[Panel 1:]
Pioneer Monument
Sculptor, Frank Happersberger
(1859-1932)
Dedicated to the City of San Francisco on November 29, 1894, the Pioneer Monument was a gift of philanthropist James Lick. Lick, who died in 1876, left $100,000 to the City for the creation of "statuary emblematic of the significant epochs in California history" dating back to the missions' early settlement. The monument stood in Marshall Square facing Market Street in front of the Old City Hall that was completed in 1897 but destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. When the City was rebuilt after the earthquake, Grove and Hyde Streets were extended to meet Market Street, creating a new intersection. The Pioneer Monument stood at this intersection until it was moved to its present location in 1993.
[Panel 2:]
California Native AmericansThe Pioneer Monument, created in 1894, represents a conventional attitude of the 19th Century. It commemorates the settlement of California by "western civilization." This plaque, added in 1996, seeks to acknowledge the effect of this settlement on the California Native Americans. The three figures of "Early Days," a Native American, a missionary, and a vaquero, represent the three cultures of early California. At least 300,000 Native people - and perhaps far more - lived in California at the time of the first European settlement in 1769. During contact with colonizers from Europe and the United States, the Native population of California was devastated by disease, malnutrition and armed attacks. The most dramatic decline of the Native population occurred in the years following the discovery of gold in 1848. By 1900, according to the U.S. census, California's Native American population had been reduced to 15,377. In the 20th Century, California's Indian population steadily rebounded, reaching 236,078 in 1990.
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