In San Francisco, tensions erupted over the Pioneer Monument, a series of statues outside the city's new main public library. Following completion of the $138 million building, Native Americans complained about a depiction of a supine Indian at the feet of a Franciscan missionary and a triumphant vanquero. To soothe tempers, the city's Art Commission decided to install a plaque decrying the mistreatment of Native Americans, citing the Franciscans for a legacy of "56,000 converts—and 150,000 dead." Following pressure from a rather irked Catholic archdiocese, the Commission inserted a clause vaguely pinning deaths on "colonial occupation." The consul general of Spain was the next to complain, since any talk of "colonial" before 1834 would be singling out Spanish settlers for disapprobation. The Commission then appointed a task force to determine whether it would be possible to write new language to satisfy all concerned.

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