Efforts underway in Alaska to remove statues of colonialists

[Judi Lynn]

Brian P. D. Hannon, Associated Press
Updated 10:52 am CDT, Sunday, July 26, 2020

As many in the Lower 48 call for statues of Confederate leaders to be removed amid a national reckoning on race, some Alaska residents are conducting a similar movement demanding statues tied to colonization be eliminated or relocated.

A statue of Russian colonialist Alexander Baranov will be taken out of public view in one city and petitions are circulating calling for the removal of statues dedicated to former U.S. Secretary of State and Alaska purchase architect William Seward and Capt. James Cook, who has been credited with discovering land already inhabited by Indigenous people.

Indigenous people and others who signed petitions to remove those statues perceive them as symbols of colonialism, oppression and white supremacy, said Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting Native cultures in Southeast Alaska including the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes.

“The history of their legacies with the expropriation of Indigenous lands and resources, the suppression and eradication of Native cultures and societies, and the resulting damage and intergenerational trauma experienced by Native Peoples are ignored and not recounted in history,” Worl said.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Efforts-underway-in-Alaska-to-remove-statues-of-15435096.php

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

1. Are they going to rename the town of Seward and the Cook Inlet too?

The city was named for William H. Seward, the U.S. secretary of state who negotiated the Alaska Purchase from Russia.

Cook Inlet was named by the Earl of Sandwich for Captain James Cook, 1728-79, Royal Navy (RN), who explored and mapped the region in 1778. Captain George Vancouver called it "Cooks Inlet."