Legislators want removal of Confederate monument

Staff and wire

Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, joined other members of the Legislature's Montana Indian Caucus sending a letter calling for the removal of the only Confederate monument in Montana in the wake of the violence of last weekend's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"White nationalists, neo-Nazis, alt-right, and any other groups that propagate hate, discrimination, violence and bigotry, have no place in our country. These groups dishonor the basic principles of equality on which this nation exists," Rep. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula, wrote in the letter, signed by Sen. Jason Small, R-Busby; Rep. Bridget Smith, D-Wolf Point; Rep. George Kipp III, D-Heart Butte; Rep. Susan Webber, D-Browning; Rep. Sharon Stewart-Peregoy, D-Crow Agency, and Rep. Rae Peppers, D-Lame Deer as well as Windy Boy.

The letter was sent Tuesday to media outlets around the state.

Hundreds of protesters gathered Saturday in Charlottesville to decry what was believed to be the largest gathering of white supremacists in a decade - including neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members. They descended on the city for a rally prompted by the city's decision to remove a Confederate monument.

Chaos and violence erupted before the event even began, with counter-demonstrators and rally-goers clashing in the streets.

Authorities forced the crowd to disperse, and groups then began roaming through town. Counter-protesters had converged for a march along a downtown street when suddenly a Dodge Challenger barreled into them, hurling people into the air. Video shows the car reversing and hitting more people.

Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 others injured.

The Ohio man who police say was driving, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., was described by a former high school teacher as an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. He was quickly taken into custody and has been charged with second-degree murder and other counts.

Two Virginia State Police Troopers monitoring the protest also were killed when the helicopter they were in crashed.

Morigeau opened the letter with the caucus offering condolences to the family of Meyer and Virginia State Police Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper Berke M.M. Bates "and those across this great country who have been hurt physically and emotionally by the despicable actions exhibited by white nationalists."

The deaths in Charlottesville have led to some officials around the country speeding up pushes to remove Confederate monuments and tributes throughout the country.

According to Ken Robinson's book, "Montana Territory and the Civil War," Helena's Confederate Memorial Fountain, constructed by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1916, is the only monument to the Confederacy in the Northwest.

The granite fountain in Helena's Hill Park has been the subject of debate in recent years as other cities across the country decide the fate of monuments erected to honor the legacy of the Confederacy.

City officials previously have said they did not plan to remove the memorial. They plan to put up an interpretive sign.

The letter calls putting up a sign, rather than removing the fountain, especially troubling."

"Today, we must recognize the fact that the Confederacy and its symbolism has stood for segregation, secession and slavery," Morigeau wrote in the letter. "The Confederate flag was even used by the Dixiecrats, a segregationist political party of the 1940s. The flag continues to serve as an emblem for racism and racial inequality for domestic terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and other white nationalist organizations.

" ... Public property in Montana should not be used to promote Nazism, fascism, totalitarianism, separatism or racism. Please send a message that there is no hate in our state by removing this divisive memorabilia from the capital city," the letter concludes.

--

Read the full letter on Page A4 in today's Havre Daily News.