News

Once the Billy Frank Jr. statue is installed in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol in Washington D.C., in 2025, sculptor Haiying Wu will be the first Chinese-American to have a statue in the collection.

Wu, whom the Billy Frank Jr. National Statuary Hall Selection Committee chose to design the statue in January 2023, honoring the Nisqually Tribe activist and treaty rights advocate, said the project is a big step toward his dream of leaving a mark on the history of the country, one he immigrated to from China 40 years ago.

“It’s a great opportunity. This is a high-profile project, and it’s a great honor for me,” Wu said. “It’s always been my dream to portray an Indian figure because their facial expressions are very beautiful.”

Wu earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington School of Art. His notable artwork includes the Seattle Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Seattle’s Pioneer Square and the Auto-Lite Strike Memorial in Toledo, Ohio.

Rep. Debra Lekanoff introduced House Bill 1372 in 2021 to replace the statue of Marcus Whitman in the National Statuary Hall with one of Frank, who dedicated his life to advocate for tribal treaty rights. The committee chose Wu’s design for the project because of his attention to detail, including how he captured Frank’s warmth and pose on a log by the river.

“My father always encouraged educational opportunities for all and participated on college boards,” said Willie Frank III, son of Billy Frank Jr. and chairman of the Nisqually Tribe, in a press release. “Having this in a place where everyone can learn about Nisqually and the art of sculpture is exactly the kind of community he would want.”

For Wu, paying close attention to details, especially for a project of this magnitude, is crucial. While working on the statue at South Puget Sound Community College, where the public can observe his work, he often spent several minutes at a time studying the most minute details including Frank’s shirt sleeves and the folds of his hand that grasped the log upon which he sat. He used several images of Frank to capture his likeness.

“When you work on some of the details, you have to stand back and look at it overall and how the details fit with the rest of the figure. You don’t want to have details that pop out too much,” Wu said. “I am not an extreme perfectionist, but I do want it as perfect as possible for every project in my artwork.”

For this project, Wu first sculpted a 12-inch model in May 2023 to understand the proportions, gesture and arrangement of the different elements he would use. In October 2023, he built a 4-foot-tall model, known as a maquette, which was approved by the architect of the Capitol before he began his work on the full 9-foot-tall clay statue, which will be cast in bronze. He first crafted Frank’s full-scale statue in Styrofoam before he adds clay to complete the piece. He expects to finish the sculpture by the end of 2024.

To capture Frank’s likeness, Wu said he challenged himself to “put myself in his shoes” and dive into the story of how his grassroots campaign influenced the Boldt Decision, which gave tribes in Washington state 50% of the annual fish harvest in 1974.

“He was a man who really had the courage to fight for indigenous people’s rights. I saw lots of pictures of him protesting and fighting with policemen, which are great images,” Wu said. “But those aren’t suitable images for the artwork. I decided to put him sitting on a piece of wood on the Nisqually River, and he’s looking forward to the horizon and this piece of land that he fought for all his life. I think that’s the best way to capture his spirit.”

Wu said Frank’s story reminds him of his and his family’s origins of persistence, including his late grandfather.

“As an immigrant to this country, I went through discrimination in the workplace, and I’ve been working really hard to gradually get into the mainstream of art. That kind of hardship, hard work and spirit, I related to it,” Wu said. “My grandfather lived in China in a harsh society as a typical working class person. But he always kept very positive spirits. His spirit always inspires me.”

He added that working at SPSCC is a “great way” to promote the project and to keep his spirit alive. Visitors can observe Wu’s work from 1 to 3 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays, at SPSCC’s Scene Shop in Building 21, Room 271, 2011 Mottman Road SW, Olympia.

Yelm was revved up on Saturday, May 11, as over 250 motorcycles cruised to 507 Taproom & Filling Station West for the “Thank a Veteran Ride” to raise money for the veteran community.

The Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association (CVMA), along with other motorcycle associations, raised close to $11,000 in a single afternoon toward two veteran support organizations.

The event supports A Hero’s Promise, a nonprofit organization that helps children who lost a parent while in service, and the American Lake Community Living Center, an assisted living center for veterans in Lakewood. The 507 Taproom was the fourth of five stops on the ride, which also included Tacoma, Kapowsin, Elbe and Olympia.

Will Warren, public relations officer for the CVMA 11-4 chapter, said the bikers have hosted this event since the chapter was formed over a decade ago.

“Every dime that we get goes back into the veterans community. We try to be net zero at the end of the year,” he said.

The chapter has a valid gambling license, and it raises money for the event via raffle tickets. One raffle ticket could be purchased to win a $500 Visa gift card and another for a chance at a $250 value meat pack from Stewart’s Meats. Another way the event raised money was through donations at the starting point, and independent riders who wished to ride with the group could pay a registration fee of $15 and receive a poker card with which they could win money.

Warren, who served 13 years in the U.S. Army during the Iraq war, said he loves how the CVMA is a group of veterans that were “specifically designed to help veterans in need.”

“It means the world to me that we can put this type of stuff on and that we can give back to the veteran community. It’s a feeling that’s completely indescribable,” he said. “Some people frown upon it because it’s a bunch of people on motorcycles. Some people are happy about it. That’s not our prerogative. Our prerogative as a charitable organization for veterans is to raise money and give back to the veterans. That’s all it is.”

He added that the bond between members of the chapter, as well as with other members of the military in general, is a special connection. At the 507 Taproom, dozens of veteran bikers introduced each other and chatted over a beer and burger about their experiences in the military.

“The reason why people join the CVMA specifically is because they are veterans and they crave that connection. The cool thing about us is that to be a member, you need to have been a veteran and served in a combat theater of operations, so while we were all in different units, different branches, different experiences, we all shared the same thing at one point in our career or another.”

To learn more about the CVMA, visit https://www.combatvet.us/.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a judge at a dog show? 

Two members of the Mount Rainier Labrador Retriever Club (MRLRC) had a chance to find out last Saturday, May 11, at Lintott-Alexander Park in Chehalis. 

The organization hosted its annual “B-Match,” a practice event to prepare members for the world of dog shows. Owners and breeders put their enthusiastic labradors through their paces while novice judges Kristine Powell and Tamaria Hartman assessed their “conformation” — how well they each met American Kennel Club breed standards. These include specific requirements in such areas as size, physical proportion, coat, coloration, movement and temperament. 

Labrador retrievers were initially bred for duck hunting in cold climates, but their gentle and loving personality has made them one of the favorite breeds for service dogs and family pets, according to MRLRC

The Mount Rainier Labrador Retriever Club was founded in 2020 and has become a large and active presence in the Pacific Northwest, with members in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Idaho. 

“Dedicated to supporting and promoting breeding programs to continue the quality of the breed, the MRLRC coordinates with other clubs to sponsor competitive dog shows for conformation, obedience, hunting and agility,” the organization stated in a news release. 

Last year, the club was chosen to co-host the National Labrador Retriever Show, which was held in October at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds. Entries came from all over the country for the weeklong event. 

Anyone interested in learning more about the club can do so online at https://mrlrc.org.

To submit photos or community news items to The Chronicle, email images and details to news@chronline.com.