|
Back
to Press Releases
Contact: Kim Alton
202) 662-8317
September
21, 2004
Native
American EPA Employees Still Endure Harassment During
National Festival Celebrating Native Americans
(Washington,
DC) Native American EPA employees endure a workplace
that displays racially and ethnically demeaning, offensive,
and historically inaccurate paintings. While a few
blocks away, the National Museum of the American Indian
opens as part of a long overdue celebration of the
culture and traditions of the First Americans.
The
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in conjunction
with the firm of Latham & Watkins, LLP represent
Native American EPA employees who object to the paintings
on display in the Ariel Rios North Building in Washington,
DC. The EPA paintings perpetuate stereotypes of Native
Americans as savages, murderers and sexual predators.
The
General Services Administration (GSA), the landlord
of the building, has relied on the National Historic
Preservation Act (NHPA) in order to avoid removing
the murals. “The NHPA does not require the display
of paintings replete with negative stereotypical images
of Native Americans,” said Audrey Wiggins, Staff
Attorney for the Employment Discrimination Project
of the Lawyers' Committee. “It is hard to believe
that the writers of the NHPA imagined the Act would
protect work that is historically inaccurate and creates
a racially demeaning and hostile work environment.
For our clients, those paintings serve as a harsh
reminder that they work for an employer that refuses
to address the concerns of Native American employees.”
“I’m
sickened by the violent images in these paintings,”
said Bob Smith, one of the EPA employees represented
by the Lawyers' Committee and Latham & Watkins.
“The paintings are historically inaccurate, promote
racial stereotyping, and their interpretations reek
of prejudice and racism. I, along with other Indians,
feel ashamed and embarrassed that EPA would allow
this kind of hostile environment to exist under the
protest of the EPA American Indian Advisory Council.
This lack of respect for Indian People at EPA cannot
be off set by the opening of the new Indian museum
only a few blocks up the street.”
A
complete description of these paintings can be found
below.
The
Lawyers' Committee is a forty year old nonpartisan,
nonprofit civil rights legal organization, formed
in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy
to provide legal services to address racial discrimination.
--------
SEPTEMBER
21, 2004 PRESS RELEASE ADDENDUM
Native
American U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
employees have expressed concern for the racially
and ethnically demeaning, offensive, and historically
inaccurate paintings on display on the fifth and seventh
floors of the Ariel Rios North Building in Washington,
DC. These paintings include:
Frank
A. Mechau’s “Dangers of the Mail”
- A
national controversy since its creation, the painting
depicts a massacre scene where Native American men,
having overturned a stage coach, are scalping nude
white women and murdering white men.
Frank
A. Mechau’s “Pony Express”
- Depicts
Native Americans as thieves, and has a scene of
slaughtered Native Americans, dead on the ground.
William
C. Palmer’s “Covered Wagon Attacked by Indians”
- Depicts
Native Americans as savages, as they attack a wagon
with spears, although the settlers have muskets
in their hands. Inaccurately, the painting shows
a Chief attacking the wagon as well, although Chiefs
typically gave orders and did not actively fight.
Ward
Lockwood’s “Opening of the Southwest”
and “Consolidation of the West”
- Illustrate
an “uncivilized” Native eating a snake,
and another Native male, in only loin cloth, lying
on the floor in defeat. The white colonists look
to the west in hope and reverence.
Karl
R. Free’s “French Explorers and Indians”
- Depicts
passivity and submission towards the French. Native
men are naked or wearing only a loin cloth, and
the Native women are bare-breasted.
In
2000, Administrator Carol M. Browner ordered that
the paintings be covered, agreeing that the paintings
“perpetuate stereotypes demeaning to various
groups of Americans.” However, the paintings
were subsequently uncovered and even removed to be
refurbished, returned and are currently on display
in the same locations.
download
a pdf of the paintings
top
back
to Press Releases
|
