Teedyuscung, a Man, a Statue: Folklore, Stories, and Native American Commemorative Statues and Monuments

Abstract

This is a public history study of statues and monuments, and the stories they commemorate. “Teedyuscung, a Man, a Statue” examines, specifically, Native American statue and monument commemorations. I begin with the Tedyuscung Statue in Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Valley. In examining this statue and story surrounding it, I ask: Who does this statue represent? How does the Tedyuscung Statue affect passerby’s collective memory of Native American cultures and peoples? And how does the Tedyuscung Statue facilitate the creation and construction of an artificial, imagined, and colonized Indigenous space and place in Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Valley? In answering these questions, I examine how and why Teedyuscung, the man, was cast as an actor in the Wissahickon Valley’s history. I transition next into a broad study of Native American commemorative statue and monuments, such as: The Statue of Tamanend, Philadelphia, PA; The Nez Perce 1831 St. Louis Delegation Memorial monument, St. Louis, MO; the Kindred Spirits sculpture, County Cork, Ireland; and the Dignity: Of Earth and Sky sculpture, Chamberlain, SD. Through examining these studies, I answer several questions: How are Native American peoples represented in commemorative statues and monuments today? And further, do all Native American commemorations relay similar forms of Indigenous silence and erasure? This thesis, ultimately, reveals that statues and monuments can reclaim Indigenous space and place, narrating the stories Native Americans seek to tell. And, that statues and monuments can, conversely, create imagined spaces that silence Native Americans stories and histories.