VOLUME 22/NUMBER 3/SUMMER 2024       Connecticut Explored

Publisher’s note: What follows are the testimonies of Dr. Walter W. Woodward, then Connecticut state historian, and Rodney Butler, chair of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, before the Connecticut State Capitol Preservation and Restoration Commission on November 18, 2021, at a forum to address the question whether Captain John Mason’s statue should remain in its place at the state capitol. Full testimonies of all forum participants are available at cga.ct.gov/cprc/20211118Forum.asp.

Mr. Butler’s testimony is printed with permission from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

My name is Rodney Butler, and I am the tribal chairman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this commission today in support of removing the statue of Captain John Mason from the state capitol facade.

First, let me say I respect and admire all of you for committing your time voluntarily to preserving and restoring the capitol complex. I, too, carry a similar responsibility for our tribal nation—to broaden the scope of history that is taught, represented, and honored to include the perspective of the Indigenous populations that thrived on these lands long before the colonists arrived and wrote the history we learn today. I’m not here to erase that history but to help put it into a more comprehensive context that not only incorporates the lens of the Pequot people but also reflects the values we have come to embrace in this great country.

It wasn’t until the late 1800s that the world recognized the concept of war crimes, later defined by the United Nations as:

1. Willful killing;
   2. Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
   3. Willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
   4. Extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
   5. Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power;
   6. Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;
   7. Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;
   8. Taking of hostages.

There is no doubt Mason engaged in what we now call genocide. The question for us in the year 2021 is whether a man who burned alive over 500 men, women, and children, systematically hunted and slaughtered any remaining members of the tribe, and attempted to eradicate an entire cultural identity, language, and heritage deserves a place of distinction on the face of Connecticut’s state capitol.

I submit to you that he does not. Instead, the statue should be moved to another venue—perhaps the Old State House—where Mason’s place in history can also be viewed in the context of the atrocities he committed. Under today’s standards, Captain John Mason would be charged with war crimes and prosecuted accordingly.

I ask you, is this a man we should celebrate?