INTRODUCTION TO THE LESSON PLAN
A statue of Pierre Menard used to stand on the Capitol grounds. It was removed on September 26, 2020. Menard was a successful French Canadian entrepreneur based in Kaskaskia who astutely negotiated his position in the changing political affiliations of Illinois. When the former French territory became part of the young United States Menard became its first Lieutenant Governor. As a merchant Menard had engaged in extensive interaction with the Indians providing furs for the European trade. Living in and near Kaskaskia, he was in a French-Indian milieu. Various historical works refer to Menard’s reportedly congenial relationship with the Indians – based on mutual benefit in trading and later in his position in the U.S. government’s interest in Indian lands. These sources praise Menard’s compassion and generosity in assisting Indian tribes various times as they were being displaced, the last time relating to President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830 — the irony of that context seems to have escaped critique. Whereas Menard was able to move between the changing European worlds of the Illinois/Mississippi River frontier, the Indians ultimately lost everything.
Attention, therefore, must be paid to the former 8-ft high statue honoring Menard. It was sculpted in 1886 (Menard died in 1844) and dedicated in 1888. Conceived at the time as showing Menard trading with an Indian and representing an equitable bilateral arrangement, today’s liberals find this statue troubling — as is the one of Teddy Roosevelt on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City where the non-White member of the association is shown – in both cases – in a subservient position looking up at the White person. These statues manifestly express the racial-cultural hierarchy of the time in which they were made. Yet whereas Roosevelt’s racist views are well-known, with Menard and the Native Americans we are less certain.
A similar controversy resulted in the removal of the statue of Stephen A. Douglas from the Capitol grounds. Whereas this statue’s inscription praised (as seen in the image on this page’s header) Douglas’ determination to keep the United States together rather than divided into two countries, Douglas was both a slaveholder and Abraham Lincoln’s opponent in six senatorial campaign debates, during each one of which he supported slavery.
The MONUMENTS TOOLKIT is a project of World Heritage USA/ICOMOS USA, funded by the Mellon Foundation. The goal of this project is to remediate existing monuments that normalize people and events in American history that can be considered to be derogatory toward minority groups and historically inaccurate or insufficiently contextualized. This project grows out of the recent statue controversy surrounding monuments to the actors and ideology of the Confederacy. High school students likely would have the capacity to work with the material on the website of the Monuments Toolkit: CLICK
And there are supporting webinars and podcasts of the Monuments Toolkit: CLICK
The lesson plan below was prepared in Spring 2023 by Naiyah Williams, an undergraduate student in the public history track in the Department of History at UIUC. The lesson is planned to occupy 50 minutes. It should be used with the corresponding powerpoint. The topic is of great salience in America today. The lesson is intended to prompt discussion and reflection.
