Charlottesville: Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea statue will be removed today

[Yonnie3]

Last edited Sat Jul 10, 2021, 12:22 PM - Edit history (1)

The city council is in an emergency meeting to discuss and vote on the removal.

The contractor that removed the two statues this morning is still in town having completed the removals way ahead of schedule. They want to utilize them to do this while they are here.

Edit: The area is being blocked off so it is happening now.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[madaboutharry]

1. Lewis and Clark were racists who brought a slave on their expedition.

Maybe they could have left Sacajawea unless it is all part of the same statue.

[Yonnie3]

2. It is all one big casting n/t

[Budi]

10. She was given to them by her husband Charbonneau as an intetpreter

Charbonneau was the pos.

How do you know Lewis & Clark were racists?
They wanted Charbonneau to guide them but he would have made a lousy interpreter. So he gave them his youngest of several wives.

As fate saw this young woman, she is honored, loved & respected throughout the history books.
Her contribution took her farther beyond Charbonneau's camp.

[Yonnie3]

3. The removal was approved n/t

[Yonnie3]

4. They have voted previously for its removal

https://www.wvtf.org/post/cville-votes-remove-lewis-and-clark-statue

From WVTF Virginia Public Radio

Cville Votes to Remove Lewis and Clark Statue
By Sandy Hausman • Nov 16, 2019

As Charlottesville prepares to redevelop a section of West Main Street, attention has turned to a statue of Lewis and Clark boldly facing west as a young native American woman huddles behind them. City council is planning to remove the hundred-year-old sculpture and perhaps replace it with something that reflects the important role of Sacagawea.

The city brought four descendents of Sacagawea to Charlottesville from Idaho, and they began the day with a traditional smudging ceremony – burning plants in a shell bowl to rid the area of negative energy and invite harmony.

The talks that followed were friendly, but frank and – at times – emotional. Emma George recalled her reaction to the sight of a cowering native woman.

"This morning I went out there to look at that statue," she said, choking back tears. "It did not make me feel good at all. It was humiliating."

----snip----

Worth a read at the above link

[Yonnie3]

5. UVA is reportedly removing its Lewis and Clarke statue tomorrow

I believe that this is being confused with the Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea statue that the City just voted about by some reporting on Twitter.

[Budi]

6. Terrible depiction. This is the statue on the Capitol grounds in Bismarck NDakota

Sakakawea, as they say it, was never depicted any way other than a heroine. A young woman with a baby given to Lewis & Clark to guide them on the trail to the NW. They needed an interpreter.

She was always told of with dignity, heroism as a young woman, strong smart & if not for her courage & knowledge Lewis & Clark would have perished.
She has always been a much loved & admired & respected charachter in the history books of the State of ND.

Her value was imeasurable.
The largest man-made lake built with the WPA , was named in HER honor, not Mr Lewis nor Mr Clark.
LAKE SAKAKAWEA
https://www.ndtourism.com/best-places/lake-sakakawea-water-wonderland

Pity that the artist who created this statue in VA didn't do his homework, & rather left his personal perception rule the truth.


How it happened:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/2769227002

This remote North Dakota site played a major role in the Lewis and Clark expedition


SNIP
“So, this is the site where you have one of the most famous female figures in American history residing both before and after the Lewis and Clark expedition.

More...

[Yonnie3]

7. Her descendant, Rose, has said that it should be melted down. n/t

[Budi]

8. Which one should be melted down?

As an eleven or twelve year old Lemhi Shoshone girl living in present-day Idaho, Sacagawea was likely taken captive in a Hidatsa raiding party.
She arrived at the Knife River Indian Villages where French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau took her as a wife.Jun 5, 2020

https://www.nps.gov › historyculture
Sacagawea - Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site ...

Charbonneau gave her to Lewis & Clark as an interpretor.
Charbonneau should be melted down.

To Rose, I appreciate her feeelings, however I would regret never knowing of this great Native heroine of early US history.
Her story should be told among every woman & girls & men & boys groups.

Her role in 1804 American history is far greater than simply reaching the Pacific Coast. It is a necessary tale in many ways to be told.
Erasing Sakakawea's truth would serve no one.
Much is to be learned, it just has to be taught.

[Yonnie3]

9. The one with the terrible depiction only.

In my post https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1081&pid=10396 and the article link included makes my comment clear.

[Budi]

11. Thank you. It should be melted down

"City council is planning to remove the hundred-year-old sculpture and perhaps replace it with something that reflects the important role of Sacagawea."

The depiction of that statue really disgusts me.

I believe the true one would have Lewis & Clark huddled behind her, as she communicated with tribes along the journey, guiding the best path & keeping Lewis & Clark from wandering on their own, in the rugged North passage.

AND CARRYING A BABY ON HER BACK, AS WELL!

[Yonnie3]

12. Lewis and Clark were from this area

and the statue was commissioned by a wealthy racist. I understand how this terrible depiction came about. The other two statues removed today were also commissioned by him. He gifted parks to the city with the stipulation they were white only parks.

Here is a link about this Paul McIntire person.

https://art.as.virginia.edu/history-paul-goodloe-mcintire

[Budi]

13. Well that answers the question of Who is Paul McIntire?

Am actuall surprised he included her at all.

[Yonnie3]

15. As long as she was subservient it was cool with him.

I looked at some old documentation last year and she was not included in the original design and was added to balance the statue.

The large PDF document linked below is the application for the National Register of Historic Places.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiY16mMxd3xAhVYV80KHTQ2DdAQFjAAegQIBRAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dhr.virginia.gov%2FVLR_to_transfer%2FPDFNoms%2F104-0273_TheirFirstViewofthePacific_1997_Final_Nomination.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3n-LzEAldYvry2OERjO5Il

Another statue removed on Sunday, paid for by McIntire, depicts Clark on a horse, attacking a Native American family.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Charlottesville takes down two more statues, deemed offensive to Native Americans ...

Local

Charlottesville takes down two more statues, deemed offensive to Native Americans, in weekend of removals

By Teo Armus and Hannah Natanson

July 11, 2021 | Updated yesterday at 7:52 p.m. EDT

CHARLOTTESVILLE — It was a big weekend for statue removals in this university town where they've become a flash point in recent years.

Shortly after the city carted away a monument to Confederate general Stonewall Jackson and a statue of Robert E. Lee that triggered a deadly weekend of violence in 2017, workers carried off two more statues that critics said depicted Native Americans in a racist and disparaging manner.

One statue, which sat in a grassy park on the University of Virginia campus, showed Revolutionary War general George Rogers Clark riding a horse toward three unarmed Native Americans as two frontiersmen waited behind him, one of them in the act of raising his rifle. The pedestal declared in engraved letters, “CONQUEROR OF THE NORTHWEST,” a reference to his battle prowess against the British. ... The second statue, outside a downtown federal courthouse and meant to honor Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the Pacific, showed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark standing straight and staring into the distance as Sacagawea crouched at their side.

The takedown of the Rogers Clark statue Sunday had been months in the making: A U-Va. racial equity task force recommended removing it last summer, and the university’s Board of Visitors approved the suggestion that fall, according to the Daily Progress. By contrast, the Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously in an emergency meeting Saturday to take down the Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea statue.

{snip}

City Council member Lloyd Snook said in an interview Saturday that he regrets that the rapid-fire removals this weekend are causing some to link Lewis and Clark with Lee and Jackson. Unlike the latter two, Lewis and Clark should not be remembered for committing treason against the United States, he noted. ... “It’s unfortunate for history that they will end up getting lumped together,” Snook said. “But it was fortunate for the city that we were able to get it done without additional cost.”

By Teo Armus
Teo Armus covers politics, government and other regional issues in Arlington and Alexandria for The Washington Post. He joined The Post as a staff writer in 2019. Twitter https://twitter.com/teoarmus

By Hannah Natanson
Hannah Natanson is a reporter covering education and K-12 schools in Virginia. Twitter https://twitter.com/hannah_natanson