Please forgive the historical ignorance.

[Nexus2]

But why was the statue of Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea seen as nessecesary to be removed along with Confederate figures?

[Yonnie3]

1. Here is one reason.

Sacagawea was depicted as a cowering native woman when in reality she was anything but that.

[Nexus2]

16. I can see it both ways. If there was big call to have it removed by folks that found it offensive

I get where it could come, but I don't feel it myself, but its not directed at me/mine nor do I have to view it everyday, perhaps it will end up in museum where it can a proper historical context, warts and all.

[Yonnie3]

18. Her descendants found it offensive

This from November 2019 more than 2 years ago.

City Council passes resolution for the removal of Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea statue
The council held a working group discussion on plans for the future of the statue on West Main Street
The Cavalier Daily
By Paige Waterhouse
November 18, 2019

The Charlottesville City Council met at Carver Recreation Center Friday morning for a work session in collaboration with members of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe and Monacan Indian Nation to discuss the future of the statue that resides in West Main Street's major intersection and depicts Sacagawea cowering behind Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The session included a presentation from City staff, statements from the Shoshone representatives and a two part discussion regarding the statue. Roughly 30 local residents were in attendance.

With the West Main Streetscape project underway — a project which aims to reconfigure West Main Street from Jefferson Park Avenue to Ridge McIntire Road — questions of the statue’s placement have arisen. The original proposal regarding the statue asked that the figure be moved 20 feet southwest in order to meet design changes. However, with construction not scheduled to begin until 2021, the indigenous representatives in attendance Friday called for the statue’s total and immediate removal.

------snip------

Rose Ann Abrahamson, a Lemhi Shoshone and descendant of Sacagawea, referred to the submissive position of Sacagawea in the statue as “outwardly offensive.” Abrahamson remarked on the historical climate of when the statue was constructed.

“It was during a time period of intolerance, misinformation, discrimination and witless perspectus of people of color and America’s natives,” Abrahmson said.

------snip------

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2019/11/city-council-passes-resolution-for-the-removal-of-lewis-clark-and-sacagawea-statue

It's not like one day the council just decided to get rid of it.

[brewens]

2. It must be the way Sacagawea is depicted. I just looked at it and that looks like shit.

I'm in Lewiston, ID, right next to Clarkston, WA. My Jr high was Sacajawea Jr high. I've had more of that history than most people.

[Triloon]

7. Pffft

She is depicted sitting on a stone holding back her braids as she examines the trail. If you know the history then you know she, as a guide, did quite a lot of that. Both she and York, Clark's fathers slave, are celebrated as essential to the journey and the whole party was likely to have perished without them. I see no shit. Please explain.

[brewens]

9. Not out in front checking the trail? Not standing beside them pointing the way?

I could pick a much better pose for a quide checking a trail than the one that makes you think you see that.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Yeah you're right the sculptor couldn't possibly have shown her leading or teaching Lewis and Clark;

the only option was having her crouch down, eyes downcast, as a tertiary figure, as befitting Natives and women involved in the important business of white men on military intelligence operations.

[Nexus2]

14. It does resemble the cover of a pulp sword and sorcery novel. [nt]

[elleng]

3. Thanks for the question.

[LakeArenal]

4. I've heard many opinions that all statues of glorifying anyone should be removed.

I never see any statues where I live. So I don’t really have opinions. If a majority of citizens of any place want a statue removed it should be removed.

[Bucky]

19. Sounds like the iconoclast movement in the Byzantine empire

They found all statues offensive, particularly those of saints.

[Budi]

5. To me personally, it was how Sakakawea was depicted.

The bravery & success of the trip rested on the knowledge of Sakakawea.
And carrying her baby on her back, too no less.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. In this case, it was the depiction.

[Sneederbunk]

8. Why not excise the offending Sacagawea from the statue?

[Bucky]

20. Cause then you'd be censoring a/o butchering a work of art

Part of the trick of removing offensive artwork is you don't want to silence symbolic speech just because you find it offensive. It needs to be removed from a place of honor because it doesn't speak for the civic values of the community, but censorship is still a big no-no

The right move would be to replace it with a more appropriate piece of art.

Perhaps a better moment to commemorate would be when Lewis and Clark called for the first American vote in the West over where to place their winter camp upon arriving at the Pacific.

https://www.historylink.org/File/7539

November 24, 1805, the Corps of Discovery, led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, votes to spend the winter on the south bank of the Columbia River. All members of the expedition are allowed to participate. This is the first election by Americans in the West, and the first election to include a woman, a Native American, and an African slave.

The Corps arrived at the mouth of the Columbia on November 15 and built Station Camp on the north bank of the river. On the November 24, the captains put the issue of where to spend the winter to the entire company, an unusual step for an Army unit. Included in the vote are Sacagawea, the Shoshone wife of one of the expedition's hunters, and York, Captain Clark's African slave. The group decides to leave the wind-swept Station Camp and to find more sheltered quarters on the south side of the river.

[Yonnie3]

11. A long read but perhaps it might help

https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-and-history-race-george-rogers-clark-statue-and-native-americans

tl;dr Lewis and Clark were arguably instrumental in the genocide of Native Americans

[pandr32]

12. I don't see a problem with it

Sacagawea was included and right along side them. The sculptor could have omitted her because Lewis and Clark led the expedition and were the principles. She was a woman who they likely would not have managed without. The fact that she is seated on a rock looking at the ground is appropriate as she was a tracker (she would have conveyed what she interpreted as Lewis and Clark listened and looked ahead--one pointing), not to mention aesthetically the three figures are in harmony. If they were all standing it would look crowded.

The expedition was transformative for all included. It was hard for them to return to the attitudes that were common in society at that time.

[marble falls]

13. The fact that legend is not history, she was a person not a character.

[pandr32]

15. The statue tells a story

In it, all three united to determine the direction to travel. That's kind of progressive.

[Bucky]

21. Art is symbolic speech. It doesn't just tell WHAT but also HOW

The presentation of Sacagawea in a subservient position is fundamentally a distortion of the role that she played in history. This seems to be why her descendants found her presentation on the statue offensive.

A more appropriate statue should definitely put in its place.

[DFW]

17. Various interpretations, I suppose

To me, she, as pathfinder, is by far the most important one of the three, as the other two are clearly just path followers. But I guess those who see her in a position of subjugation have the most votes. Since someone looking straight ahead can't possibly be more useful to such an expedition than someone looking for path clues on the ground, I don't see how the statue makes L&C look more important than Sacajawea, but that's just my take on it.

[Bucky]

22. How familiar are you with their Western expedition?

Based on what I've read about it, no one in that party was a mere follower.

Sacagawea should definitely get a more prominent and accurate presentation in a statue honoring the Corps of Discovery. I don't think that requires any denigration of the contributions of others in the party.

[DFW]

23. In my admittedly limited understanding

L&C needed her more than she needed them (and Jefferson needed all of them).

Interestingly enough, L&C were depicted on a tiny commemorative gold $1 coin issued in 1904 and 1905. Only a few thousand were made. Sacajawea was depicted on larger one dollar coins made by the millions for general circulation about 20 years ago.