The official Democratic National Committee Twitter page quickly withdrew a tweet suggesting President Donald Trump’s concentration on Mt. Rushmore would be ‘glorifying white supremacy’.
In the tweet that was deleted Tuesday morning, the DNC led Trump to the task because of the series of complaints he has filed against indigenous communities in the United States.
‘Trump has disrespected native communities over and over again. It tried to limit their voting rights and blocked relief from the critical pandemic, ‘they said in the tweet.
In the tweet that was deleted Tuesday morning, the DNC led Trump to the task because of the series of complaints he has filed against indigenous communities in the United States.
They then turned their attention to Trump’s July 3 visit to Mt. Rushmore in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he will host a massive rally that will include a fireworks show. Many Native American activists and protesters are planning to go to the controversial monument to protest and the President’s visit.
The DNC added in the tweet: “It is now holding a rally glorifying white supremacy on Mount Rushmore, a region that was once sacred to tribal communities.”
The DNC had been referencing an article in The Guardian that featured Native American activists who were upset by Trump’s upcoming visit.
The tweet was soon removed, but not before it was captured and shared by conservative experts, who speculated that the monument would be the next to be called after the removal or statues of American leaders, many of whom had slaves or genocides against indigenous communities.
The tweet was soon removed, but not before it was captured and shared by conservative experts, who speculated that the monument would be the next to be called after the removal or statues of American leaders (the George Washington statue in Portland collapsed on 19th of June)
Native American activists have been protesting against Mount Rushmore for decades. Protesters in 1970
Most Americans are unaware of Mount Rushmore’s troubled past, done on land stolen from indigenous communities.
“Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, of structural racism that is still alive and well in today’s society,” said Nick Tilsen, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and president of a local activist organization called NDN Collective. “It is an injustice to actively steal the lands of indigenous peoples and then carve the white faces of the colonizers who committed genocide.”
While some activists, like Tilsen, want the monument to be removed and Black Hills to return to Lakota, others have called for a share in the region’s economic benefits.
Trump has always shown a fascination with Mount Rushmore. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said in 2018 that she once said to her with a straight face that it was her dream to have her face carved into the monument.
He later joked at a campaign rally about being consecrated alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. And while it was Noem, a Republican, who lobbied for the return of the fireworks on the eve of Independence Day, Trump promised to visit South Dakota for the celebration.
Some forest fire experts have expressed concern that pyrotechnics could cause fires, especially as the region has had dry weather this year. Firefighters called teams from two other states to help Thursday as a fire consumed approximately 150 acres (61 hectares) about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of the monument.
Presidents were chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum for his leadership during the four phases of American development.
The four faces, carved out of the mountain with dynamite and drills, are known as the “sanctuary of democracy”. Presidents were chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum for his leadership during four phases of American development: Washington led the birth of the nation; Jefferson caused its expansion westward; Lincoln preserved the union and emancipated slaves; Roosevelt defended industrial innovation.
And yet, for many Native Americans, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, Omaha, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Kiowa-Apache, the monument is a desecration of the Black Hills, which they consider sacred. The Lakota people know the area as Paha Sapa, ‘the heart of all that is’.
As monuments to Confederate and colonial leaders have been removed across the country, some conservatives have expressed fear that Mount Rushmore may be next. Commentator Ben Shapiro suggested this week that the ‘awakened from the historical revisionist priesthood’ wanted to blow up the monument. Noem replied by tweeting: ‘Not on my watch.
Borglum was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, according to Mount Rushmore historian and writer Tom Griffith
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; See four white men who made racist remarks or initiated actions that removed Native Americans from their lands. Washington and Jefferson had slaves. Lincoln, while leading the abolition of slavery, approved the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Minnesota after a violent conflict with white settlers there. Roosevelt reportedly said, “I am not going so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I think nine out of 10 are …”
The monument has long been a “Rorschach test,” said John Taliaferro, author of “Great White Fathers,” a history of the monument. “All kinds of people can go there and see it in different ways.”
The monument often starts conversations about 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 have this discussion today about what American democracy is, Mount Rushmore is really serving its purpose because that conversation continues there,” he said. It’s fragile? Its permanent? Is it cracking a little?
The monument was conceived in the 1920s as a tourist attraction for the new fashion on vacation called road trip. South Dakota historian Doane Robinson recruited Borglum to quit his job creating the Confederate Stone Mountain Monument in Georgia, which was to feature Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson.
Borglum was a member of the Ku 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 that his loyalty was more practical than ideological.
But Borglum was known for his racist ideology, once stating: “I would not trust an out of place Indian, 9 out of 10, where I would not trust a white man 1 out of 10”.
The monument was conceived in the 1920s as a tourist attraction for the new fashion on vacation called road trip. South Dakota historian Doane Robinson recruited Borglum to quit his job creating the Confederate Stone Mountain Monument in Georgia, which was to feature Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson (Protest June 16 )
He once spoke of a “mongrel horde” invading the “Nordic” purity of the West, according to Smithsonian Mag.
Native American activists have long organized protests at the site to raise awareness of the history of the Black Hills, which were seized despite treaties with the United States that protect the land. Fifty years ago, 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 heads the United Native Americans, said activism in the 1970s stemmed from 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 history of the United States: it is multidimensional, it is complex,” Griffith said. “It is important to understand that people simply tried to do the right thing as best they knew then.”
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