(FW) – Administrators at Wheaton College — a Christian school in Illinois — have removed a plaque commemorating the deaths of a group of martyred missionaries because the memorial used the word “savage” to describe the indigenous tribe who violently killed them.

College officials said they will be commissioning a “task force” to review the language on the plaque, which honored James Elliot and Ed McCully, two missionaries who were part of a group working to spread the Gospel to indigenous peoples in Ecuador, according to The Spectator.

Wheaton President Philip Ryken announced in an email last Wednesday the plaque was being removed and would be replaced with a new one.

“Recently, students, faculty, and staff have expressed concern about language on the plaque that is now recognized as offensive,” he wrote. “Specifically, the word ‘savage’ is regarded as pejorative and has been used historically to dehumanize and mistreat indigenous peoples around the world.”

The group of missionaries spent months building a relationship with the Waodani (then Acua) tribe in the rainforests of Ecuador. They exchanged several gifts before ultimately meeting in-person, which they considered a success. But then, on Jan. 8, 1956, the tribe speared to death five missionaries — including McCully and Elliot — and threw their bodies into a nearby river. READ MORE