Trump's plan to visit Mount Rushmore for July 4th draws criticism from Native Americans
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — President Donald Trump's plans to kick off Independence Day with a showy display at Mount Rushmore are drawing sharp criticism from Native Americans who view the monument as a desecration of land violently stolen from them and used to pay homage to leaders hostile to native people.
Several groups led by Native American activists are planning protests for Trump's July 3 visit, part of Trump’s "comeback" campaign for a nation reeling from sickness, unemployment and, recently, social unrest. The event is slated to include fighter jets thundering over the 79-year-old stone monument in South Dakota's Black Hills and the first fireworks display at the site since 2009.
But it comes amid a national reckoning over racism and a reconsideration of the symbolism of monuments around the globe. Many Native Americans activists say the Rushmore memorial is as reprehensible as the many Confederate monuments being toppled around the nation .
"Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, of structural racism that’s still alive and well in society today," said Nick Tilsen, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and the president of a local activist organization called NDN Collective. "It's an injustice to actively steal Indigenous people’s land then carve the white faces of the conquerors who committed genocide."
While some activists, like Tilsen, want to see the monument removed altogether and the Black Hills returned to the Lakota, others have called for a share in the economic benefits from the region and the tourists it attracts.
Trump has long shown a fascination with Mount Rushmore.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said in 2018 that he had once told her straight-faced it was his dream to have his face carved into the monument. He later joked at a campaign rally about getting enshrined alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. And while it was Noem, a Republican, who pushed for a return of the fireworks on the eve of Independence Day, Trump joined the effort and committed to visiting South Dakota for the celebration.
The four faces, carved into the mountain with dynamite and drills, are known as the "shrine to democracy." The presidents were chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum for their leadership during four phases of American development: Washington led the birth of the nation; Jefferson sparked its westward expansion; Lincoln preserved the union and emancipated slaves; Roosevelt championed industrial innovation.
And yet, for many Native American people, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, Omaha, Arapaho, Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache, the monument is a desecration to the Black Hills, which they consider sacred. Lakota people know the area as Paha Sapa — "the heart of everything that is."
As monuments to Confederate and colonial leaders have been removed across U.S. cities , conservatives have expressed concern that Mount Rushmore could be next. Commentator Ben Shapiro this week suggested that the "woke historical revisionist priesthood" wanted to blow up the monument. Noem responded by tweeting, "Not on my watch."
Tim Giago, a journalist who is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, said he doesn’t see four great American leaders when he looks at the monument, but instead four white men who either made racist remarks or initiated actions that removed Native Americans from their land.
Washington and Jefferson both held slaves. Lincoln, though he led the abolition of slavery, also approved the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Minnesota after a violent conflict with white settlers there. Roosevelt is reported to have said, "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are..."
The monument has long been a "Rorschach test," said John Taliaferro, author of "Great White Fathers," a history of the monument. "All sorts of people can go there and see it in different ways."
The monument often starts conversations on the paradox of American democracy — that a republic that promoted the ideals of freedom, determination and innovation also enslaved people and drove others from their land, he said.
"If we're having this discussion today about what American democracy is, Mount Rushmore is really serving its purpose because that conversation goes on there," he said. "Is it fragile? Is it permanent? Is it cracking somewhat?"
The monument was conceived in the 1920s as a tourist draw for the new fad in vacationing called the road trip. South Dakota historian Doane Robinson recruited Borglum, one of the preeminent sculptors at the time, to abandon his work creating the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in Georgia, which was to feature Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson.
Borglum was a member of the Klu Klux Klan, according to Mount Rushmore historian and writer Tom Griffith. Borglum joined the Klan to raise money for the Confederate memorial, and Griffith argues his allegiance was more practical than ideological. He left that project and instead spent years in South Dakota completing Mount Rushmore.
Native American activists have long staged protests at the site to raise awareness among the history of the Black Hills, which were taken from them despite treaties with the United States protecting the land. Fifty years ago this summer a group of activists associated with an organization called United Native Americans climbed to the top of the monument and occupied it.
Quanah Brightman, who now runs United Native Americans, said the activism in the 1970s grew out of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He hopes a similar movement for Native Americans comes from the Black Lives Matter movement.
"What people find here is the story of America — it’s multi-dimensional, it's complex," Griffith said. "It’s important to understand it was people just trying to do right as best they knew it then."
The White House had no immediate comment on criticism of the president’s planned visit.
I have never been to Mt Rushmore, never had any real desire to see it in person, but I did watch a video about it taken by a tourist who filmed it from the closest point the tourists are allowed to get. I can't say I was real impressed with it as a "wonder of the world".
I also watched a video about a monument that was being created nearby .
Korczak Ziolkowski began work on Crazy Horse Memorial in 1948. Once complete, this tribute to the Lakota leader will be the largest mountain carving in South Dakota and the world. The on-site Indian Museum of North America and the Native American Educational & Cultural Center also provide educational and cultural programming.
Wow, what a wonderful memorial to Crazy Horse! I never knew about it!
It's awesome. The Federal Government offered to help fund and finish it but the owners refused so it's funded by private donations and visitors fees. It's a long way from finished though it might take a few hundred years at the pace they're going. There's a smaller statue there that depicts what the main monument will look like when finished and it shows that the monument isn't even 10% completed after 72 years so it's unlikely we'll live to see it completed.
In a thousands years will Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore seem as mysterious and enigmatic as the Sphinx?
Excuse my hostility, but that is just too fuckin bad. I'm sorry (not really sorry), but I have no sympathy for shit like this. Mt. Rushmore is a great monument and we're not changing it. Neither are we going to apologize for it. Fuck that!
No. It's not. That's bullshit. It is a tribute to four of the greatest Americans who ever lived.
I have a comment: Get over it. And don't waste your time being offended on me. I do not care.
If these are four of the greatest Americans who ever lived and at least three of them thought Negroes and Indians were inferior , and two of them owned slaves all their lives even though they knew it was wrong, what does that say about America's past?
It was the way things were during those times. It was the way it was in many countries, including Africa whose many tribes captured and sold the inhabitants of other tribes to each other and to the Dutch, Americans and pretty much anyone who would purchase them.
Since then, most Americans have evolved on many different issues, including slavery.......well, except most democrats, who require blacks to continue to reside on the plantation of servitude to the democrat party.
If one dares to escape, terms like "Uncle Tom" and "token" come to mind when democrats talk about those people.
What do you think about the more than 180 black slave owners documented in South Carolina alone? Should we erase the memories and documentation about them, too, or would that be racist somehow?
It says things were different. It says people need to get educated about history. People had different understandings about all sorts of things. Judge the people of the past on their own times and not on the standards and practices of the present or future. Recognize, also, that no one is perfect. Nevertheless, these four men were all excellent men and worthy of the monument.
Both Washington and Jefferson knew slavery was morally wrong, but kept slaves all their lives for financial benefit. Washington because he liked being rich and Jefferson because he blew through a lot of money living an upper class lifestyle. These things will forever be black marks on their record. Neither of them objected to swindling the Indians either.
Teddy Roosevelt said
and Lincoln had racial prejudices against both the Africans and the natives in America.
Mt Rushmore has a lot to answer for in terms of race.
Again..simply the way things were.
The fact that they owned slaves is far outweighed by the vast positive things they did for the creation of and succession of this early country, otherwise you would be bowing to Queen Elizabeth today. .
Same thing with Roosevelt.
The monument is perfect the way it is.
Well you sit it down and have a real tough talk with it.............
Apparently. the only thing important now for anybody in history is were they nice to blacks, every other accomplishment means nothing