OLYMPIA, WA – The task of relocating Marcus Whitman’s statue in the Washington state Capitol is becoming a chore.
Whitman was a doctor and missionary in the 1800s. His role in the displacement of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest has been scrutinized in recent decades.
It’s been challenging to find a place inside the Capitol where the 11-foot, 9,144-pound bronze statue won’t damage the historic structure. Moving it outside risks exposure to the elements, vandals or both. Either approach would be an expensive undertaking.
Leaving the towering Whitman where it stands in the north portico appears increasingly off the table, too.
Some state officials envision the foyer as the future home for a statue of Billy Frank Jr., the Nisqually Indian Tribe leader who was an indomitable force in the fight for the protection of salmon and Native American rights. Pairing Frank and Whitman in the same space is a concern in Indian Country.
Willie Frank III, Frank’s son, has expressed “very strong feelings” about not having the two statues in the same room, said Lt. Gov. Denny Heck at Thursday’s meeting of the State Capitol Committee that’s wrestled with the relocation decision for nearly a year.
So strong, the son offered to display Marcus Whitman at Wa He Lut Indian School at Franks Landing on the Nisqually Reservation, Heck said. But there’s opposition to taking it off campus from those who think both Whitman and Frank should occupy prominent positions at the Capitol, he said.
“We’ve got a lot of different points of view that are being brought here, and I am convinced that if we deal with one another respectfully, we can get to a point where everybody is going to be comfortable with what we do,” Heck said in the meeting.
He offered a new possibility: Move the Whitman statue down the hall to a space outside the entrance to the Senate cafeteria room, midway between the offices of the governor and the lieutenant governor.
A structural analysis costing as much as $35,000 must be done to determine if the location could support its massive girth.
Beau Perschbacher, a senior policy adviser to Gov. Bob Ferguson, said he was working with the state Department of Enterprise Services to see if the agency can proceed with existing funds. Otherwise, the Legislature would have to pony up in the 2026 supplemental budget.
Asked if Ferguson has a preferred location for the Whitman statue, Perschbacher replied, “I don’t know if we’ve made a decision on that.”
Decision time
Whitman, who settled near what is today Walla Walla in the 1830s, is one of two Washington figures to have a statue in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. The other is Mother Joseph for whom there is also a statue in the north portico of the state Capitol, across from Whitman.
State lawmakers in 2021 decided to replace the Whitman statue in the U.S. Capitol and another in the state Capitol building with statues of Frank. The Legislature earmarked $100,000 in the current capital budget to relocate the Whitman statue.
Until Thursday, the Capitol Committee had been considering six possible options: moving Whitman outside the south entrance, two variations of putting Whitman and Frank side-by-side, and three different ways with Mother Joseph and Frank side-by-side.
Costs ranged from $10,000 to more than $200,000 based on the work involved in the moving of statues. The committee was on course to choose an approach in January but won’t now as the latest alternative is studied.
A decision is needed soon because the making of the two bronze statues of Frank is getting underway.
The Washington State Arts Commission has awarded Classic Foundry of Seattle a contract to complete the statues by May 2026.
The current timeline calls for delivery of a statue to the U.S. Capitol in September 2026. That is also seen as the earliest date for installation at the state Capitol, though it could be put in place in early 2027.
On Thursday, representatives from the foundry and the Billy Frank Jr. Statue Committee, including Willie Frank III and artist Haiying Wu, held a press conference to mark the selection of the foundry. It was held at Wa He Lut Indian School, the site of many of the fish-ins for treaty rights organized by Frank, who died in 2014 at the age of 83.
“We have an opportunity to tell the story of Washington — the good, the bad and the ugly — with the story of my father that is wrapped in this project,” said Willie Frank III, in a statement. “It is not the beginning or the end of the story or the work as there is much to do in education, health care, housing and continuing to protect and enhance our treaty rights of fishing, hunting and gathering.”
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