The Sachem Massasoit Statue

Known as the Sachem or Massasoit, this statue is one of four copies of the original 1921 work of sculptor Cyrus Dallin. Massasoit was the sachem or paramount chief of the Wampanoag People, and Dalin's original statue was installed at Plymouth to honor the Wampanoag's role in helping the Pilgrims survive their first winter in Plymouth. This event forms the basis of the first Thanksgiving celebration, and the statue was originally installed in Kansas City's Country Club Plaza, which has its own Thanksgiving tradition. Dallin created numerous works depicting Native Americans including the Scout statue in Kansas City's Penn Valley Park that has become one of the symbols of the city. Real estate magnate Miller Nichols found this statue in a gallery in Santa Fe, and he purchased it to display outside of the Plaza Tennis Courts in 1979. When those courses were expanded in 1997, the Kansas City Parks & Recreation Department created this small park on the southeast corner of Brookside Blvd. and Emmanuel Cleaver Blvd. to showcase the statue.

Cyrus Dallin was born in Springville, Utah, in 1861. When the teenager showed talent as an amateur sculptor, Springville residents sponsored him to study art formally in Boston. Dallin later studied in Paris. The sculptor became known for his monumental sculptures, which often featured Native Americans. The artist explained that his interest in Native American history and culture stems from his youth in Utah. One of his most famous pieces, the Scout, was featured at San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition and acquired by Kansas City in 1922. This work is now in Penn Valley Park and depicts a Sioux scout on horseback. In 1921, Dallin was commissioned to create a statue of Massasoit, the great Sachem of the Wampanoag People, as part of an effort to honor the Wampanoag's generosity in aiding the survival of Plymouth Colony. The likeness was based on contemporary descriptions of Massasoit, including the shell necklace. Other embellishments, such as the pipe, are based on archaeological artifacts associated with the Wampanoag people. The human model was Thomas McKeller, a young African American man who was one of the painter John Singer Sargent's regular models. The original statue was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1921, on Cole's Hill in Plymouth. The celebration included a few Wampanoag descendants and a crowd of white Americans, many of whom were dressed like Native Americans.

Dallin later donated the original plaster version of the statue to the Utah State Capitol, where it stood until 1958 when Brigham Young University acquired it and cast four bronze copies. One of the copies was installed back in the Utah State Capitol. This copy eventually found its way to a gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it was discovered by Kansas City developer and owner of the Country Club Plaza, Miller Nichols, in 1978. The Nichols family had a long history of purchasing original works of art to adorn their housing developments and shopping centers, especially the Plaza. Nichols recognized the opportunity to have another work by Dallin in Kansas City, and in 1979, he purchased the statue and gifted it to the city. The statue was installed just east of the Plaza Tennis Courts. The statue was placed on top of a wall of quartzite boulders, donated from the farm of Ralph Dooley in Bosworth, Missouri.

The statue received mixed reactions from the public when it was dedicated in 1979. While Nichols intended it as a piece of art to enhance the aesthetics of the Plaza, some felt it was not an appropriate representation of Native Americans and expressed hope for a monument that was connected to a local tribe. Others, when they learned of the statue's history, were critical of the work made by a white artist with a non-Native model, calling for a new work commissioned by Native American artists in consultation with area Native tribes. Opinions in the following decades continued to represent a wide variety of perspectives, from those who were critical of the statue to those who saw it as a reminder of the central role of Native people in American History. When the Plaza Tennis Courts were expanded in 1997, the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department installed the statue in a scaled-down setting in a small park across the street, at the southeast corner of Brookside Blvd. and Emmanuel Cleaver Blvd., where it stands today.

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