A fountain in downtown Kalamazoo’s Bronson Park that’s been criticized for its depiction of a Native American and a settler has been given its own listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The Kalamazoo Gazette reports the “Fountain of the Pioneers” was previously on the register as part of the Bronson Park Historic District, but was approved this year for individual inclusion. Designed by Alfonso Iannelli and installed in 1940, it depicts a settler standing above an Indian wearing a headdress. Iannelli said in a 1940 statement that it was meant to convey “the advance of the pioneers and the generations that follow” with the Indian in “a posture of noble resistance.” The fountain was intended to depict history in Kalamazoo, but it’s been criticized as being racist.
