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Indians All Look the Same to Tim Goodwin

By Cory Allen Heidelberger on 2019-02-21

Bob Mercer raises the need for a minor correction of Representative Tim Goodwin’s (R-30/Rapid City) understanding of a new South Dakota landmark. During a House Transportation hearing two weeks ago on House Bill 1181, Governor Noem’s plan to sell special license plates with critters on them to raise money for habitat conservation, Rep. Goodwin explained his past resistance to putting an Indian on our license plates:

Representative Tim Goodwin, a Rapid City Republican, said he voted against creating the special Dignity license plate showing Sacajawea, in part because he was protective of the Mount Rushmore designation on South Dakota’s plates, and was surprised to see Dignity be so popular.

“I recommend we pass this,” Goodwin said [Bob Mercer, “Lawmakers Like Governor Noem’s Plan for Raising More Wildlife Habitat Money with License Plates,” KELO TV, 2019.02.05].

According to artist Dale Lamphere, Dignity: of Earth and Sky “represents the courage, perseverance, and wisdom of the Lakota and Dakota cultures in South Dakota.” It represents the values of an entire people, not an individual portrait. Lamphere based the woman’s appearance on three Native American models from Rapid City, ages 14, 29, and 55: Sayna Trujillo, Sydney Claymore, and Cante Heart. The dress depicted is “patterned after a two-hide Native dress of the 1850s.” The star quilt symbolizes a moment in a significant and ongoing cultural practice, not any past historical event.

Sacagawea was cool enough to deserve a statue, but she was not a Lakota woman. She was Shoshone, from Idaho, kidnapped by the Hidatsa-Mandan, and purchased as a slave by French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau before helping guide the Lewis & Clark expedition. She died in 1812, at age 25, at Fort Manuel, a site on the western shore of the Missouri now at the high-water point of Lake Oahe on the northern edge of South Dakota.

It’s possible Sacagawea or her descendants wouldn’t take too much offense at a white man thinking that a noble statue of an indigenous woman represents the Shoshone mother and guide. But Representative Goodwin sat through a Legislative hearing in 2017 in which Representative Shawn Bordeaux (D-26A/Mission) explained the meaning of the great new sculpture. No one mentioned Sacagawea. Goodwin’s comment above thus suggests he’s not paying much attention to the people who come before his committee or to the cultural developments in our state.

For the record, Goodwin was the only nay on the Dignity license plates in 2017, and that nay was only in committee; a week later, when the Dignity plates bill came to the House floor, he joined the unanimous vote to allow an image of a Native woman on South Dakota license plates.

Published in South Dakota

14 Comments

  1. TAG 2019-02-21 12:33

    I don’t see the big deal. I mean, when Nebraska decided to put Johnny Appleseed on their plates, nobody objected:

    https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/omaha.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/1/ef/1effd2b4-f055-11e5-8127-d338322a1130/56f1674945059.image.jpg

    Or when Virginia tried to put Obama on their plates:
    http://epmgaa.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2019/01/04/King_license_plate_sample_t750x550.jpg?d885fc46c41745b3b5de550c70336c1b382931d2

    Or Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw on Nevada’s specialty plate offerings:
    https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0iLGPi-ZjA0dKOQFXL473vwr3rQ=/0x0:1050×700/1200×800/filters:focal(418×277:586×445)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59783189/license_plate_sample.0.jpg

    Or California’s John Wayne:
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Pres._Reagans_vanity_plate.jpg/300px-Pres._Reagans_vanity_plate.jpg

  2. Old Spec 5 2019-02-21 13:10

    Tag Thats MLK not Obama re Virginia. They all look the same also?

  3. Roger Cornelius 2019-02-21 14:25

    TAG
    The Virginia plate distinction is that of Martin Luther King no President Obama.

  4. TAG 2019-02-21 18:08

    Roger: I know. Being sarcastic. None of those plates were what I said they were… I probably should have left the Nevada one off, but couldn’t resist.

    Kind of interesting MLK was in the “hope” campaign colors though.

  5. Roger Cornelius 2019-02-21 18:14

    TAG
    Sorry I missed the sarcasm, I’m usually not so dense.

  6. TAG 2019-02-21 18:26

    👍

  7. grudznick 2019-02-21 18:27

    What the heck IS that Nebraska license plate, Mr. TAG? They should have put Carhenge on there instead.

  8. TAG 2019-02-21 19:05

    “The sower”. A 20-foot art-deco sculpture symbolizing agriculture. It sits atop the NE Capitol building. Actually a good parallel to the “Dignity” one.

  9. Debbo 2019-02-21 21:38

    The “Dignity” statue is absolutely stunning. It’s not only her size or the beauty of her clothing, but her expression. It’s one of the most beautiful statues I have ever seen. Wow.

    Goodwin must be denser than lead in a snowbank.

  10. Roger Cornelius 2019-02-21 22:35

    Debbo,
    Dignity is majestic, she can absolutely make you breathless.

  11. Roger Cornelius 2019-02-21 22:36

    I’m weighing whether Goodwin is even worth a comment, Not.

  12. Debbo 2019-02-22 23:29

    Yeah, they all looked the same to these gun happy maggots too.

    https://goo.gl/9gtWFF

    No pay wall. Its It’s about the efforts to strip medals from idiots who should have ended up in the stockade. Wounded Knee.

  14. jerry 2019-06-25 11:38

    June 25, 1876 anniversary of Little Big Horn, when all Indians looked the same.

Comments are closed.