Chief Solano Luggage Tag

Solano County's own Uncle Sam a.k.a Sam Yeto of the Suisun Tribe. 

The statue sits in front of the old Library and the current home of the Solano County Board of Supervisors.  On the main street of Texas and Union. 

The Statue was sculpted by William Gordon Huff and was unveiled in Solano County near the present day CHP truck scales in 1933.  The state of California chipped in $5,000 for its construction.  It was supposed to be at his gravesite but his burrial location remains unknown and is rumored to be somewhere on the grounds of Solano Community College. 

Chief Solano's burrial was attended by Native Americans from all over the region and the statue was constructed and sculpted in teamwork with local Native American tribes to honor the historic achievements in the of this pivotal pre gold rush era California Founding Father. His stories are mythical, legendary, and factual and are known to many throughout the northern counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. 

He is the last of his Suisun tribe and was raised by the Spanish at the Missions.  He spoke every Native American language in the region as well as Spanish.  He was well respected and feared among both as well as the Russians along the Sonoma Coast.  He was a close personal friend to California Senator and Founding Father Mariano Vallejo.  General Vallejo used Solano as his interpreter to help ease tensions between the Spanish and the Native Americans.  It is known that he was given an innoculation to smallpox by the Spanish making him one of the very few Native Americans to have received such protection from a disease that decimated millions of his people.  He was given the Suisun Land Grant by the Mexican Government towards the end of the Mexican American War.  The rights to his land and the selling of it to other Americans eventually became a United States Supreme Court Case.  Solano died around the time of California becoming the 31st state in the Union in 1850 under a tree near the Martin family Ranch near present day Solano Community College.

The Man, The Myth, The Legendary Chief Solano. 

For mor information you can read the following article from The Daily Republic by clicking the link below. 

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/solano-news/solano-county/giant-chief-solano-statue-greets-events-center-visitors/