Protesters have pulled down a statute of Christopher Columbus outside the Minnesota State Capitol.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A rope was thrown around the three-metre bronze statue on Wednesday afternoon and it was pulled off its stone pedestal.
The protesters, including Dakota and Ojibwe Indians, said they consider Columbus a symbol of genocide against Native Americans.
They said they had tried many times to remove it through the political process, but without success.
State Patrol troopers in helmets, who provide security in the Capitol complex, stood by at a distance but did not try to stop the protesters, who celebrated afterward with Native American singing and drumming.
The troopers eventually formed a line to protect the toppled statue so it could be taken away.
The protest followed a similar incident on Tuesday night in Richmond, Virginia, and another in Boston.
Australian Associated Press