CHICAGO — A plaque at Wheaton College that referred to Indigenous people as “savages” has been removed after students and staff expressed concern about the language, according to a letter to students and staff from the college’s president.
The 64-year-old plaque commemorated five missionaries slain in Ecuador, including three who were alumni of the DuPage County Christian liberal arts college. School officials are looking to replace the plaque, and a task force will review potential new wording, college President Philip Ryken said in the letter.
“The word ‘savage’ is regarded as pejorative and has been used historically to dehumanize and mistreat Indigenous peoples around the world,” he wrote. “Any descriptions on our campus of people or people groups should reflect the full dignity of human beings made in the image of God.”
Concerns about the wording on the plaque have come from about a dozen students and staff since the start of the school year, college spokesman Joseph Moore said.
Before it was taken down Tuesday, the plaque hung in the foyer of the college’s main chapel, where students traditionally gathered three times a week.
“I think inevitably language changes,” Moore said. “The meaning of language and descriptors can change over the decades, and it’s understandable that eventually we would have to examine whether something still honors people appropriately.”
The missionaries were killed in Ecuador in 1956. The plaque was donated by the college’s class of 1949, which included two of those killed.
The college intends to continue honoring the missionaries, Moore said.
The senior administrative Cabinet will appoint the task force to recommend new wording, according to Ryken’s letter. It will include a faculty historian, a faculty member who specializes in missionary work, a representative from the alumni association board of directions, a graduate student and an undergrad.
Senior college leaders and the board of trustees will make the final decision. The college expects a new plaque to hang in the chapel over the summer.
———
