Statement of the Cherokee Street Community Improvement District

The Cherokee Native statue at the corner of Cherokee Street and South Jefferson Avenue was removed this morning. With a majority vote of community members at the Cherokee Street Community Improvement District public meeting and the support of the artist, the statue will be donated to the National Building Arts Center. 

The statue was commissioned in 1985 by the Cherokee Station Business Association to serve as a landmark for the street and its commercial district. However, the statue does not appropriately honor the indigenous communities that have called this land home.

Once uninstalled, the statue was moved to the National Building Arts Center. Based in Sauget, Ill., the National Building Arts Center houses the nation’s largest collection of building artifacts and represents the single largest effort toward understanding the American built environment and the historical process of its creation.