SET(TLER) IN STONE: Misogyny, anti-Indigeneity, and white-supremacy as U.S. myths of settler innocence in so-called America

(acKNOWLEDGEment - learned most of this in Kirsten Buick’s “American Landscape” course at UNM)
>Addresses U.S. anti-Indigeneity<

"Columbus and the Indian Maiden" - Constantino Brumidi, Fresco, 1875. On display in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol

Columbus’s invasion of this land is often depicted in State art as a “discovering” of a cowering “Indian” woman. Sometimes she is even named “America” in these works. The “Indian” and the woman are stand-ins for land, it’s supposed wildness and fertility. 

"The Discovery of America" - Luigi Persico, white marble, 1844. Displayed in front of the east façade of the U.S. Capitol from 1844 to 1958

This statue depicts Christopher Columbus holding a globe aloft as a cowering “Indian maiden” looks on. Columbus’s triumphant pose alongside the “Indian’s” recoil is symbolic of supposed white-superiority over the “Indians” and their land, so-called “America”

"The Rescue" - Horatio Greenough, white marble, 1850. Displayed in front of the east façade of the U.S. Capitol from 1853 to 1958

The artist of this one wrote that it was meant to “commemorate the dangers and difficulty of peopling our continent” and “to convey the idea of the triumph of whites over the savage tribes.”

​The Rescue and Discovery of America together helped the settler imagination rationalize Andrew Jackson’s “Indian Removal” policy. 

"Landing of Columbus" - John Vanderlyn, Oil on canvas, 1847. On display in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda

This painting is described in the U.S. Capitol’s website: “In the foreground, a fallen tree and spiky, bread-leafed plants suggest that a new and unknown world begins only a few paces from the explorers’ feet. At the right edge, the natives blend into the forest of tall deciduous trees.” Again collapsing “Indians” and the land, depicting them as fallen. The Myth of the Disappearing Indian.

"Baptism of Pocahontas" - John G. Chapman, Oil on canvas, 1840. On display in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

Here Pocahontas is depicted glowing in white robes, cowering/kneeling below the white-settler-man-Priest. Through her baptism Pocahontas is, as a symbol of the land, turned white–civilized, tamed, Christianized, assimilated. To the right side, in front of a group of “Indian” men, an “Indian” woman in “Indian” clothes looks on, kneeling, holding a baby. They are all in the dark. Pocahontas and the Priest are in the light/right.

Frieze of American History, "America and History," Constantino Brumidi, 1878-1880. On display in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda

This piece is described in the U.S. Capitol’s website: “The first panel contains the only allegorical figures in the frieze. America...stands in the center with her spear and shield. To her right sits an Indian maiden with a bow and arrow, representing the untamed American continent. Also at America’s feet is a female figure representing history…”

Here the “Indian maiden” as “America” is replaced by the white woman "America.” The settler is now native. 

"Progress of Civilization" Pediment - Thomas Crawford, Marble, 1863. On display at the east entrance to the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol.

Detail of "Progress of Civilization" Pediment showing the characters "America," "woodsman," and "soldier."

This piece is described in the U.S. Capitol’s website: “The center figure is America [depicted as a white woman in Romanesque robes]... On the right, a woodsman, hunter, Indian chief, Indian mother and child, and Indian grave represent the early days of America. On the left, the diversity of human endeavor is suggested by the soldier (imperialism), the merchant (capitalism), the two youths (settler-futurity), the schoolmaster and child (pre-education camps), and the mechanic (Industrialization).”

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White-supremacist myths of US innocence are set in stone in our US Capitol and across this land, literally using stolen land (extractive-capitalism) to reify/immortalize myths that erase the ongoing history of Indigenous erasure in the service of this  “One Nation Under (a Christian) God.” The U.S. cannot celebrate Indigenous heritage until it reckons with its own ongoing genocidal heritage swaddled myths of settler innocence. 

For more on these monuments to white power visit: aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art.