The Battle To Save A Sacred Indigenous Space In Inwood Hill Park

INWOOD, NY — Isabel Amarante visits the Circle — an Indigenous Sacred Hoop — multiple times every week at its location in Inwood Hill Park. She has served as one of the quiet caretakers of the site for over a decade.

The Sacred Hoop is a revered space in Indigenous culture, used by people in and out of the community to pray, meditate and commune with Mother Earth in a natural setting.

But on Monday, Amarante arrived at the Sacred Hoop in the Upper Manhattan park to find a metal fence plunged into the dirt, splaying the twigs and shrubbery at its base, and physically stopping her from entering the space.

"The sign on the fence claims the natural Circle hurts the forest," Amarante, who was born in the Dominican Republic, told Patch. "But what is more hurtful to the forest? A sacred site formed out of natural forest tree trunks and fallen branches, or a metal fence? They erected a metal structure to tell us not to erect a structure. It's heartbreaking."

Attached to the metal fence were a trio of plastic New York City Department of Parks and Recreation signs with the same message:

"Please do not erect structures. They are in violation of Park rules and are hurting the forest."

"We respect the spirit behind the structure, but parkgoers are not allowed to build anything on parkland without permission," a New York City Parks and Recreation spokesperson told Patch. "With concern for repeated fires in this forested area of Inwood Hill Park, we cannot allow structures of any kind — permitted or unpermitted — to be erected here."

"This location is within the Shorakapok Nature Preserve, home to some of Manhattan's last remaining natural forest and salt marsh," the spokesperson added. "This spring, Parks staff and volunteers plan to plant 30 trees there as part of ongoing restoration work in the protected area."

Amarante, who has Indigenous heritage, said she was devastated to find the fence at the Circle, which is located at the Clove within Inwood Hill Park because of its connection to the Lenape tribe's ancestral burial grounds.

"It serves as a spiritual space made entirely out of natural materials from the forest," Amarante told Patch. "As such, it does not constitute an alien structure to the forest, but a humble and non-invasive arrangement of materials from the Clove that honors what we come to a public park for — an experience of peace, love, and beauty."

While the Circle had previously gone untouched by the Parks Department for over a decade, the installation of the fence is not the first time that the department has tried to remove the space in the past eight months.

The Back Story

Amarante arrived at the Circle on July 4, 2020, to find the space destroyed — not knowing what happened — so she went about it rebuilding it.

Months passed.

On Jan. 6, after watching the Capitol insurrection, she made her way to the Circle hoping to decompress. Instead, she arrived to again find the "prayer tepee" taken apart.

Amarante rebuilt, this time even bigger — struggling to understand why, after 10 years of the Circle existing in the park, it was suddenly being removed.

On Jan. 19, Amarante was at the Circle again and watched Parks Department rangers take it apart.

During that day, a person with knowledge of the removal told her that a 311 call near the beginning of July catalyzed the Park's Department effort to remove the Circle. This has not been confirmed, but Patch sifted through 311 data and found two complaint calls on June 30, for "Structure Outdoors" in Inwood Hill Park, that were passed along to the New York City Parks Department.

One of those calls was closed the following day with this description: "The Department of Parks and Recreation has completed the requested work order and corrected the problem."

Amarante again rebuilt even bigger on Jan. 19. Following that day, there were no outside changes made to the Circle until she arrived Monday to find the fence in the ground.

The Petition

Amarante created a petition the day after finding the fence to ask the Parks Department to "reconsider your decision to remove the Circle."

It has been signed by more than 500 people and is addressed to the Director of Northern Manhattan Parks Jennifer Hoppa and NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver.

"We ask you to consider the history, love, and spiritual significance that the Circle represents for so many in the community and beyond," Amarante writes in the petition. "We urge you to consider making the Circle, as is, a permanent feature of Inwood Hill Park at its current Clove location by placing a sign (where the current Clove sign is outside of the sacred ground of the Circle) explaining its significance and meaning."