The Rescue
In addition to his statue of George Washington, Horatio Greenough's other infamous work is The Rescue, which stood on the right side of the steps of the East Facade of the US Capitol in Washington, DC for almost 105 years. The sculpture depicts a (rather large) white pioneer fighting off an Indian with a tomahawk, using only his bare hands, while a white woman (presumably the settler's wife) with an infant and a dog look on.
Like Washington being modeled after Zeus, the pose of the Indian, is modeled after another classical sculpture the central figure of Laocoön from Laocoön and His Sons. Opposite on the left side of the steps was a companion sculpture called The Discovery of America, by a sculptor named Luigi Persico depicting a heroic and triumphant Christopher Columbus holding a globe of the world while a nimble and scantily clad Indian maiden cowering near him looks on. Unlike the Washington statue, "The Rescue" did not face much outcry until almost a half a century later when Native Americans deemed both sculptures on the Capitol steps as offensive and embarrassing and requested they be removed.
In 1958, after years of protest by American Indian groups, both The Rescue and The Discovery were removed from the Capitol and placed in storage at the Smithsonian. The Rescue has been damaged beyond repair since it was accidentally dropped by a crane in 1976, the only figure that did not have much damage was the dog, which was exhibited as part of temporary show at Middlebury College showcasing Greenough's drawings in 1999.
Sources:
*http://history1800s.about.com/od/presidentialcampaigns/ig/Inaugurations-of-the-1800s/Inauguration-of-Polk.htm
*http://hereville.livejournal.com/44443.html
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rescue_(statue)