To the Editor,
I am disappointed to see The Dalles continue to clutch desperately to its vile settler history in an evolving world. It’s like it's the early 2000s all over again: the small towns school districts combine, the student majority vote to replace ‘Indians’ from the mascot options...only to be overridden by The Dalles "Indian pride.” Pride in the genocidal heritage of this place? It turned out that the youth foresaw the right time for such a heinous depiction of native peoples to be put to rest. The archaic school district was eventually forced to drop this hateful symbol per the statewide ban of using Native American peoples as mascots.
We were behind the curve then; we are again now. More pioneer portraits on the walls of this town? I find it disturbing that the leadership of this project has given a green light to use this opportunity to adorn the walls of our downtown with pioneer settler history. This move validates the white supremacist mission of the Western United States' foundation and erases many people of color who have built, carried and contributed to this community. Oregon was envisioned by these settlers as a White Homeland and The Dalles played its part as a likely sundown town. By glossing over the horrors of the past and propping up European settler “heroism,” we are continuing to dehumanize people of color, past and present and enable hate crimes to happen nationwide. Are we going to keep giving breath to the hateful notion that ‘whites only are welcome' in The Dalles? Or rather, are we not due to include and honor the many contributions of our diverse community members who don't fit the picture of 'Manifest Destiny?'
Artists have always carried the tools of healing and transformation by depicting a visionary reality for the rest of us. We need artists to help depict solutions to current challenges of the times (salmon dying, climate chaos, etc), to inspire people to bring out their unique gifts to this existence and to dispel the festering centuries-old wounds of arrogance oozing from beneath the rug. The time is now to empower artists and marginalized people of this community and hand over the mic.
We are in deep need of healing, The Dalles, and it will take brave, vulnerable conversations with many people previously uninvited and unconsidered. We have the opportunity to rewrite a pivotal chapter in the story of The Dalles for future generations, to say that a tragic thing happened here and this is how we responded, mended and reconciled.
Our community is made up of a diversity of people across age, race, gender, sexual orientation and economic status, that all deserve to be heard and represented. Let’s give a transformative, inspiring story of The Dalles to passerbys, one of which is built with and by the people of the various walks of life here.
-Amy Krol
