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Before unplugging for a bit, I’m going thread some articles for anyone interested in learning the exceptionally problematic history of #MountRushmore.
Article 1: ”...decades-long fight by Native Americans to uphold the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty that designates Mount Rushmore and the surrounding Black Hills as part of "the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people." https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/03/native-americans-mount-rushmore-protest
Article 2. “Mr. Borglum (sculptor of the monument) formed strong bonds with leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and participated in their meetings... He also espoused white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideas, according to excerpts from his letters...” https://nyti.ms/3gkZIQ2
Article 3. “Past fireworks displays are the probable cause of elevated concentrations of a contaminant called perchlorate in groundwater and surface water within Mount Rushmore National Memorial...”
https://www.usgs.gov/news/fireworks-likely-caused-water-contamination-mount-rushmore
https://www.usgs.gov/news/fireworks-likely-caused-water-contamination-mount-rushmore
Article 4. “(T.) “Roosevelt himself would sum up his feelings this way: ‘I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/geronimos-appeal-to-theodore-roosevelt-117859516/
Article 5. “At the time of George Washington’s death, the Mount Vernon estate’s enslaved population consisted of 317 people.” http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/
Article 6. “Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, yet, over the course of his life, he owned 600 people. His way of life always depended on the labor of people he held in slavery.”
https://www.monticello.org/slavery-at-monticello
https://www.monticello.org/slavery-at-monticello
Article 7. “On December 16, 1862 President Lincoln authorized the execution of 38 Dakota.” “On December 26, 1862 in Mankato, MN, 38 Sioux Indians were hung. This the largest mass execution in American history.”
https://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/tbacig/studproj/a1041/siouxup/Hangings.htm
https://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/tbacig/studproj/a1041/siouxup/Hangings.htm
History is complex and murky, and so it requires thorough examination. We have to leave behind the myths we were taught as children and look at the realities. Most importantly we must view history through the lens of Black and Indigenous people.
Happy 4th. Be kind to each other.
Happy 4th. Be kind to each other.
