Anthony Guy Lopez: Colonial depictions of Native people must come down

Monday, June 3, 2019  

A Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, became the flashpoint of national controversy in 2017 following White supremacist demonstrations that led to the death of one person.

But did you know the city is also home to prominent statues that depict Native people? Anthony Guy Lopez, a citizen of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe who attended the University of Virginia in Chartlottesville and is the founder of a group that seeks to establish an Indigenous Studies Center at his alma mater, says the George Rogers Clark, Conqueror of the Northwest sculpture and another one of Sacagawea with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark should be taken down because they symbolize colonization and the "violent taking" of tribal lands:

One of the statues is in the center of Charlottesville. It depicts Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Sacagawea. The City Council is considering removing this statue because the intersection that it adorns needs to be redesigned to increase public safety and traffic flow.

Area residents, led by women such as Mayor Nikuyah Walker and Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell, oppose the statue because of its unfortunate depiction of Sacagawea, who is shown in a demeaning pose crouched behind the standing figures of Lewis and Clark.

Various interpretations have been offered to explain her odd position. Perhaps she was tracking something. Or she is looking downward at the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Whatever the explanation, the test is to switch Sacagawea’s pose with Lewis or Clark, or some other man. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find any male American leader depicted in such an awkward manner in public statuary.

Further, after reviewing the several dozen other depictions of Sacagawea in public art across the U.S., one would be challenged to find a more unflattering depiction of Sacagawea. For that reason alone, the city should consider permanently removing the statue from the public square.

This could be what Charlottesville needs to exorcise some of its past colonial tendencies, as illustrated by the other Charlottesville statue depicting American Indians, which honors George Rogers Clark (William Clark’s eldest brother) and his victories in the brutal wars against the indigenous nations in the Northwest Territory. The statue, named “The Conqueror of the Northwest,” is owned by the University of Virginia and it features Clark mounted on a horse along with a heavily armed troop of three soldiers about to violently attack a family of American Indians, including two men, a woman and a baby in a cradleboard.

Anthony Guy Lopez: Insulting statues must go (The Charlottesville Daily Progress June 2, 2019)

Richard Guy Wilson and Kay Slaughter: Remarkable statue should be preserved (The Charlottesville Daily Progress June 2, 2019)