This is not pettiness, but typical behavior of settler-colonial landowners who view indigenous peoples as subhuman pests unworthy of their land for "using it unproductively." They have already committed genocide against his tribe and will try their best to erase his history to prevent him from becoming a symbol of indigenous resistance. We can currently observe the same behavior on the other side of the planet, with the genocidal settler force desecrating and razing to the ground everything they can find.