Olympia gets preview of Billy Frank Jr. sculpture slated for Washington, D.C.

Washington state is primed to contribute to the arts in the other Washington in 2025, but first, Olympia got a sneak preview this week of a small-scale sculpture of Indigenous rights activist Billy Frank Jr.

“I put him sitting by the Nisqually riverbank," said Hai Ying Wu, the Seattle artist who crafted the sculpture. "That's where he was born, where he spent all his life.”

Now on display at the Capitol in Olympia is a 4-foot-tall maquette — a model that is used as a reference to create a final sculpture. The maquette was unveiled in a ceremony Wednesday. Wu was in attendance, along with Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, Gov. Jay Inslee, Vice Chair of the Nisqually Tribe Antonette Squally, State Rep. Debra Lekanoff, Rep. J.T. Wilcox, and Willie Frank III (Billy Frank Jr.'s son).

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Originally from China, Wu is known for crafting sculptures throughout the Pacific Northwest, including the Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, and the memorial to 19th-century Chinese railroad workers in Tacoma.

Wu said the Billy Frank Jr. project became very special to him. He spent time going over old photos, and speaking with Frank's friends and family. Wu said he got a "charming" impression from this experience, and settled on a photograph which informed the eventual sculpture.

"I looked at his face, his smile, and the wrinkles on his face," Wu said. "I imagine that after many, many years he fought for Indians' rights, he was put in jail many times, and I looked at his face and he doesn't have any resentment. He's looks rather peaceful ... so I chose that picture as the basic image ... to portray him."

The eventual 9-foot-tall sculpture of Frank Jr. will be unveiled in D.C. in 2025, when it is placed in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall. It’s the first time a contemporary Native American has received this honor, and Wu is the first Chinese-American artist to have a statue displayed in the hall.

"Which is a great honor," Wu said. "I felt very grateful to have this opportunity to work on this wonderful project."

The model unveiled in Olympia on Wednesday will have a permanent home in the lobby of the lieutenant governor's office.

The effort to place a statue of Billy Frank Jr. in D.C. began in 2019 when a proposal was put before lawmakers in Olympia to replace Washington's statue of settler Marcus Whitman with another notable Washingtonian. Frank Jr.'s name came up early in the conversation around which notable Washingtonian it should be, and in 2021, a bill was passed to make the switch.

Dyer Oxley contributed to this report.