KALAMAZOO, MI -- This week, $122,250 in grants were awarded in support of a campaign to give Bronson Park a new look and highlight the culture of indigenous peoples.

A $100,000 grant from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation was gifted to help restore the Fountain of the Pioneers complex and create educational programs meant to address racist interpretations of the controversial sculpture. The Michigan Humanities Council provided a $22,250 grant to the Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission to develop methods to present an accurate history of American Indian occupation of the region, in partnership with the Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomi.

"The Tribe is working with community leaders in Kalamazoo to educate the public on the real history of Kalamazoo's first peoples and share our rich heritage," wrote Gun Lake Tribal Councilwoman Phyllis Davis in a letter supporting the grant application.

The projects are part of the Bronson Park 21st Century Campaign, a $2.8 million master plan for significant landscaping and infrastructure improvements to the park. Once $1 million is raised, the campaign will be opened to the public, said Parks and Recreation Director Sean Fletcher, with construction likely to begin in 2018.

Major additions to Bronson Park include the installation of WiFi, space for a seasonal ice rink, restoration of the reflecting pool, new tables and benches, landscaping features like flowerbeds, and upgrades to light fixtures and the Rotary stage's sound system.

READ MORE: Click here to read the full Bronson Park Master Plan

The new additions will also highlight the culture of the indigenous Pottawatomi tribe. Near the historic four corners of the reservation and locations throughout Bronson Park, markers will provide information to smartphones about Native American occupation, history and resistance in the Kalamazoo area.

The fountain complex will require $1.2 million in repairs to its concrete and pumping and filtration system.

Similar efforts to restore the concrete base of the fountain have been conducted several times since 1987, but Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Coordinator Sharon Ferraro said the process to raise money for a full rehabilitation was derailed by public outcry about the fountain's perceived celebration of racism.

Designed by Midwestern modernist artist, sculptor and designer Alfonso Iannelli, the statue has been the source of controversy over the years. Even today, discussion about the monument almost never fails to include the controversy over its meaning.

Some find the image of a Native American in headdress beneath a weapon-wielding settler to be disrespectful to members of the indigenous Pottawatomi tribe. Others accuse it of celebrating racism.

A partnership with representatives of the local Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomi will create the opportunity to educate, Ferraro said. Pottawatomi artists and engineers designed the project to tell the story of broken Euro-American treaties, resistance to removal, cultural re-engagement and community stewardship in their own words.

"It's a counterpoint to what the statue says in the park; that they are gone," Ferraro said. "This project says 'they are still here. The Gun Lake Band never left.'"

Iannelli said in a 1940 statement that the statue is meant to convey "the advance of the pioneers and the generations that follow, showing the movement westward, culminating in the tower-symbol of the pioneer while the Indian is shown in a posture of noble resistance."

The 76-year-old monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 28.

Commissioner Jack Urban defended the artistic significance of the statue during a Sept. 19 City Commission meeting. He urged people who are critical of its imagery to look at it with an open mind and in the context of American history.

"What is depicted there looks pretty dreadful but it's symbolic; it's abstract and it invites us to reflect on what it means to us," he said. "It will mean different things to different people. To me, anyone who says 'it's got to mean what it means to me' is really pretty arrogant."

More information on the Bronson Park 21st Century Campaign and the Bronson Park Master Plan is available at kalamazoocity.org.