Problematic pioneer statues

Since the killing of George Floyd, at least 23 American cities have removed monuments to Confederate generals.

Protesters also challenged statues of other historic figures, including explorer Christopher Columbus and conquistador Juan de Oñate, each of whose cruelty to indigenous peoples is well documented.

But why did protesters tear down statues of pioneers on the University of Oregon campus? Rather than depicting famous individuals associated with slavery or violence, Eugene’s pioneer monuments depict generic figures of a buckskin-clad frontiersman and a female settler reading a book.

The anger directed at these pioneer statues reminds us that these monuments are just as problematic as Confederate and conquistador statues. Early twentieth-century boosters built these statues to enshrine white supremacy in the West, making their presence a daily reminder of white cultural dominance. Their example demonstrates that we as a nation need to think as critically about the commemoration of westward expansion as we do about Confederate monuments.

Comparing Eugene’s pioneer monuments to other western monuments from that era helps to uncover why they are problematic. At the turn of the twentieth century, as southeastern communities installed monuments to Confederate soldiers, young western cities erected monuments celebrating the arrival of Euro-American “civilization” to western lands. White citizens of San Francisco (1894) and Salt Lake City (1897) celebrated the dedication of monuments depicting the transition from “savage” American Indians at the base to the glories of white civilization at the top of granite columns.

Viewers at the time absolutely understood that these monuments celebrated white supremacy. In 1904, Denver residents protested that a proposed monument on the edge of Civic Center was not racist enough because sculptor Frederick MacMonnies had inverted the accepted racial order by placing an American Indian warrior at the top and white settlers at the bottom. To compromise, the artist replaced the Plains Indian warrior with famed Indian fighter Kit Carson, a change that celebrated white conquest of Native peoples.

Other western sculptors erased Native peoples from western monuments just as the white settlers depicted in their statues removed previous inhabitants from western lands. Speeches delivered at the 1919 dedication of the University of Oregon’s Pioneer statue make its racial meaning abundantly clear. The president of the Oregon Historical Society extolled Oregon pioneers as particularly good examples of the “Anglo-Saxon race” who “fought Indians” and claimed their lands.

In the two decades following that statue’s dedication, dozens of communities across the nation installed statues of saintly pioneer women carrying white Christian values westward. That included a Pioneer Mother to accompany the “Pioneer Father” at the University of Oregon. A dedicatory plaque calls on future generations to remember the “spirit of conquering peace” it celebrates. Many white Americans of that era believed that white settlers were responsible for spreading Christian culture to a supposedly savage frontier. These monuments celebrate female settlers as agents of the conquest of indigenous peoples.

Communities continue to erect pioneer monuments today. I have identified more than 200 across the nation. Nearly half of those — including four in Colorado — have been erected in the past 50 years. While their dedication speeches and dedicatory plaques might not engage so explicitly with white racial dominance, they nonetheless celebrate the persistence of white settlers — and us, their descendants — on lands claimed from indigenous inhabitants. We must consider their continuing impact on the descendants of those indigenous peoples and other groups that have been silenced by a century of monuments celebrating white cultural dominance.

As the fervent debates over Confederate monuments show us, there are no easy answers in the debate over historical memory. But the toppling of these Oregon pioneer monuments suggests it is time to begin discussions about how we imagine and commemorate westward expansion. And those discussions must pay particular attention to those who have traditionally been silenced. That will be just one step toward healing from the centuries-old wounds of white supremacy.