Activists say the memorial is as reprehensible as the many Confederate monuments being toppled around the nation.
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.
"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."
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." 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..."
"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?"
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