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Chief

A giant peace pipe-holding Indian chief in a feathered headdress sits cross-legged outside a former trading post business in Roosevelt City, Utah. It was built out of cement by Darrell Gardner in 1976, part of a tableau that included a big teepee.

The Moqui Indian Trading Post, which first opened in 1969, went out of business in 2008. A local group rallied to save the statue from destruction; the figure survives. The trading post building is currently a nail salon.

Beyond his attention-getting duties, we don't know if the sculpture was intended as a tribute to a specific Native American chief. The town of Roosevelt City was created by homesteaders on former Ute tribal lands, and the location is currently on Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation lands.

--- Courtesy Roadside America.

 

Sometime in 2019 the statue was moved from this location to a new home at the Ute Tribal Plaza in Fort Duchesne. Look in the comments below to see the newly restored Chief sitting in his new home.

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Uploaded on April 17, 2020