Referring to U.S. President William McKinley’s legacy of annexing indigenous lands within the continental United States and Hawaii, the Wiyot Tribe sent out a press release today in support of removing the McKinley statue from the Arcata Plaza. According to the release, the Wiyot Tribal Council voted unanimously Feb. 12 to support its removal, as well as that of a plaque on the nearby Jacoby Storehouse that refers euphemistically to “Indian trouble.” The vote came in response to a request from the Arcata City Council, the Seventh Generation Fund and private citizens to weigh in on the issue.
The issue is set to go before the Arcata City Council again Feb. 21, following months of debate over whether or not to remove the landmark, which was placed on the plaza in 1906. Critics, citing McKinley’s colonialist ambitions in the Spanish American War, have suggested a number of alternatives to the statue, which was erected during a period of national mourning after the 25th president’s assassination. Suggestions have included a statue of the Virgin Mary, a Kinetic Sculpture and a statue-less gazebo or music pavilion. The Wiyot Tribe voted “to support replacement of the statue and plaque with something that represents Wiyot culture and/history.”
You can read last year’s cover story on the issue here.
From the Wiyot Tribe:
On Monday February 12, 2018 the Tribal Council of the Wiyot Tribe voted unanimously to support the movement to remove the McKinley Statue, and the plaque near Jacoby store from the Arcata Plaza. The Wiyot Tribe was asked by the City of Arcata, Seventh Generation Fund, and a number of individual citizens to weigh in on the issue. A movement to the remove the statue and plaque began with citizens of Arcata who petitioned the Arcata City Council. More than 1400 people have signed an online petition to remove the statue and plaque. A number of community meetings have been organized to discuss the statue and plaque removal and possible replacement options. In their Council meeting February 12th, the Wiyot Tribal Council voted to support replacement of the statue and plaque with something that represents Wiyot culture and/history. The Wiyot Tribal Council asked to be included in future discussions.
While William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, he had no local connection with Humboldt County or the City of Arcata. The eight-foot-tall bronze statue was a gift to the city of Arcata from local businessman George Zehnder in the early 1900’s. The Wiyot Tribe would like to acknowledge McKinley’s impact on Indigenous communities. McKinley supported the Dawes Commission, dismantling the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee Tribal lands; checker boarding them into individual land allotments and designating “Surplus” lands and opening them up to white settlement. After failing to negotiate a treaty with the Aboriginal people of Hawaii, who were against annexation, McKinley was able to annex the State of Hawaii through a joint resolution of Congress calling it, “Manifest Destiny.” McKinley also refused to act when Leech Lake Ojibwe leaders petitioned him to intervene when Timber Companies encroached on Tribal lands to set grass fires and remove Timber from Tribal lands that the Ojibwe used for subsistence.
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This article appears in Acre by Acre.
Apparently everyone has given up on solving real problems like keeping school children from getting massacred. Now we just have to devote all our energy to silly symbols and heroic rewrites of history that pander to our own political sensibility.The statue has been there for over a century It’s part of Arcata history regardless of McKinley himself.
Melt it down, and recycle it into a monument to the Wiyot, and the genocide unleashed on them. Havent they suffered long enough?
Buildings and public art shape the intellectual climate of a place. We in the present moment have more power to determine what future generations experience than we may have previously realized. We do not have to receive and continue to put the destruction in a place of honor. We can tell the whole truth about the past and the present and honor something honorable. I vote for honoring the Wiyot nation with that space in a way they select.
“No Guts No Glory” Motto of the Great Arcata to Ferndale Kinetic Sculpture Race;
And due to the ‘Fact’ Boy Scouts of America (B.S.A.) is accepting young Ladies. (It’s a Start) By 2019, the Boy Scouts says it will also offer a program for older girls to earn the Eagle Scout award.
I would probably “Think” a Cadillac, a “Cadillac Gage Commando” could perhaps, maybe be thought of as The ‘Vehicle’ with which to topple one’s likeness that is … “Not admired” some days by some.
Maybe we should rename Mac Town too.