What is Massachusetts’ loss apparently is Oklahoma Route 66’s gain.
The Hi-Way Cafe in Vinita, Oklahoma, recently acquired the so-called “Big Indian” that stood outside the Native and Himalayan Views, formerly the Big Indian Shop, for nearly 50 years in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
According to the Greenfield Recorder, the 20-foot-tall fiberglass statue was the subject of months of opposition among local tribal leaders, who claimed it said perpetuated stereotypes.
The new owners were connected to Native and Himalayan Views owner Sonam Lama, as well as his family friend and representative Bob Pollak, following several discussions about the future of the statue and whether it should be removed or redesigned. Lama, who is currently out of the country, and Pollak worked with the American Giants Museum, an Illinois-based organization dedicated to preserving and telling the story of “muffler men” statues — large advertising icons and roadside attractions that were popularized in the 1960s — to find the Hilburns as interested buyers.
“It’s an imperfect solution, but it’s the best solution we could come up with,” Pollak said as the stone around the statue was being moved Friday morning. He added this is a sort of “compromise” in the discussions the group has had. “Everybody got some of what they wanted.”
Alan and Beth Hilburn, owners of the Hi-Way Cafe and nearby Western Motel, said they intend to restore the statue and honor indigenous heritage in Massachusetts and Oklahoma when they place it in September next to an existing Muffler Man at the restaurant.
Interestingly, Beth Hilburn traces some of her lineage to the Cherokee and Delaware tribes.
More about the statue:
The history of the statue dates back to the 1960s and ‘70s, when Rodman Shutt, a Pennsylvania sculptor, made larger-than-life pieces across the Northeastern U.S. Shutt has two other sculptures in Maine and New York of Indigenous people, all wearing sacred objects from a variety of different nations from across the Americas.
The Hilburns did not disclose the purchase price of the statue.
Big statues depicting Native Americans aren’t unheard of in Oklahoma, which was known as Indian Territory before statehood.
Others are found in Pawhuska, Big Cabin and Calumet, where the former Howe Motors statue along Route 66 in Clinton that now stands near the Indian Trading Post.
(Image of the “Big Indian” at the Big Indian Shop in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, in 2007 by Karen Eaton via Flickr)
Where in/near Pawhuska, Ron? I’ve seen the ones mentioned in Calumet and Big Cabin.