It's important to understand the history of the statue before you jump to conclusions.
Roosevelt was a long time champion for the Natural History Museum and the research it did in the natural world. He funded expeditions for the museum heavily, and then himself led a huge expedition into the Amazon to discover and map one of the main tributaries to the Amazon river, deep in the uncharted South American jungle.
This statue represented that specific expedition, and the people next to him represent those that HELPED his expedition. The creator wanted to INCLUDE them in the historical narrative. He's on a horse because they also wanted to capture a major part of his, unrelated, personal history as a member of a famous cavalry unity that had fought in the war against the Spanish.
It was a peaceful expedition of scientific exploration, not colonial exploitation. In the end, they found the tributary and mapped it, and brought back various nature samples to the museum for study - despite all nearly dying of starvation and contracting malaria.
There is actually a great book describing the expedition called The River or Doubt [1].
...but of course Twitter mobs know better based on their 3 second hot-take, and now we have to dumb-down history for everyone.
Roosevelt was a long time champion for the Natural History Museum and the research it did in the natural world. He funded expeditions for the museum heavily, and then himself led a huge expedition into the Amazon to discover and map one of the main tributaries to the Amazon river, deep in the uncharted South American jungle.
This statue represented that specific expedition, and the people next to him represent those that HELPED his expedition. The creator wanted to INCLUDE them in the historical narrative. He's on a horse because they also wanted to capture a major part of his, unrelated, personal history as a member of a famous cavalry unity that had fought in the war against the Spanish.
It was a peaceful expedition of scientific exploration, not colonial exploitation. In the end, they found the tributary and mapped it, and brought back various nature samples to the museum for study - despite all nearly dying of starvation and contracting malaria.
There is actually a great book describing the expedition called The River or Doubt [1].
...but of course Twitter mobs know better based on their 3 second hot-take, and now we have to dumb-down history for everyone.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/River-Doubt-Theodore-Roosevelts-Darke...