We Still Here

The Chicago Park District launched the Monument Response Project as part of the Chicago Monuments Project, inviting artists to create site-responsive installations and performances at selected monuments across the city. The initiative seeks to reimagine public narratives that reflect Chicago’s diverse histories and cultures. By fostering community engagement and creative dialogue, the project advances equitable public art that critically examines contested legacies and encourages more inclusive forms of commemoration within the city’s parks.

We Still Here is a site-specific temporal public art installation presented through the Chicago Park District’s Monument Response Project. The work honors the enduring histories and living cultures of Indigenous peoples through an ecological lens centered on Turtle Island—also known as America—with particular focus on the American bison and its essential role in the ecosystems of the Great Plains, often referred to as bison country.

Collaboratively created by artists Sonja Henderson and Sadie Woods, We Still Here serves as a powerful declaration of presence, memory, and self-determination. Installed at the equestrian statue of General Philip Sheridan at Lake Shore Drive and Belmont Avenue, the project recontextualizes one of Chicago’s most prominent monuments. Sheridan’s widely cited statement, “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead,” reflects ideologies of his time, including scorched-earth military campaigns and the deliberate decimation of bison populations as a means of subjugating nations and tribes. By placing this installation at the base of his statue, We Still Here invites viewers to critically engage with dominant narratives of power, heroism, and public memory.

We Still Here recognizes histories essential to Chicago neighborhoods like Lakeview, shaped by communities rooted in diverse tribes and nations, and cultural heritage as the point of departure for the installation. It affirms that these collective histories are not relics of the past but are living within the present and future. By engaging the equestrian statue of General Sheridan—a symbol of victor’s history set in bison country and linked to both the Civil War and the Indian Wars—the installation also reflects Sheridan's role in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, where military strategies were employed in westward expansion. We Still Here makes visible what has been rendered invisible and opens space for reflection on how public monuments shape collective memory, particularly when erected on repurposed tribal lands.

You are cordially invited to the opening reception of We Still Here on Wednesday, April 8, 2025 at General Philip Sheridan Equestrian Statue on Lake Shore Drive & Belmont Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657, from 5:30-8:00 PM. Join us for ephemeral sonic art installation by Sadie Woods, ceremonial procession led by Zahra Baker, 4 directions salutation and land consecration by Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves-Ruiz and sacred herb smudging by Sonja Henderson, performance by Chicago Poet Laureate Mayda del Valle, breathwork ritual by Toni Asante Lightfoot, and prairie plant landscaping by Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Chicago Conservation Corps led by Zibby Foos. Exhibition runs through March 31, 2028.

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