Washington State Historical Society reviewing vintage monuments for ‘accuracy and inclusivity’

Monuments and roadside markers around the state, some dating back more than a century, are being examined for “accuracy and inclusivity” by the Washington State Historical Society.

It’s been a different world for some monuments and statues ever since the “Unite the Right” violence in Charlottesville in August 2017 and the murder of George Floyd a little more than two years ago.

Along with the destruction and removal of Confederate statues in the American South, the Pacific Northwest has had its own reckoning with stone, bronze, and concrete. Statues of controversial figures which have stood on public lands for decades have been questioned for their appropriateness; geographic names have been challenged and changed, and even private Confederate memorials—such as the Daughters of the Confederacy monument to Robert E. Lee in Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery—have been vandalized and then removed.

Against this backdrop, the Washington State Historical Society (WSHS) began a project in 2020 to inventory markers and monuments that the publicly-funded institution was involved with installing and dedicating between about 1900 and 1950. WSHS identified a total of 43 such objects located around the state, such as a stone pyramid commemorating the 1858 Battle of Spokane Plain near Fairchild Air Force Base in Eastern Washington, and a simple column for the 1841 Wilkes Expedition at what’s now JBLM in Pierce County.

Most of the monuments identified by WSHS have been dormant, undisturbed, and essentially ignored for decades – just sitting by the roadside or in some out-of-the-way spot, silently commemorating a 19th century military engagement with Indigenous people, the exploits of an early explorer, or the domestic accomplishments of non-indigenous settlers. Given the era when the markers were first created, the verbiage on the bronze plaque or carved in stone doesn’t necessarily reflect modern thinking and more balanced, more nuanced – and thus more accurate – storytelling.

WSHS has assembled an advisory committee, and recently was awarded a grant of $142,000 from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. According to a press release from earlier this month, the grant money will support a multi-year process to engage with tribes and with the general public to address accuracy and inclusivity – whether or not the full story is represented – and, ultimately, a process to “determine the future of these monuments and historical markers.”

Polly Olsen is director of Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion & Decolonization as well as tribal liaison for the Burke Museum in Seattle. She’s Yakama, and is a member of the WSHS advisory committee for the monument project.

Olsen says the problematic aspect of the 43 monuments is that they only tell part of the big and often complicated stories they represent.

“There was not the process of consultation with other community members who have long deep-rooted, land-based experience or cultural practices [ . . . ] within those monuments’ spaces,” Olsen told ` Newsradio. “And so the stories were someone’s interpretation and narrative from their family’s experience, without including pre-contact consideration in how those stories were created.”

For the monuments directly related to Indigenous history – such as those that tell only one side of a battle where the US Army prevailed over Indigenous people defending their homeland – Olsen agrees that addressing the “accuracy and inclusivity” is difficult without having candid and difficult conversations about 19th century history, what some would call “truth and reconciliation.” Many modern historians believe that, although the policy wasn’t exactly stated in so many words, the goal in the treaty era of the mid 19th century was the elimination of indigenous people. Reservations were merely places for the Indigenous to slowly die, out of the way of Manifest Destiny and all it entailed when it came to real estate and natural resources.

“Reconciliation is very important [ . . . ] and words on monuments matter,” Olsen said. “And we need to change the erasure of communities and have these hard conversations, change the narrative.”

Either way, Polly Olsen is optimistic about the long-term impacts of the monument project.

“This is really exciting to be able to give a different interpretation and experience and perception to the young people to the next generation,” Olsen said, “as well as to the tourists who come and visit the state of Washington.”

There are no firm plans as yet for how to address specific monuments – whether to add new interpretive plaques or signage alongside existing plaques; completely replace plaques; or remove entire monuments, plaque and all.

Regardless of ultimate plans, Olsen told ` Newsradio that among the 43 monuments in the statewide inventory, there isn’t a single example that she believes should be left as is.

“These narratives weren’t created in consultation with the tribal people of the land,” Olsen said. “Again, this comes from a settler narrative of the first schools, the first church, these civilized practices or, you know, ‘civilization began here.'”

Which is just not correct, says Olsen.

And, for those non-Indigenous people (radio historians among them) who sometimes worry about sounding ignorant or insensitive when it comes to talking with Indigenous people about local history, Olsen says that’s okay.

“We are going to make mistakes and we are going to say things wrong,” Olsen said. “Look at those monuments, those are wrong. And so for us to be able to ask questions and learn from each other and to hear each other’s story and perspective and to unpack what we’ve learned in our own K-12 education experience and our own lived experiences, this is healing. This is an important conversation.”

The statewide review of monuments and markers is expected to take several years, with civic engagement with the general public and consultation with specific tribes in areas near where specific monuments stand. For more information, visit the WSHS project web page.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien, read more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or questions, please email Feliks here.

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