Toppled Civil War statue at Colorado Capitol to be replaced by sculpture of Native American woman

DENVER — The Civil War statue toppled by protesters outside the Colorado state Capitol over the summer will be replaced by a sculpture of a Native American woman mourning the atrocities of the Sand Creek Massacre.

The Capitol Building Advisory Committee voted 7-2 Friday in favor of the new sculpture after hearing from representatives of the tribes that suffered at Sand Creek 156 years ago, Colorado Public Radio reported.

“They were wiped out,” Otto Braided Hair, of the Northern Cheyenne and a descendant of Sand Creek survivors, told the committee. “Their voices are no longer heard. Their wishes and concerns were no longer heard. Those are the people we speak for.”

The state Legislature now must determine how big the monument and its pedestal will be and how it will get to Colorado from Oklahoma, where a 7-inch-high prototype has already been approved.