Hannah Dunston

​Hannah Duston was the first woman in the United States to have a statue erected in her honor. Duston is notable for massacring ten Abenaki family members who had taken her captive following a raid on Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1697. Duston murdered two men, two women, and six children as they slept. Duston then scalped them and sought to collect a bounty. She received 25 pounds from the Massachusetts General Court. ​

Proposals for a statue began in the 1850s, during a time of renewed interest in Indian Removal and extermination.  Pictured here is the 1879 Haverhill, Massachusetts, statue of Hannah Duston pointing to the viewer with an ax in hand. ​

–Lokotah Sanborn

Historic New England’s Haverhill Center for Preservation and Collections is within walking distance from Grand Army Park, where the statute of Hannah Duston still stands​.

This monument has been celebrated as representation for women’s liberation, but one must recognize which women it serves, for what purpose, and at whose expense. The statue is a symbol used to justify colonization, and its presence, without guided interpretation, perpetuates the violent treatment and erasure of Indigenous Peoples. ​

–Danikah Chartier

​Photomontage

Inkjet on glossy paper

2023