Entire Town Of Sitka Should Decide Fate Of Baranov Statue - Assembly Member

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th July, 2020) All residents of Alaska's Sitka should be allowed to vote on whether to relocate the statue of city founder Alexander Baranov, Assembly member Valorie Nelson told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Sitka's Assembly is scheduled to discuss the possibility of statue relocation during the meeting later in the day. The public agenda includes discussion of two pieces of legislation - one concerning moving the Baranov statue to the local museum and the other, co-sponsored by Nelson, regarding placing an advisory proposition on the ballot in October's municipal election about removal of the statue from its current location.

"I'm more in favor of putting it to an advisory vote of the entire town to see if that is what the majority are thinking," Nelson, a former Sitka Mayor, said. "If the ballot shows the majority desire that it be moved, my proposal would be to put it on castle hill, as I believe that was given to the Russians."

In late June, a group of activists urged Sitka authorities to remove the statue, citing mistreatment of the indigenous population during the era of colonization. In 1799, Baranov founded Sitka (then called Novo-Archangelsk) as the capital of the Russian colonies in North America.

Supporters of statue removal labeled Nelson as a racist and a bigot for her position, she said.

"It seems that we are becoming a society of people that are offended by everything and we have much more important issues that we should be dealing with," she added.

Sitka is situated on Baranof Island, which is named after Baranov, who was the governor of what was then called Russian America. The group of activists that want the statue removed consists mostly of people from the Tlingit tribe.

In June, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the protection of the country's monuments, which have become a major target for protesters during a month of violent clashes and demonstrations following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year old black man, in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.

According to Trump's order, those found guilty of vandalizing statues and monuments could face 10 years in jail.

Floyd died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes in an incident captured on video that went viral.

In many cities across the country, statues depicting former Confederate generals, presidents who owned slaves, and Christopher Columbus, the fifteenth-century Italian explorer who was said to have discovered North America, have been targeted by protesters.