The city of Charlottesville, Va. plans to seek proposals to remove a statue commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition, because some people do not like the representation of a native American woman in the artwork, according to 13NewsNow.
Charlottesville gained a place in the national media’s rampant-racism narrative against President Donald Trump and Republicans when protesters clashed there in 2017, leading to a leftist protester’s being fatally hit by a car. The protests began in response to efforts to remove statues commemorating Civil War figures including Robert E. Lee.
The Charlottesville Daily Progress reported on Sept. 30 that the statue depicts explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as well as Shoshone Tribe interpreter Sacagawea.
After a rash of statue desecration during the summer of 2020, which saw the destruction and removal of many artworks depicting white males from the past, some of whom were wholly unrelated to the Civil War, concerns were raised that the statue depicts Sacagawea in a crouching, subordinate position.
“It seems any perceived offense, real or not, will now serve as an acceptable excuse to remove memories of America’s astonishing history,” said Christian Action Network president, Martin Mawyer.
“In truth, Sacajawea is crouched because she was a tracker who often got on her hands and knees to LEAD the explorers as they searched to identify plants and berries to eat and to use as medicine,” he said.
Former Congressman Bill Barr wrote in a Tweet, “The City of Charlottesville truly is governed by fools.”
The Charlottesville City Council discussed the statue at a work session on Sept. 30. It directed staff to create a plan for the statue’s removal after consulting with Native Americans and some of Sacagawea’s descendants.
