It was a warm June afternoon in 2020 when a group of protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota

turned their attention to a statue on the grounds of the state capital.

The activists, many of whom were associated with the American Indian movement, climbed

to the ten foot bronze statue, tied ropes around its neck, pulled hard, and within a few

minutes it had toppled off its pedestal and lay face down on the concrete sidewalk.

The gathered crowd cheered, drums were played, people danced, and the official American

Indian movement song was sung loud.

One of the activists at the scene was Mike Forcia, chairman of the Twin Cities American

Indian movement, and a member of the Bad River Band of a Jibway.

When asked for comment by journalists writing for the Minnesota reformer, he said, quote,

for healing to happen, this needed to happen.

It was here for far too long.

It's a slap in the face to all native people and all people of color.

End quote.

The statue that Mike Forcia and many others saw as a slap in the face was that of the famed

Genoese Mariner Christopher Columbus.

The St. Paul Columbus statue was not the only one to be targeted by protesters during those

heavy days of early June 2020.

That same week a Columbus statue in Richmond, Virginia was torn from its pedestal and deposited

in a lake in a nearby park.

In Boston, a well-known statue of Columbus was beheaded.

In fact, it was the third time that particular monument lost its head, having been decapitated

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