the north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., owned by developer Art Russo’s ATR Properties.
The Lenape Mural on the Brixx Building on Washington Ave. in Scranton on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
The Lenape Mural on the Brixx Building on Washington Ave. in Scranton on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
The Lenape Mural on the Brixx Building on Washington Ave. in Scranton on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
Students from Scranton Prep visit Tuesday, July 22, 2025 with Native American artist Ben Miller and pose for a group photo at the site of a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton” painted on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. Photo taken Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Detail from a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton” painted on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Native American artist Ben Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. Photo taken Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Students from Scranton Prep visit Tuesday, July 22, 2025 with Native American artist Ben Miller at the site of a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton” painted on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. Photo taken Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Detail from a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton” painted on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Native American artist Ben Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. Photo taken Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Detail from a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton” painted on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Native American artist Ben Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. Photo taken Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Native American artist Ben Miller poses on Tuesday, July 22, 2025 during a pause in work on a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton.” The 8,000-square-foot mural is on the north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Detail from a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton” painted on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Native American artist Ben Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. Photo taken Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The top of a new 8,000-square-foot mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton,” painted on the north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., is visible from the Lackawanna County Courthouse Square in downtown Scranton. Photo taken Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Native American artist Ben Miller works in downtown Scranton on new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton,” on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Native American artist Ben Miller on Tuesday, July 22, 2025 discusses the new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton.” The 8,000-square-foot mural is on the north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Native American artist Ben Miller works in downtown Scranton on new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton,” on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Native American artist Ben Miller works in downtown Scranton on new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton,” on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Detail from a new mural titled “Remembrance and Continuance: The Lenape Story in Scranton” painted on the 8,000-square-foot north side of the Brixx Building, 130 N. Washington Ave., which is owned by Art Russo’s ATR Properties. A joint project by Lackawanna County and the nonprofit Scranton Tomorrow, the mural aims to raise awareness of the history of the indigenous people who first settled the Lackawanna Valley and to acknowledge and honor their legacy. Native American artist Ben Miller and Miguel Angel Belinchón, a Spaniard known as Belin, partnered to create the mural. Photo taken Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
It’s latest addition to Scranton Tomorrow’s Mural Arts Program that also includes “The Office: The Story of Us,” on a side wall of 503 Lackawanna Ave.; “The Big Band,” a jazz and big band-themed mural on a side wall of 217-219 Wyoming Ave.; “The Dream,” a Martin Luther King Jr. mural at 607 Mulberry St. and other pieces in the city.
“We’re essentially in Scranton, with the help of Lackawanna County, making an outdoor art museum free to the public,” said Rose Randazzo-Pizzuto, the mural arts program’s volunteer chairwoman. “And in particular, this (Lenape) mural, it’s an investment in our roots, in our culture, in the way Scranton started. It’s a very very important mural.”
To that end, the mural pays homage to and provides an opportunity to reflect on the region’s history that preceded the Industrial Revolution, anthracite coal mining and railroads. Lackawanna itself is a Lenape word meaning “stream that forks,” county Arts and Culture Director Maureen McGuigan noted at last week’s commissioners meeting.
Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak approved at that session a 40-year easement agreement protecting the Lenape mural should the Brixx Building sell or otherwise change hands. The mural will also be coated in a graffiti-proof archival varnish offering protection in another sense from vandalism and the natural elements, Randazzo-Pizzuto said.
But Miller, the artist, said Tuesday that the project is basically done.
It depicts two Lenape dancers, one male and one female, dancing against a colorful background that features several traditional floral patterns representing “the medicine and the flowers that we have around here in Lackawanna,” Miller said.
“We wanted to showcase the continuance of who we are,” Miller said of the dancers, noting a time when Native American dance and other forms of religious and cultural expression were suppressed and prohibited by the U.S. government. “I also wanted to show that no matter where you are in the world or what culture you have — whether you’re Irish or German or whatever it is — traditionally we had dance.”
“Whatever country you originate from, whatever traditions you have around this world, we’ve all gotten together socially and danced,” he said. “And I wanted to show similarities between us worldwide.”
The mural also depicts water representing the Delaware, Lackawanna and Susquehanna rivers, and a turtle representing the Lenape creation story that the land of North America was created upon a turtle’s back, Miller said.
The total cost of the project is $137,000, supported by the county and other funding sources. It’s the mural art program’s largest mural to date.
Officials will officially dedicate the mural during a free ceremony at the mural site Aug. 1, from 5-7 p.m. Members of Lenape tribes in Canada and Oklahoma will be present for the dedication, which coincides with the beginning of the 20th annual Scranton Jazz Festival downtown.
“We’re going to hope that everyone stays and enjoys all the jazz throughout the city,” Randazzo-Pizzuto said.