Racing statues pit Nevada against North Dakota

One seems almost more metaphor and myth than flesh, the other a lesser-known fiery local heroine. Now two proud symbols of American Indian women's history are preparing to take a historic step into a room full of white men frozen in marble and bronze -- Congress' Statuary Hall.

Sacagawea and Sarah Winnemucca would become the first nonwhite women enshrined in the collection that honors distinguished citizens from every state.

The only question: Who makes it to Washington, D.C., first?

"The race is on," said Marcia deBraga, a former Nevada assemblywoman behind her state's push for Winnemucca. "Nevada is last in so many things. It'd be nice to be first in this."

Still in the fund-raising stage, Nevada lags far behind North Dakota _ which recently completed its 8-foot Sacagawea figure.

"We never looked at this as a race," said Rick Collin of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. "But it does make all the sense in the world that this is happening."

Historians and women's advocates say broader interest in the statues is evidence of an overdue reshaping of some of the Capitol's oldest symbols into a more diverse image of American history.

Nevada, North Dakota and New Mexico are the only states to have not yet placed their allotted second figure in Statuary Hall. The 97 likenesses line the walls of the elegant marble-floored original House chamber and are scattered along Capitol corridors.

The 139-year-old collection has long been popular with tourists for its symbolic gathering of favored sons and daughters from each state.

However, "It's a collection where change comes very slowly," said Philip Viles, a Tulsa, Okla., expert who wrote a guide book on Statuary Hall. "They could use some more diversity."

No state ever selected a black person for inclusion in the hall. Only six women are now arrayed among the larger-than-life figures _ depicting such luminaries as Virginia's George Washington alongside obscure citizens such as Florida's John Gorrie, a scientist who patented an ice maker.

But a recent flurry of state-level activity and interest in the statues signals that federal and state lawmakers are starting to pay attention to the hall's symbolic power.

Kansas is set to swap at least one of its statues in favor of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and could get aviator Amelia Earhart into the hall. Alabama has approved a similar swap to include Helen Keller, who famously overcame blindness and deafness.

North Dakota lawmakers four years ago voted for Sacagawea to represent their state. New Mexico recently chose Pope, a pueblo native who led a revolt against Spanish colonizers in 1680. The Nevada Legislature picked Winnemucca in 2001.

The catch? Cash-strapped state governments have relied on local groups and donations to raise money for developing and crafting the statues.

Women's groups say they've learned to be patient. Nevada's 1960 bronze of former Sen. Pat McCarran took five years to get into Statuary Hall even with an appropriation by the state Legislature.

Mary Jane Evans, president of a Nevada women's association, says it's been tough convincing enough donors that placing an Indian woman in faraway Washington has symbolic significance.

She practices her pitch regularly.

"It is a big deal," said Evans, who helped the Nevada Women's History Project host dinners and teas that have so far raised $32,000 of the needed $150,000. "How many times do you see a woman representing the United States in any way?"

Leaders of the project have been explaining Winnemucca's story many times over.

The bold, sometimes audacious 19th-century northern Nevada Paiute woman worked as a translator and human bridge between American Indians and newly arrived settlers.

She went on to write an autobiography _ still in print _ and testify before Congress about hardships facing her people, including violent federal agents. She died in 1891 at age 47.

"She was the first public woman in Nevada's history," deBraga said.

Though North Dakota's selection is far more well-known, as part of the Lewis and Clark expedition, it took the General Federation of Women's Clubs of North Dakota more than three years to raise $200,000 to replicate a Bismarck, N.D., statue of Sacagawea. In the state, the legendary woman claimed by several Indian tribes is known as Sakakawea.

The timely effort by women's groups eventually caught on leading up to the bicentennial of the 1804-06 expedition by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

"Lewis and Clark bicentennial has been the buzzword in this state lately. That helped," said Collin of the historical society.

The state posted a Web site with photos charting the growth of Sacagawea's bronze at an Arizona foundry. The 1,200-pound statue, completed last month, is a stern-looking Sacagawea holding her infant son Jean Baptiste across her chest.

An elaborate induction ceremony will be timed for a Lewis and Clark celebration in October, Collin said.

Meanwhile, Nevada women are counting pennies from a recent $500 donation from Reno's Sarah Winnemucca Elementary School students, and planning an April "pink tea" fund-raiser at the governor's mansion.

"It's not that much money," said deBraga. "Hopefully we'll find some generous people and move quickly. We'd really like to have Sarah be the first Indian woman recognized."

On the Net:

National Statuary Hall Collection: http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/nsh_states.htm

State Historical Society of North Dakota: http://www.state.nd.us/hist/

Sarah Winnemucca Statue Project: http://www.unr.edu/wrc/nwhp/sar