Unveiling and Unlearning: Honoring Shaynowishkung, Ten Years Later

The Shaynowishkung statue in Library Park, Bemidji, Minnesota, was erected in 2015.

This Saturday marks ten years since the bronze statue of Shaynowishkung was dedicated in Library Park. It is not only a tribute to an individual but a collective act of correction, an intentional re-centering of truth, dignity, and community voice after generations of misrepresentation.

Before this statue, Bemidji’s “Chief Bemidji” monuments were created without input from Shaynowishkung’s family or Indigenous communities. They reflected a white imagination of Indigeneity: flattened, romanticized, and convenient. Though often framed as tributes, they emerged from a legacy of settler colonialism and white saviorism. They honored Native presence while ignoring Native sovereignty and erasing the truths of land theft, removal, and refusal.

At the History Center, we have displayed the original statues for years. In doing so, we continued reinforcing the harm the new statue was meant to correct. So we are going to stop. These statues will be removed from the permanent exhibition. They will be preserved as artifacts, not celebrated or centered, because we must keep this truth about ourselves.

These objects reflect the layers of racism and colonial thinking that we have inherited, and we have a responsibility to name that legacy and change how we carry it forward.

Some artifacts serve history best by being preserved, not continually displayed. By making space — physically and narratively — we recommit to the deeper work of historical accountability.

Please join us in Library Park this Saturday to honor Shaynowishkung’s life, legacy, and the vision his descendants continue to carry. Learn more at https://www.beltramihistory.org/event-details/honoring-shaynowishkung-a-community-remembers.