When Lewis and Clark came to Oregon, 
between 1804 and 1806, one of the people
who came along with that expedition, the one 
who has been largely lost from the considerations
of that expedition, is a man named York.
Because we don't know what York looked like - there
are obviously no photographs, there are only
minimal physical descriptions of York - Alison
decided to create a representational image of a man,
obviously an African-American man, but not
with characteristics that would be so specific
as to be identifiable to some person.
And, in fact, with this York sculpture,
the back features predominantly in the metaphor
of the sculpture, because she's used York's back
as the canvas on which to place a map that
was drawn by William Clark, where he designated
a geographical feature as "York's Dry Creekbed."
And this map by William Clark has been
scarified onto York's back, so he is very
literally and metaphorically carrying the
burden of the Corps of Discovery on his physical back.
So although York was a slave, his participation
in the expedition was very un-slavelike, in
that he did essentially the same things and
made the same kind of contributions that all
other members of the expedition did.
The main difference was that when they returned, all
the other members of the expedition became
celebrities, were well-rewarded for their
work, but once York was back within the confines
of the traditions of American life in his
generation, he became a slave again.
So his story represents one of the most unique, and
one of the most interesting aspects of American
life and history in that particular generation.
The entire project was conceived by Charles
Neal, an African American law student who
came to Lewis & Clark and realized that there
is no visage or representation of York's contribution
to the Corps of Discovery on campus. In fact,
I think he did some, you know, questioning
around amongst his fellow law students and
realized that many, many, many people did
not know who York was.
So one of the things that I study is African-American
public memory. Because public memory is a
huge field: you can study war, you can study
politics, you can study virtually anything
that has to do with the way that groups of
people, you know, desire to remember themselves
and others within their society. So African-American
public memory is about how African Americans
not only remember themselves, but how others
tend to remember the African-American community.
It's interesting; a lot of the memorials will
position York behind and in a submissive position
to Clark and Lewis, and I think that that's
a problematic issue, that's a problematic
form of representation. So one of the things
that I think that Lewis & Clark as an institution,
our college, is trying to do, is trying to
correct the record.
As you look at American history in the 19th century,
it's the history of the expansion of
the country across the continent.
It's the history of the acquisition of tremendous
new resources of land that the country acquired
sometimes because of successful wars, sometimes
because of, successful competition with the
native populations.
But, at every point when new land was acquired,
the central political, social, and economic
issue was whether slavery would be allowed
in that new land. And York was really the
first chapter in the kind of issues related
to blacks that were going to be prominent
and significant for the whole country in the
19th century.
One of the things in developing the criteria,
the committee was very, very determined to
find an artwork, or an artist that could create
an artwork that would show York as both slave
and significant. Those were two equal and
opposite parts of York's character that we
wanted to highlight. You know, the sculpture
of York standing, facing West, is obviously
the focal point of the memorial. But as an
ancillary didactic component, there will be
text fragments scattered around the site,
which will include passages from the journals,
from William Clark's letters after they returned,
that will give the viewer ideas about who
York, the man, was. So there will be a little
bit of a seek-and-find component where layers
of York's personality and his contributions
will be uncovered as the visitor views these
text fragments that will be positioned in
the environs of the York figure.
To me, an event like commemorating York with
the statue at Lewis & Clark, you know, that's
just a part of regaining access to that story,
so I was very happy to be a part of this process,
and very happy to see Lewis & Clark taking
this on as a very serious project. And I think
it's going to be the kind of event, the kind
of coverage that will allow that foundation
of history to be available to the next generation.
