Disagrees with last Gazette editorial

I recently read your opinion piece, “History Under Fire,” in the Feb. 4 edition of the paper and wholeheartedly disagree with your premise.

House Bill 1372 is a bill to replace Marcus Whitman’s statue in the National Statuary Hall collection in Washington D. C. with a statue of another distinguished Washington state citizen, Billy Frank Jr.

Marcus Whitman’s statue would be returned to the state of Washington to be displayed at a future location.

It is not uncommon for states to replace statues in the hall with other statues; after all, our histories consist of many notable characters. The replacement guidelines at the hall stipulate that the statue be in place for at least 10 years before it is replaced.

Marcus Whitman’s has been in place for 70 years.

Billy Frank Jr. was a Nisqually tribal member committed to equality, justice, and environmental protections. His activism led to the Boldt decision of 1974. Frank helped establish trust between tribes and state agencies as they worked to reverse the trend of salmon extinction.

For his perseverance, Billy Frank Jr. was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, the Common Cause Award for Human Rights Efforts, the American Indian Distinguished Service Award, the Washington State Environmental Excellence Award, and the Wallace Stegner Award.

He was posthumously awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Barack Obama.

The replacement is not, as you suggest, an attempt to eradicate history, but to further celebrate it.

Shawn Northouse,

Steptoe