Washington officials weigh where to relocate 9,000-pound Marcus Whitman statue

Washington state officials are confronting a 5-ton problem: Where to move a more than 9,000-pound Marcus Whitman statue in the state Capitol.

Whitman, a doctor and missionary, settled near what is today Walla Walla in the 1830s and was later killed along with his wife and 11 others by members of the Cayuse Tribe. He is one of two Washington figures to have a statue in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.

In recent years, Whitman’s legacy has soured and scrutiny has increased over his role in the displacement of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest. State lawmakers in 2021 approved a bill to replace the Whitman statue in the U.S. Capitol and another in the state Capitol building with statues of Billy Frank Jr.

Frank was a member of the Nisqually Indian Tribe who fought for the protection of salmon and Native American rights. During the 1960s and 1970s, he helped stage “fish-ins” and other demonstrations that led to a court ruling that protected the rights of tribes to fish without being subject to state regulation. He died in 2014 at the age of 83.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/briefs/washington-officials-weigh-where-to-relocate-9000-pound-marcus-whitman-statue/