Mayor Lori Lightfoot declined to answer whether the commission’s now-public recommendation that all three Columbus statues be removed permanently would prompt her to reconsider her position that the statues should be returned to their pedestals.
“What is clear is the history of both communities is intrinsic to our shared Chicago history and the stories of both communities in all of the nuances needs to be told, known and respected by every Chicagoan,” Lightfoot said. “We need to create more opportunities for bridge building which will be to the benefit of us all.”
In addition, a former attorney for the Chicago Park District sued the city after he said Lightfoot berated him using obscene language and blocked a deal the Park District made to allow a Columbus statue to be displayed in a parade. The commission also recommended that “Indians ” which stands at the Michigan Avenue entrance of Grant Park, also be placed in its proper context.
All four reliefs on the bridge “place the history of Chicago and the Battle of Fort Dearborn within an allegorical narrative of the triumph of Western civilization. American Indians are used as merely a foil to help define the heroic acts and qualities of colonizing forces,” according to the commission report.
The commission also recommended removing the statue of Marquette and an American Indian near 26th Street and Damen Avenue as well as the Marquette-Jolliet Memorial in Little Village because it “reinforces stereotypes about American Indians and glorifies a complicated and painful history of Western expansion. It features a cowering American Indian, following submissively in the footsteps of Marquette,” according to the report.
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