Letter from Chico News & Review (May 9, 2019):
Marred by racist graffiti
White supremacy is alive and well in Chico, Calif. This is occupied Mechoopda Maidu land. Ali Meders-Knight is a Mechoopda Maidu indigenous woman, a mother of five indigenous girls, and an amazing artist. She is painting a mural celebrating Mechoopda culture at Second and Cedar streets with fellow artist Christian Garcia. Over the weekend someone vandalized their art with racist graffiti including swastikas and “White Power.”
Saturday was Chico’s “Pioneer Day Parade.” Romanticizing pioneers is whitewashing the history that colonizers murdered, raped and tortured indigenous people, and stole the land.
Sunday was an international day to honor all the countless missing and murdered indigenous women in North America. Native Women are the most likely of any demographic to experience sexual assault, domestic violence, police violence. Today I ask you to think deeply about the systemic and daily terrorism and trauma that native women live with for simply existing.
Rain Scher
Chico