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Updated: 5:36 PM EDT Oct 13, 2025
Adam Sexton
Political Director
CONCORD, N.H. —
State representatives will debate next year whether to tear down the Hannah Duston memorial in Boscawen.
The statue has been at the center of a heated debate for years.
Rep. David Nagel, R-Gilmanton, is filing legislation to remove the statue, which he said is offensive to Native Americans.
"There were probably some unfortunate circumstances that she faced. However, they were more global and affected Natives way more than they did European settlers," Nagel said.
Duston was a colonial Massachusetts woman captured along with her baby by the Abenaki people in 1697. As the story goes, her infant was killed, and Duston later killed and scalped 10 Abenaki before escaping.
"She was lost to history for almost 200 years, and in the mid-1800s, there is this concept that we're migrating westward and the Natives are a problem," Nagel said. "And that was what that memorial was designed to inspire, was the genocide and unnecessary murder of Native Americans."
State Sen. Tim McGough, R-Merrimack, brought out his 1970s-era state liquor store Hannah Duston commemorative bottle on Columbus Day.
He said he views the statue as a symbol of survival, not racism.
"Any loss of life in war or other conflict is always a tragedy, and I think what we memorialize for Hannah Duston was her strength and willingness to defend her family," McGough said.
Nagel, who is also a doctor and served in the Indian Health Service, said Indigenous people have a different perspective.
"For my Native friends, it's a big symbol of that hatred that goes back to the mid-1800s," he said.
Updated: 5:36 PM EDT Oct 13, 2025
Adam Sexton
Political Director
CONCORD, N.H. —
State representatives will debate next year whether to tear down the Hannah Duston memorial in Boscawen.
The statue has been at the center of a heated debate for years.
Rep. David Nagel, R-Gilmanton, is filing legislation to remove the statue, which he said is offensive to Native Americans.
"There were probably some unfortunate circumstances that she faced. However, they were more global and affected Natives way more than they did European settlers," Nagel said.
Duston was a colonial Massachusetts woman captured along with her baby by the Abenaki people in 1697. As the story goes, her infant was killed, and Duston later killed and scalped 10 Abenaki before escaping.
"She was lost to history for almost 200 years, and in the mid-1800s, there is this concept that we're migrating westward and the Natives are a problem," Nagel said. "And that was what that memorial was designed to inspire, was the genocide and unnecessary murder of Native Americans."
State Sen. Tim McGough, R-Merrimack, brought out his 1970s-era state liquor store Hannah Duston commemorative bottle on Columbus Day.
He said he views the statue as a symbol of survival, not racism.
"Any loss of life in war or other conflict is always a tragedy, and I think what we memorialize for Hannah Duston was her strength and willingness to defend her family," McGough said.
Nagel, who is also a doctor and served in the Indian Health Service, said Indigenous people have a different perspective.
"For my Native friends, it's a big symbol of that hatred that goes back to the mid-1800s," he said.
