As the home to an American state’s democratically elected representative government, the Colorado State Capitol boasts great symbolic power. The west front, the primary façade with an inspirational mountain view, is its most prominent aspect. Protests and celebrations alike take place there, both creating and interpreting Colorado’s story. As such, monuments on the capitol’s west front make the strongest statement about the region’s values and priorities. In recent years, people worldwide have engaged in a reinterpretation of public memorialization, debating whether icons of past generations deserve to remain prominent fixtures of modern communities. In Colorado, diverse stakeholders compete for the state’s most significant site. A 1909 monument erected to soldiers who kept the region loyal to the United States during its Civil War included language describing a massacre of indigenous people—the deadliest day in the region’s history—as just another skirmish. Debates have raged since the late twentieth century over whether to modify the piece of public art. Officials approved a separate memorial for the massacre in 2016, but four years later the Civil War monument was toppled during protests following the murder of George Floyd. In the aftermath, the idea of simply replacing it with the massacre memorial emerged, meeting with enthusiasm and resistance alike. The struggle of white versus indigenous memorialization, and historical interpretation more broadly, at the most prominent site in Colorado echoes similar debates in communities worldwide. This presentation intends to show how the struggle over one symbolic site reflects this contemporary global reckoning.
Derek R. Everett is a member of the history departments at Metropolitan State University of Denver and Colorado State University, with an emphasis on Colorado, western American, and United States history, with an emphasis on public architecture, geography, and immigration. In addition, he serves as the historian of the Colorado State Capitol, the state’s most prominent and symbolic structure. He is the author of several books on Colorado and Western history, including studies that place the capitol in interpretive context, and presents regularly for academic and public audiences.