Time
The U.S. Capitol Is Filled With Racist Depictions of Native Americans. It’s Time for Them to Go
Speaking in support of a bill to remove all portraits of Confederates from public display at the United States Capitol last year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued that the idea of artworks in the Capitol that honor “people who advocated cruelty and barbarism” is a “grotesque affront” to American ideals. The bill passed the House in June 2021, and although it has not yet come before the Senate, some states have voluntarily removed statues, including one of Robert E. Lee, honoring those who once fought for slavery from the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. One of these sculptures, carved in 1826-1827 by the Italian artist Enrico Causici, is a gruesome scene showing the explorer Daniel Boone stabbing a Native American warrior.