Muscogee dismayed by nearly naked statue of Georgia ancestor
By MICHAEL WARREN
Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — There’s a problem with putting someone on a pedestal: Exposed on all sides, a hero to some can be seen as a traitor to others. So it is in Atlanta with a statue of Chief Tomochici, a Native American man who welcomed the British to colonize Georgia in 1733. The city plans to install it in Atlanta’s Peace Park, where it would tower over statues of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights icons. But no one asked the Muscogee Nation. Their historians call the nearly naked statue historically inaccurate and disrespectful, and say it glorifies a man whom they blame for ushering in genocide.
