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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — A statue commemorating colonizer John Sutter was removed from midtown Sacramento Monday afternoon.

As the Sutter statue came down, Larry Rodriguez told FOX40 he saw centuries of oppression starting to topple with it.

“My family is California Native and we know the real history that’s not being taught to everybody,” explained Rodriguez. “He’s basically had slaves in that fort right across the way. I really detest that statue ever being there.”

Sutter was one of the first White colonizers in the Sacramento region during the Gold Rush who founded Sutter’s Fort trading post.

Sutter’s legacy is marked with controversy as he enslaved hundreds of Native Americans.

“If you feel that it’s hurting you that this statue is coming down, then either one, you’re a racist or two, you’re a pigeon,” said Rodriguez.

A crowd gathered outside of Sutter Medical Center to watch the statue’s removal.

But some, like Edgar Sweely, see the act as removing a piece of California history.

“It saddens me seeing history go away. Hopefully the new generation will learn something,” Sweely told FOX40.

A spokesman for the hospital said they took out the donated statue “out of respect for some community members’ viewpoints, and in the interest of public safety for our patients and staff.”

The decision comes less than a week after someone vandalized the figure with red paint.

“For me, to see these kind of statues out is glorifying a history of the enslavement, rape and murder of our California indigenous peoples,” explained Morning Star Gali of the Pit River Tribe.

Gali, along with the Statewide Coalition Against Racist Symbols, fought for its removal.

As the monument was trucked away, Gali said she hopes leaders will shift focus to building memorials to honor Native people who were in California long before the Gold Rush.

“If they truly were about celebrating history, then there needs to be monuments to Nisenan, Miwok and Maidu people,” said Gali.

A spokesman for Sutter Health says they are contacting the original donor to see what they would like done with the statue. For now, the hospital is putting it into storage.