CHARLEMONT — Route 2 travelers have likely observed the large Native American statue towering over the Native and Himalayan Views souvenir shop. But will it be there much longer?

An online petition seeking to remove the statue has garnered roughly 1,000 signatures. Tomantha Sylvester, a team member at the Ohketeau Cultural Center as well as a resident at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, created the petition with Indigenous community members.

“The caricature images found at Native and Himalayan Views continue to invisibilize hundreds of sovereign nations and cultures, and glorify the settler colonial action of westward expansion and manifest destiny as a way to dehumanize and erase Indigenous peoples,” Sylvester writes in the petition. She added that western and central Massachusetts are full of historical inaccuracies, stereotypes and cultural appropriation, but she feels this statute is one of the “most egregious” offenses.

The statue stands taller than the gift shop building, formerly known as “The Big Indian Shop,” and features a feathered headdress (an ornamental covering that some western Indigenous nations wear, but which is not worn by eastern nations). The statue’s “skin” is painted a deep red color.

Sylvester said this is not the first attempt to remove the statue, saying she made the petition — which can be viewed at bit.ly/3CtQ5Lr — after many attempts to speak with the owner through different avenues. However, Native and Himalayan Views owner Sonam Lama said he would be “happy to meet with the Native American people and change it,” noting that the red coloring is clearly not an accurate representation of realistic skin colors.

“I am glad he is willing to meet with us and I look forward to our future communication,” Sylvester said. “I hope that we can come to an agreement and, more importantly, in my opinion, an understanding. The goal remains to have the problematic items removed from both inside and outside of the shop.”

The statue was made by Rodman Shutt, a sculptor from Strasburg, Pennsylvania who made larger-than-life pieces across the Northeast in the 1960s and ‘70s. Shutt has several other sculptures of Indigenous people in Maine and New York. The Charlemont statue has stood at the gift shop since 1974.

Lama and his wife bought the shop in 2009 when the former owners retired. He recounted removing two other statues on the premises that he found offensive.

Lama, a stonemason, immigrated to South Deerfield from Tibet while fleeing political persecution, leaving him to feel like he can empathize with Indigenous nations.

“Tibetan people and Native Americans have similar experiences,” Lama said.

In response to Lama’s statement, Sylvester wrote in an email, “Although there are historical, repressive parallels between Tibetan and Indigenous people of Turtle Island (i.e., the Americas), it should also be understood that we do not share the same form of contemporary oppressions.”

Mainland China annexed Tibet in 1950, leading to years of turmoil that resulted in their leader, the Dalai Lama, fleeing the country. Since then there has been political and religious persecution in the country for native Tibetans.

The Mohawk Trail was originally an Indigenous footpath trade and travel route, eventually becoming a scenic tourist route. This area, along with the rest of the country, has a history of violence, wars and removal targeting Indigenous sovereign nations.

“I really want to meet Native Americans and make sure we don’t forget what happened to them,” Lama said. “If I insult Native Americans in any way, I want to change that.”

“This is a history we need to recognize and address,” commented David Greenberg, a Colrain resident who signed the online petition. “Taking down statues like the ‘Big Indian’ is an important start of recognizing destruction of people’s land and genocide.”

Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@reocrder.com.

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