A monument honoring former President Abraham Lincoln was vandalized in Chicago for the second time in less than two months.
The youthful Abraham Lincoln monument at Senn Park in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood was defaced with red paint and the phrases “COLONIZER” and “LAND BACK” on Thanksgiving, according to the Chicago Tribune.
According to the source, the monument also included the inscription “Dakota 38,” a reference to the Dakota Sioux members Lincoln ordered to be killed during the Dakota War of 1862.
Lincoln remitted the sentences of 264 Dakota combatants, but 38 were ordered to be hung in Minnesota, which was the greatest mass execution in United States history.
Since 1997, the monument has remained in the outdoor park.
It was sculpted by Charles Keck, who also created the monuments of past presidents Andrew Jackson and George Washington.
A Chicago Abraham Lincoln monument has been damaged for the second time in less than two months.
ABC Seven Chicago
On October 11, a similar statement was scrawled on a statue of the 16th president in Lincoln Park, approximately six miles away from Senn Park.
Unidentified vandals allegedly scrawled “Dethrone the colonists” and “Land back!” and “Vengeance for the Dakota 38.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, the criminals also placed the names of the 38 Dakota men beside the words “debunk the idea of Lincoln as the great liberator.”
Police have not yet made an arrest in connection with the vandalism, but investigations are ongoing.
ABC Seven Chicago
The monument at Lincoln Park, titled “Abraham Lincoln: The Man,” was sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1887, 22 years after Lincoln’s death, and is considered one of the most notable sculptures of Lincoln from the 19th century.
The Chicago police department has not yet made any arrests.
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