{"id":53181,"date":"2020-06-22T13:39:47","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T19:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/amid-calls-for-removal-chief-sign-in-downtown-durango-vandalized\/"},"modified":"2020-06-22T19:39:47","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T19:39:47","slug":"amid-calls-for-removal-chief-sign-in-downtown-durango-vandalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/amid-calls-for-removal-chief-sign-in-downtown-durango-vandalized\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid calls for removal, \u2018Chief\u2019 sign in downtown Durango vandalized"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

After petitions circulated last week both in support and in opposition to the \u201cChief\u201d sign in downtown Durango, the large Native American caricature outside the Toh-Atin Gallery was vandalized with spray paint over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Durango Police Department Cmdr. Rita Warfield said video surveillance caught a suspect around 11:30 p.m. Friday vandalizing the Chief in the west 100 block of Ninth Street, across from the gallery, which owns the sign.<\/p>\n

Warfield said the suspect painted the words \u201cnot your mascot\u201d and a large fist. There was also miscellaneous graffiti, resulting in about $2,500 in damages to the sign.<\/p>\n

It appeared Monday morning most of the graffiti had been cleaned.<\/p>\n

The vandalism was reported to the Durango Police Department early Saturday morning. Investigators were able to obtain video surveillance from a nearby business, which caught a possible suspect.<\/p>\n

Warfield said video images were unable to capture a shot of the suspect\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the face, just clothing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Vandals
Vandals caused $2,500 in damages to the Chief sign in downtown Durango, authorities say.<\/span>Courtesy of Antonia Clark<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Chief sign in downtown Durango has been at the center of controversy in recent days, leading up to the sign being vandalized Friday night.<\/span>Courtesy of Antonia Clark<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A call to Toh-Atin Gallery co-owner Antonia Clark was not returned Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Early last week, a petition was started calling for the Chief sign to be taken down<\/a>. Those who started the petition say the sign is degrading to Indigenous people, racist and reinforces stereotypes.<\/p>\n

The petition surfaced amid a nationwide movement to take down statutes and other monuments some consider symbols of historical racism and oppression, re-energized after the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Not long after, a counter-petition was circulated<\/a> from those in support of the Chief, which has been part of Durango\u2019s history since the 1950s.<\/p>\n

Clark said in previous interviews she is open to have conversations about the Chief. But, she maintains those who oppose it are a small minority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in no way ever want to offend anyone,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThere are 175,000 Navajos, and we hear negative things from only five or six.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Two
Two petitions have been circulating online: one calling for the removal of the chief character in the east 100 block of Ninth Street, and one in support of keeping the chief intact.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American caricature center of controversy after petitions of support, opposition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,314,28,561,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-downtown-durango","tag-headlines","tag-native-american","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53181"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}