Page 6
July 10, 2019
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
photo by r osa s ay /W ikipeDia C ommons
A bronze monument in downtown’s Portland’s Chapman Square installed in 1993 commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Oregon Trail by depicting a white pioneer
family - father, mother, and son - at the end of their journey. Author Cynthia Culver Prescott says it also enshrines white cultural superiority as well as gender stereotypes.
The Promised Land?
Author traces monuments enshrining stereotypes
In the early 20th century, Portland
residents erected public monuments
celebrating Sacajawea, the Coming of
the White Man, and Oregon Territory’s
white pioneer mothers.
Similar sculptures soon decorated
the University of Oregon campus and
the state capitol in Salem. But efforts
to mark the 1993 Oregon Trail sesqui-
centennial with a similar pioneer family
monument sparked controversy. Outspo-
ken Portlanders resisted honoring white
settlers who took native lands.
Twenty-five years later, as many
Americans debate the fate of Confeder-
ate monuments, The Promised Land stat-
ue stands hidden in plain sight in Port-
land’s Chapman Square.
Cynthia Culver Prescott, author of the
new book Pioneer Mother Monuments:
Constructing Cultural Memory, will
trace shifting public reactions to Port-
land’s pioneer monuments over the past
century during a special visit to Portland
on Sunday with a free and open to the
public discussion at 2 p.m. at the Oregon
Historical Society, downtown.
Prescott argues that these pioneer me-
morials also enshrine white cultural su-
periority—as well as gender stereotypes.
Cynthia Culver Prescott
Only a few communities have reexam-
ined these values and erected statues
with more inclusive imagery.
Oregon Historic Trails Advisory
Council member Wendell Baskins, histo-
rian Marc Carpenter, along with Prescott
will lead a discussion of these monu-
ments’ future. Participants will then be
invited to walk with the presenters to
Chapman Square to view the Promised
Land statue with new eyes.
Prescott is associate professor of his-
tory at the University of North Dakota.
She is the author of Pioneer Mother Mon-
uments: Constructing Cultural Memory
(2019) and Gender and Generation on
the Far Western Frontier (2007).