My name is Kayla Shaggy, and I am a Diné and Annishinabe artist currently living in Arizona. I used to live in Durango. I’m known for my work in art and comics, specifically, “The Sixth World,” and most recently, the political cartoon about the Toh-Atin sign, which appeared in the March 11
To me, the Chief sign is a mocking caricature reminding me of how much the people of Durango didn’t care about the Indigenous population. I experienced anti-Indigenous racism during my six years of living in Durango as well.
In the summer of 2020, when the initial petition was created to take the sign down, I was inspired to do something. When I first reached out to the Clarks, I wrote a carefully thought-out letter that was ignored. Then I made the comic, “Godzilla Decolonizes Durango!” that was also ignored by the Clarks.
It would not be until the political cartoon this year in March that I would get Antonia’s attention. She was angered that the sign implied she was racist: if you read the comic, I state “racist imagery.” She read the letter, nearly a year after I sent it, and simply said that she was too busy saving the poor natives to focus on the sign. Antonia also told me that she was “very sorry” for the racism I faced, but stated that she had “never heard of that happening to my native friends.”
Then, multiple people who are friends of the Clarks sent in letters of support to the Telegraph, stating that I was an “uninformed, biased, angry” person for making the cartoon. If the Clarks support Indigenous people, then why was I getting so much hate and negativity for expressing myself in my art? I’ve also spoken to many different Indigenous people in my life, and for those who have been to Durango, many were positive and negative.
Here’s the shocker: Indigenous people have been asking for the Clarks to take the sign down since the 1970s. An older Indigenous man reached out to me after my comic to tell me he has very clear memories of protesting the sign in 1975 when it was at the Chief Diner.
Antonia mentions that the sign isn’t her highest priority, but multiple Indigenous people have asked her to take it down for the past 50 years. Maybe it’s intentional that they keep it up. To take down the Toh-Atin Chief sign would have to make the Clarks admit that the sign is a racist caricature. To take down the Toh-Atin Chief sign would mean that Durango has to reckon with its own long history of racism. To take down the Toh-Atin Chief would mean to take down similar toxic structures and systems within Durango.
It would appear that the Clarks, and Durango itself, aren’t ready for that. And yes, I understand that it’s on their “private property,” but f anyone who knows basic history knows that most of Durango is Indigenous land stolen during colonization. Much of Durango makes its money off of stolen land, Indigenous culture, and tourists who could care less about the complex relationship of the Indigenous people here.
If an anonymous donor wants to buy the sign, go for it! It would be a good public relations move for the Clarks, since it still paints them as saviors and gets the bad publicity off of their backs. If not, it’s probably another 50 years of politely begging the Clarks to do the right thing – which would have no consequences whatsoever on their end besides the loss of money paid when they initially bought the sign.
Kayla Shaggy is an Indigenous artist (Dine and Annishinabe) working to create positive representation of Indigenous people in her art.
