Idaho debates whether to cover mural of Indian being lynched

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-ind13.html

BOISE, Idaho -- For 66 years, two murals depicting the lynching of an Indian have hung in a now-abandoned county courthouse in Idaho's capital -- reminders of the bloodshed that accompanied America's westward expansion.

Starting in 2008, the Idaho Legislature plans to meet in the old Ada County courthouse while the state Capitol building is renovated. And lawmakers, historians and Indian leaders disagree over whether the murals should be preserved as history or removed or covered up as disturbing and offensive.

''They should be painted over,'' said Claudeo Broncho of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, whose traditional territory included Ada County.

Others want them to remain as reminders of injustices committed against Indians. snip

Race relations in Idaho, home to the white supremacist Aryan Nations group up until 2004, have been a sore spot for years. In the 1990s, District Judge Gerald Schroeder, now Idaho's chief justice, found the murals so offensive that he draped an American flag over them.

[William769]

1. DO NOT COVER OR PAINT OVER!!!

History is history. I'm sick & tired of revisionist & the hiding of our History in the U.S.!

[xchrom]

3. WHOSE REVISIONISM ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

[justice1]

4. There are plenty of examples

There is a religious group in Texas that monitors text books. They pressure publishers of school books to change wording based on their agenda.

There is also a growing number of people that believe the holocaust didn't happen. If examples of that period of time are not preserved, it would add fuel to the flame for their argument. That would disrespect the people that suffered.

I'm a firm believer that if you don't learn from the past, you are damned to repeat it.

[xchrom]

5. yes but that's not exactly this case is it?

we have a case here of first nations people not wanting to see the image of one of their own being lynched.

it's most certainly not about a case of first nations people wanting to revise history.

[William769]

10. Well as a cherokee I get offended when people make light of the trail of

Tears. It was a massacre of a people. If we forget history, it's bound to repeat itself.

[xchrom]

11. nobody is forgetting history -- the first nation people in this case

are certainly not asking for the history books to be rewritten -- they are asking for a mural to be changed.

[ret5hd]

2. ...District Judge Gerald Schroeder, now Idaho's chief justice, ...

found the murals so offensive that he draped an American flag over them.

:rofl:

Can he see, can he imagine, the dark inky depths of irony he is exploring?

[lpbk2713]

6. I say leave it.

We need reminders that in our past we have done a lot of "wrong" things as well as "right" things. To post only rosy pictures and paintings of works and deeds that were all to the common good would deny that there was ever room for improvement, that we never learned from our mistakes.

[BlooInBloo]

7. As soon as it's covered, white folks'll start denying it ever happened...

[Taxloss]

8. Ah yes, them white folks, not to be trusted,

what with their broad-brush racism, it oughtn't be allowed.

[xchrom]

12. actually when it comes to justice and first nations people --

there's a point to be had.

whites are still in a safe majority -- i hardly think you have anything to fear from racism.

now or anytime in the near future.

[Sequoia]

9. Is there a picture of it anywhere?