The Capitol Dome

movements and Cold War politics as well. 28 Dan Cobb, for example, demonstrated how D'Arcy McNickle and others "interwove the languages of international and Native politics to promote tribal sovereignty." He also highlighted the ways that NCAI and the Association on American Indian Affairs framed the fight against termination as a policy imperative necessar y for "winning the cold war. 30 Historian Paul Rosier, in his book Ser ving Their Countr y, mentioned Smart's campaign briefly. He noted that she "shrewdly framed the issue in international terms" and that her voice represented all Native people who objected to the imagined violence of the statues, especially in light of threats that termi- nation posed to Native sovereignty. 31 As I noted at the beginning of this essay, she joked about getting communists to blow up The Rescue but more seri- ously asserted that the monuments "are bad propaganda for America and would make excellent fodder for our ene- mies." 32 In one letter she wrote that removing the pieces would be "in better keeping for the right kind of propaganda for Americanism." 33 And in another she argued that replacing the statues would demonstrate that the United States deserved to be "in that enviable position of being a good example to the rest of the world." 34 In yet another, she stated that Rescue and Discovery were "not only a disgrace to the Indians . . . but something that is not good for our country,—something that could be made much of and in the wrong way by our enemiesif they were wont to make something of them." 35 By framing her critiques in terms of the international politics of the Cold War and by using patriotic rhetoric, Smart infused her campaign with a certain amount of urgency that no doubt contributed to its success, but she is also part of a much deeper local history in Washington, DC, one that centers around Native visitors and residents carving out their own spaces within the place of the capital. Indigenous people have always existed in the place now known as Washington, DC and Leta Myers Smart was one among many generations of Native activists marking the land- scape of the federal city, although in her case, she was mark- ing through erasure. e commemorative portrayals that popu lated the Capitol in the nineteenth century were not only significant as a symbolic justification for policies of empire, but came to represent an emerging cultural mythology along the physical landscape of the national imagination. Here, Euro-American men claimed ownership of the city (and na- tion) and decorated it with the violent images of conquest. Yet, as Smart's story demonstrated, they were never successful in commanding the city (or nation) in a way that precluded the claims of others. Fig. 6. e female figure from the Discovery statuary group rides safely to the ground. Nov. 25, 1958. THE CAPITOL DOME 7 Fig. 7. Rear view of the Discovery. ARCHI T EC T OF T HE C API TOL ARCHI T EC T OF T HE C API TOL

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