ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - New Native American statues are about ready to be put in place on Cherokee Street.
There once stood a 13-foot-tall statue on Cherokee Street but it was removed in 2021 for looking too much like a cigar store Indian. The statue stood on the corner of Cherokee and Jefferson Avenue since the 1980s.
"People thought it was disrespectful and it had a cartoonish flavor to it," said Cheri Elder, who owns Elder's Antiques on Cherokee Street.
Since that time, Elder has been working with neighbors to bring a series of statues to Antiques Row to showcase the Cherokee Nation.
World renown artist, Eddie Morrison, a Native American and a Cherokee was commissioned to do the work.
"There are three of these sculptures, and it is a man, a woman, and a child," said Elder. "They are all life-sized and they are authentic representations of Cherokee representations."
Elder says they have gotten positive responses from local Cherokee leaders of the statues.
"We wound getting a really good response to them," said Elder. "The chief took it to the council and the council say they were very honored that we were putting the statues up and they thought it would bring unity to the street."
The statues are finished and arrived recently to St. Louis but there's still some work to do.
A tall steel pedestal and granite slabs are being fabricated to safely anchor the limestone statues in place at the corner of Missouri and Cherokee.