Much has been made of the recent departure of the 23-foot-tall “Muffler Man” statue of Chief Pontiac, which solemnly stood sentinel, gazing down on Asheville’s motor-vehicle choked Patton Avenue for more than 50 years, fronting Harry’s on the Hill automotive dealership.

The large statue was one of thousands that, during the 1960s and ‘70s,  were sold as publicity devices for roadside businesses, many of which were muffler shops, according to a July 19 story in the Cantin Automotive Insider.

“These Muffler Men took the form of lumberjacks (the first Muffler Man was a model of Paul Bunyan), cowboys, spacemen, Indians like Asheville’s Chief Pontiac, and even bikini-clad women that reportedly bore a suspicious resemblance to First Lady Jackie Kennedy,” the publication noted.

We know of no evidence that, at the time of their placement, the statues were meant to be condescending to Chief Pontiac (an 18th-century Ottawa war chief) in particular or to Native Americans in general. However, there seems to be no question that that is the perception among at least some of our local members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee today.

Of course, the statue was the property of Harry’s on the Hill, which is a private business, so we fully respect the right of the car dealership to determine its fate. Still, we join at least some other Ashevillians in feeling a loss of the iconic fiberglass landmark.

However, the decision to remove the statue followed an ugly incident between a former Harry’s car salesman and a Cherokee woman, which prompted the dealership to make a number of changes, including the decision that the statue, which it termed, “a relic from a different era,” had outlived its usefulness. (Besides, General Motors stopped making Pontiacs in 2010, anyway.)

“As it turned out, the statue’s removal revealed that it was badly deteriorated and in need of repair. American Giants, a Virginia company that specializes in restoring Muffler Men, will repair Chief Pontiac. Reportedly, the statue will later be installed at the Pontiac-Oakland Museum of Pontiac, Illinois,” CAI reported.

So we bid Chief Pontiac’s Asheville statue farewell — and only wish that a way could have been found to relocate it to some conspicuous location in the area — perhaps even to the Town of Cherokee, where it could serve as an educational tool, with signage that gives accurate context to what his statue represented — for future generations to contemplate several issues, including cultural appropriation.