Nearly two years after a vandalized and neglected statue honoring one of Spokane’s Indian leaders was abruptly demolished and hauled away from a park that bears his name, Spokan Garry is coming back.
In spirit, if not in physical form.
The Spokane Tribe has unveiled plans for a landscaped, meditative space dedicated to more than the memory of just one man. Instead of a replacement statue, the tribe has settled on reshaping a corner of Chief Garry Park into a place for reflection and information on the indigenous people the city is named for.
“It’s going to be called The Gathering Place, and it has the theme of this is our aboriginal homeland and the fact that the city is named after the tribe,” says Jamie Sijohn, public relations director for the Spokane Tribe.
The design is a landscaped circle about 20 feet across with a 16-foot-tall circle of Corten steel planted upright and columnar basalt for benches.
The design brings to a happy end a period of shock and outrage among area Indians when the statue of Garry was demolished with scant notice. When it was replaced with a surplus abstract sculpture of a totem pole, outrage grew — since totems are not part of the Plateau culture that the Spokane and other interior tribes are a part of.
The episode served to remind Indians they are still largely invisible in a place that once was an important gathering place.
The project is expected to cost $50,000, with about $20,000 in hand. Work is set to begin in a matter of weeks, and fundraising begins Friday at the Spokane Shock home opener.
Singer Jim Boyd will perform at halftime and is again donating his time and money from DVD sales to the cause. The Spokane Tribe will staff tables to take donations.
“It is really much more creative than I had anticipated,” Mayor Mary Verner says. “This is more of a living representation of what Spokan Garry lived his life all about — which was bringing people together.”
For information on donating, call Jamie Sijohn at (509) 458-6586.
Totem pole, totem hole!!!??? Is this a mockery? I see no representation of Chief Garry or the people. Where´s the salmon? Where´s the fishermen? Where´s the falls, the roots and the root diggers? Where´s the huckleberries, the upright stove pipe? Where is any of it? Where did this design come from? What happened to the great concepts submitted by local native artists like Flett, Hill and Gendron? This modern interpretation is supposed to represent the people from the Spokane Tribe? I´m a tribal member and none of the tribal members I know ever saw this design nor were we ever given the opportunity to vote on it. This mockery has as much representation of Chief Garry as the existing totem pole that has already taken his place at the park. Is this really how this thing ends? Chief Garry will be lost and forgotten, buried in some archive at the Mac. If this is erected we should change the name of the park. I do not support this project and would actually drive out of my way so I wouldn´t have to pass it or the park. Sincerely, Spokane Tribal Member Jeff Ferguson
Apr 15, 2010 | Reply to this commentAre interpretive signs and monuments enough to adequately represent the aboriginal perspective on Urban Design & Planning? Is there anything overtly Spokane Indian about the physical city, except perhaps for the land it is built on? Are Traditional Spokane Indian Architecture features such as the Tule Mat Tipi, Tule Mat Longhouse, and Pithouse still valid today, and can they be applied to contemporary day Architectural conceptions for a more culturally relevant monument form?
The circular form and basalt piece above was computer rendered by the non-Indian Landscape Architect named Barry Ellison of the design firm "Land Expressions" of Spokane. If the landscape architect was non-Indian, then how is this any different than the non-Indian sculptor of the metal totem pole currently displayed in Chief Garry Park?
What is missing is the passion from within the Indigenous community that can be communicated by Spokane Tribal members who have college degrees in Urban Planning, Architecture, and Parks & Recreation. To celebrate an aboriginal perspective in the built environment disciplines, control and continuity of the artifacts must come from the Indigenous people themselves. Would artwork painted, sculpted, sketched, carved, or worked by a non-Indian artist have the stamp of approval to be considered American Indian artwork? Why should American Indian theme artifacts like monuments or architecture be any different?
Apr 15, 2010 | Reply to this commentAs a member of the Spokane Tribe I find this replacement of the Chief Spokan Garry to be very sad. Spokan Gary was a very important part read below
Garry, Chief Spokane (ca. 1811-1892)
HistoryLink.org Essay 8713 : Printer-Friendly Format
Chief Spokane Garry was a chief of the Spokane Tribe whose long, and ultimately tragic life spanned the fur-trading, missionary, and white settlement eras of the region. His father, also a Spokane chief, sent Garry off with fur traders at age 14 to be educated at the Red River Settlement´s missionary school in Canada. Garry returned after five years, fluent in English and French, to become an influential leader and spokesman for his tribe. He opened a rough school to teach reading and writing and also taught his fellow tribesmen agricultural techniques. He participated in many peace councils, including those of 1855 and 1858, and was known as a steadfast advocate of peace and an equally steadfast advocate of a fair land settlement for his tribe. He never wavered on his insistence that the Spokane people should have the rights to their native lands along the Spokane River, a goal which proved unattainable. His own farm in what is now the Hillyard area of Spokane was stolen from him late in life and he and his sadly diminished band were forced to camp in Hangman Valley, where boys from the growing city of Spokane would throw rocks onto their tepees. A kindly landowner allowed Garry and his family to camp in Indian Canyon, where he lived out the rest of his life in poverty. He died there in 1892 and was buried in a pauper´s grave. Decades later, a Spokane city park was named after him and a statue erected in his honor.
Chief Spokan Garry did important work and was an extremely significant in the history of Spokane. This is Spokane correct? In life he was used up, cast aside and completely dismissed unto his death. Dismissed like most Native People especially in this area. Naming the park after him and creating a statue in his honor was a beautiful gesture. It was dreadfully heartbreaking to find that it had been vandalized then quietly taking down without any notification to his people the Spokane Tribe, another dismissal of Spokan Garry, another dismissal of native people in the the area.
Now there is this whatever you want to call it to replace it? In my opinion it is yet another slap in the face and shove into the mudd to Chief Spokan Garry. There is no clear representation of him in this device, it is a beautiful idea to make a tribute to the Indigenous culture of this area however not as a replacement of Spokan Garry. There are statues of European figures all over, what if we took down The Lincoln Monument and repalced it with symbols of Lincoln´s culture it wouldn´t quite have the same effect now would it?
Apr 15, 2010 | Reply to this commentSpokane tribal memebr Apr 15, 2010
I appreciate the coverage and support of this issue by the Inlander. I am also a Spokane Tribal member and don´t understand the "reflection of spirit" in this new design. The contributions made by local Native artists were all beautiful and I am wondering what happened to those designs? I would much rather see something that reflects our culture without having to read the small print to decipher the symbolism.
Apr 15, 2010 | Reply to this commentTotem Pole Coastal Indian Aesthetic in the heart of the Plateau Culture Area. This has never made sense to me. Perhaps looking at who was in control of the planning can shed light on this phenomenon.
Apr 15, 2010 | Reply to this commentAn important aspect of culture, both for the Indigenous host community and the tourism industry, is the quality and uniqueness of local architecture, historical buildings, and monuments. These inanimate objects reflect the history of the hosts, and are a major tourist attraction. However, any substantative reflection of the 8,000 year place attachment of the Spokane Tribe of Indians is absent from the built environment of the modern day city of Spokane on every level, except for the name that bears the tribal name. Are the local indigenous tribes in the Spokane, Washington region still being forced to maintain someone else’s Architectural heritage (non-indigenous) at a cost to them selves? Where’s the Architectural or Urban Design & Planning elements, for indigenous people to substantively identify with as fully realized human beings on their traditional homeland in the 8,000 year old city of Spokane, Washington?