Fractured Future

Councilors propose rebuilt obelisk for Santa Fe Plaza

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The Soldiers’ Monument on Santa Fe Plaza may not be going anywhere.

Four city councilors will propose Wednesday night to begin rebuilding the obelisk, which was partly toppled by demonstrators on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2020, though it would not look exactly as it did.

Backers say a new design and several new plaques will give additional context to the monument that was built in the 19th century to honor soldiers who fought in the Civil War as well as soldiers who fought against Indigenous people, who were described in racist terms on the monument.

“We want to see the original pieces of the obelisk bonded together with some sort of modern material that shows in an artistic way, I think, the fractures,” District 2 Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth, one of the resolution’s sponsors, told reporters at a news conference Friday on the Plaza.

But while backers argue the resolution follows through on proposals from a lengthy public engagement process known as CHART—Culture, History, Art, Reconciliation and Truth—that report was inconclusive about the monument’s fate, acknowledging a split in the community that remains unresolved while calling for more dialogue that hasn’t happened.

“Without continued public dialogue and engagement, the work that was at the heart of the CHART project is not reflected in this resolution,” Valerie Martinez, founding partner of the group that authored the report, tells SFR.

Nearly 32% of Santa Feans surveyed as part of the report wanted the monument restored with its original signage and additional language that “encourages it to be fully understood and assessed.” About 12% simply wanted the monument restored with its original signage, another 11% wanted the monument restored with different signage, and 33% called for replacing what’s left of the monument with something else.

The report recommended the city begin the process of reaching a resolution between those who supported the two most favored options—getting rid of the monument and restoring it with original as well as supplemental signage.

“They’re not hearing from the communities they need to hear from,” says Carrie Wood (Diné), a member of the Santa Fe Indigenous Center’s board of directors.

Wood says the city has contacted the center on issues such as the Midtown campus, but hasn’t involved it in recent discussions of the monument’s future.

“Who are they doing this for?” Wood asks. “If the goal is just aesthetic, just say that. Don’t use all this language about healing.”

Councilors contend the resolution starts a new process for Santa Feans to weigh in on the future of the site.

“With this work that we’ve done collaboratively, it’s an attempt or goal to really balance the various community interests and perspectives pertaining to the Soldiers’ Monument,” said District 1 Councilor Renee Villarreal, who is cosponsoring the resolution with Romero-Wirth, District 3 Councilor Chris Rivera and District 4 Councilor Amanda Chavez.

The resolution calls for installing four new plaques. One would include an Indigenous land acknowledgement and another would describe the circumstances that led to the monument’s toppling. A third plaque would restate the Entrada Proclamation from September 7, 2018, written after lengthy discussions among the All Pueblo Council of Governors, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, the Caballeros De Vargas, the Santa Fe Fiesta Council and the city government.

And a fourth plaque would “describe a complete history of the obelisk as the soldiers’ monument.”

Asked whether the fourth marker would include wording from the original monument—some of which was chipped away years ago because it used derogatory language in reference to Indigenous people—Romero-Wirth said the wording is “probably still to be determined.”

“But I think we want to be more sensitive and more inclusive and capture broader perspectives,” she added.

The resolution calls for current plaques at the site to be moved and placed “in a location accessible to the public,” suggesting a future museum display or exhibit on the city’s history.

While the city considers proposals for the obelisk, the box and fence surrounding it would be removed if the resolution passes. A light would be installed temporarily to shine into the sky, “to the extent permitted under the city’s code,” the resolution says.

The measure has early support from four of the council’s nine members. And Mayor Alan Webber—who previously called for removing the monument—tells SFR he wants to co-sponsor the resolution, too.

“I think the monument as it stood would have been best safely put in a museum or a public space where it could be studied and regarded in its historic context. The suggestion in this resolution is to do just that but not move it—to reframe the historical context,” he says.

The resolution also calls for creating an Office of Equity and Inclusion in city government, following on another recommendation from the CHART report. The office would work on crafting language for the new plaques and undertake a host of initiatives inside and outside city government, such as coordinating bias training for city staff and working with community groups.

District 1 Councilor Signe Lindell, who represents the Plaza area along with Villarreal, says the proposal took her by surprise. Lindell also supported removing the obelisk in the past but was noncommittal when asked about the resolution on Monday.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with what I would want or wouldn’t want personally,” she says.

Instead, Lindell says the CHART report should have resolved the issue. But now that it hasn’t, the council needs to make a decision.

“I don’t want us to get used to a plywood box on the Plaza,” Lindell tells SFR.

Martinez says the city did not specifically task the CHART process with deciding the monument’s fate, however. Instead, she says, the city gave CHART a much broader mandate that led to participants offering up several ideas for the site. That’s where further dialogue should come in, she says.

The resolution is slated for introduction at the council’s regular meeting on Wednesday and faces committee hearings in the weeks ahead at City Hall.

It also enters potentially tricky legal territory, as the city is facing a lawsuit from the Union Protectiva de Santa Fe that seeks to force the local government to restore the monument under historic preservation laws. A scheduling conference in that case is set for later this month.