"The Start Westward” monument is considered the centerpiece of Muskingum Park in Marietta, Ohio. The monument models white colonizers who came here in 1788 to steal what is now considered the Northwest Territory. Behind the colonizers sit three indigenous women.

The carver, Gutzon Borglum, was at one time aligned with the Ku Klux Klan, which had an "active" chapter in our city, and whose main office was once on the same street where Muskingum Park and the monument are currently located.

Borglum also helped to carve statues of Confederate leaders, and most famously carved "Mount Rushmore”, previously called "Six Grandfathers”, which was a sacred Lakota Sioux site before it was stolen from them.

Marietta has contracted Woolpert, an AEG  (architecture, engineering, and geospatial) firm to enhance Muskingum Park to national park character. Part of this $2.5 million dollar enhancement includes centering the renovation and protection of this racist, colonialist statue.

We as a community have to let them know that this is unacceptable and only serves to preserve white supremacy in our city.

Instead of renovating a racist, colonialist statue, we should be tearing it down. This is history we should not be preserving or be proud of. While I’m personally in favor of reparations for indigenous people and returning their land to them, it’s ultimately not up for me to decide — it’s up to them to choose what is the best course of action if and when the statue is removed.

If anything, I hope this petition will help to raise consciousness around our city’s racist roots. While this may only seem symbolic, it is a necessary step that must be taken to acknowledge the generations of trauma black, brown, and indigenous people have faced at the hands of racists and colonizers.

According to an article published in "the American Surveyor", a public meeting to solicit community feedback on the renovation has been scheduled for late August, but because of COVID-19 the status of this meeting is now unclear.

It’d mean a lot to me if you would sign and share this petition.

Beyond that, even just sending personalized emails to the members of Marietta’s City County calling for the statue’s removal would tremendously help bring awareness around this issue to them.

Here’s a link with their names and emails:  https://www.mariettaoh.net/index.php/government-and-services/city-officials/city-council

Thank you!