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Stewart Huntington
ICT
DENVER – Denver city officials said Monday they would not put back up a statue of Christopher Columbus that was torn down by protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
The fate of the monument – and another of frontiersman Kit Carson that the city pro-actively removed after the Columbus monument was toppled – had been in limbo for years.
“The City and County of Denver will not be reinstalling the ‘Christopher Columbus’ sculpture by William Joseph nor the Pioneer Fountain piece depicting Kit Carson by Frederick MacMonnies,” Tariana Navas-Nieves, the director of cultural affairs for Denver Arts & Venues, wrote Monday to members of the Denver American Indian Commission. “The City of Denver acknowledges the pain caused by these pieces, symbols of European colonizers that exploited the lands and peoples in the Americas, and the destructive effects of the colonial era passed down through generations still felt today.”
The news was welcomed by Commission Co-Chair Raven Payment, Ojibwe descent, although with some mixed feelings. Earlier this fall at a focus meeting with tribal elders, city representatives asked elders if it were acceptable to put the statues back up.
(Related: 10 people whose statues should replace Columbus)
The idea was not met with open arms.
“It’s bittersweet,” she told ICT. “I’m happy in the end and I hope that the city and county of Denver works to not only do right by the harm that they caused our elders (at the focus meeting) but, also considers how they’ll be doing these focus sessions with our communities going forward.”
The massive bronze sculpture of Columbus was installed in Denvers’ Civic Center park in 1972. On June 26, 2020, protesters toppled it off its base. The next day the city removed the even larger statue of Kit Carson that sat atop the Pioneer Monument at one of Denver’s central intersections at Broadway and Colfax. When a model of the Pioneer Monument was first introduced to city residents in the early 20th Century, a Native American stood at its apex. Citizens objected and, later, the likeness of Carson was substituted at the top.
Navas-Nieves from the city said she hoped a positive path forward can be found. “We have heard from the American Indian community about the pain caused by these statues,” she wrote in her email announcing the decision to scrap plans to restore the statues. “We hope their permanent removal is a first step towards healing.”
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