Tribes want Native statue to replace one tied to massacre

DENVER — Months after protesters tore down a statue of a U.S. soldier who took part in the slaughter of Native Americans, tribal citizens and descendants of those who survived the Civil War-era attack urged Colorado lawmakers on Thursday to replace it with the likeness of an Indigenous woman at the state Capitol.

The new statue would replace the one depicting a Union Army soldier who helped carry out the Sand Creek Massacre of 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people in 1864, one of the worst mass murders in U.S. history. It was toppled over the summer amid the national reckoning over racial injustice and the movement to remove symbols from public spaces that are tied to military atrocities against people of color, typically the Confederacy.

The proposed new bronze statue would depict a young woman sitting on a white flag, wearing a Cheyenne dress, with her left arm extended. She has cut off her braids and the joint of a finger on her left hand in signs of mourning.

https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/tribes-want-native-statue-to-replace-one-tied-to-massacre