Cherokee Nation Removes Confederate Monuments

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) — The Cherokee Nation has removed two confederate monuments from its Capitol Square that were erected nearly a century ago by the Daughters of the Confederacy.

A crane removed the monuments from the nation’s tribal headquarters in Tahlequah on Saturday as Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., watched.

“It’s difficult to tell our story when we have non-Indian-driven monuments talking about the Confederacy, when they greet people as they come into our Cherokee Nation museum,” Hoskin said in a statement. “It was time for a change.”

The monuments included a fountain memorializing confederate soldiers and Gen. Stand Watie that was dedicated in 1913 and a granite monument honoring Watie dedicated in 1921.

The capitol square houses the original Cherokee Nation courthouse, which has been converted into a Cherokee history museum.

Watie’s name was removed from an Oklahoma City elementary school in 2017 in the wake of violent white supremacist protests over the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia.