From Staff Reports 

The 23-foot-tall Indian statue that has towered over Asheville’s Patton Avenue fsince 1967, giving a “How” to passersby, is coming down. 

Pat Grimes, co-owner of Harry’s on the Hill automotive dealership, explained in mid-June that the image of Chief Pontiac belongs to another era.

The decision follows a letter to the editor of The Cherokee One Feather tribal newspaper, published May 31, in which Sabrina Arch, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, said she was a victim of racial discrimination.

 Arch explained in her letter that she did her homework online and found a couple of SUVs she liked at Harry’s. Arch said she talked to the bank, which, she claimed, said that the dealership’s prices were too high.

 She did not want to go to a dealer near Cherokee because, she said, it was near time for the June per-capita distribution. The “per cap” is a portion of casino profits given to tribal members semi-annually. December’s per cap was $6,273 after taxes.

 Arch explained, “I had been warned not to use any of the surrounding dealerships because they hate us and are jealous of us because of the extra income we receive.”

 At Harry’s, though, she said the big Indian statue should have been a warning sign. “I tried to negotiate with a salesperson, but he seemed like he did not want to work with me or go down on their prices. Remember, they know we are Cherokee, and it is close to ‘per cap,’ so they increase their costs.”

 She continued, “Knowing the values of all the vehicles, I tried to get Harry’s on the Hill to meet me halfway. They did not want to work with me.… In their eyes, I was an uneducated Native American woman with money.”

 Arch said she left Harry’s, bought a car from a dealership two hours away, and sent a photo of it to the salesman at Harry’s, who she did not think treated her “like a valued customer.”

 While the original message containing the photo has not been made available, the dealers’ replies have — and apparently, he thought he was posting to his friends when he was replying to Arch:

 “look what this b****h sent me”

 “cherokee lady on yukon”

 The other replies pertain to dreamcatchers and lack context.

 Harry’s co-owner Grimes said the incident left her “horrified and upset.” She apologized to Arch and let her know that the salesperson had been terminated, the statue was coming down, and the dealership had published an apology on Facebook.

 Grimes asked what else could be done, and Arch wrote in a follow-up letter to the editor, “I told her we have a lot of events where we give back to the community, our kids and the elders, where donations are welcome.” 

Grimes responded by noting that the dealership will review any specific requests sent.

Arch, implied that the changes were made possible through a group effort, said that the Chief Pontiac statue “needs to be taken down.”

The statue was erected 51 years ago. It was one of many around the nation, averaging 22 feet high, made by International Fiberglass as advertising mascots. 

Perhaps the most notable ones were the Sinclair Dinosaurs. To many, these larger-than-life characters represent a bygone era in Americana.

Harry’s Indian is an image of Chief Pontiac, and it is not the only one used as signage for dealers of Pontiac cars.

The statue will go home to his creator, somewhere in Arizona.

Harry’s on the Hill’s announcement about the statue said that the original sculptor has expressed an interest in having the statue in his personal collection — and that the statue will be removed in the near future.