Our Executive Director Gaeñ hia uh/ Betty Lyons, New York Times Letter to the editor:
The planned removal of the statue of Theodore Roosevelt from in front of the American Museum of Natural History is just one step in the struggle to confront the racist imagery that underscores the continuing oppression of those who are not descended from the European settler community.
Citizens of Indigenous nations, including my own Onondaga, applaud this reckoning with the centuries of racism and dehumanization by the larger society that continue today, and know that removing statues of Christopher Columbus is essential for that cleansing to continue.
The larger society needs to confront those oppressions head on, and realize that the symbols of that oppression go far beyond the Confederate flag.
Betty Lyons
Onondaga Nation, N.Y.
The writer is president and executive director of the American Indian Law Alliance.
