Big Seated Indian Chief
Fort Duchesne, Utah
For a long time, a giant peace pipe-holding Indian chief in a feathered headdress sat cross-legged outside a trading post business. It was built out of cement by Darrell Gardner in 1976, part of a tableau that included a big teepee.
The Moqui Indian Trading Post, which first opened in 1969, went out of business in 2008. A local group rallied to save the statue from destruction; the figure survived. The trading post building became a nail salon.
Beyond his attention-getting duties, we don't know if the sculpture was intended as a tribute to a specific Native American chief. The town of Roosevelt City was created by homesteaders on former Ute tribal lands, and the location is currently on Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation lands.
As of 2020, the figure had been moved east of Roosevelt to a travel plaza in Fort Duchesne.