“Symbolically, it has been a complete disaster for most people who follow indigenous affairs,” said Matthew Fletcher, a member of the Grand Traverse Band of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and director of the University’s Center for Indigenous Policy and Law. Michigan State.
Trump’s frequent clashes with other demographic groups have only increased in recent weeks, as he struggles to win a second term on policies that often contradict His campaign’s attempts to divide the Democrats’ leads with African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics.
The frustrations of Native Americans have not attracted the same attention as other groups, marginalized in the Trump era in the same way that they have been for much of American history. However, with a population of nearly 7 million, Native Americans could be crucial voters in various battlefield states in November, including Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, and Colorado.
“Our country has not been the best version of itself when dealing with Native Americans,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (RS.D.), who will be attending the celebration at Mount Rushmore. “This is not exclusive to this president. These are decades long. These are legitimate complaints. Our federal government is not delaying our part of the deal on things like medical care, law enforcement. We have to do better. “
Trump’s trip to South Dakota occurs when he resumes his own schedule and Push Americans must do the same in hopes that it can restore the coronavirus-battered economy before voters decide whether it deserves a second term. But controversies surrounding his travels have only grown as he travels amid the still-growing coronavirus pandemic and a national lawsuit over systemic racism that erupted after the death of another black man in police custody.
The White House and Trump campaign provided a list of policies that the President has pushed for and that they say have benefited Native Americans: the first proclamation recognizing missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives; a task force to protect Native American children; a Reactivated White House Council on Native American Affairs; and collaborating in rural broadband efforts.
“For too long, administrations on both sides spoke and did not act by prioritizing relations with tribal partners,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere. “Rather, President Trump directed his staff to engage directly with tribal leadership to build partnerships, advance the Indian country’s priorities, and ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to prosper and prosper.”
But tribal leaders tell a different story. Presenting itself as the oldest and largest group representing Native Americans and Alaska Natives, the National Congress of American Indians says it has urged Trump for more than three years to talk to them about politics. the way previous presidents did, but to no avail.
“We still have to engage with the president in a very significant way,” said Fawn Sharp, the group’s president.
Instead, Native American leaders say, Trump has enacted policies that actively harm his community. Approved pipelines that will cross tribal lands and water supplies. Reduced the Bears Ears National Monument, created at the request of Native Americans. He is building a wall at the border from Mexico through a sacred cemetery.
And while the administration promoted By giving Native Americans and Alaska Natives $ 8 billion to tackle the coronavirus, the largest single-program investment in the Indian country, the tribes sued the federal government, alleging a delay in sending the money.
It’s not just about politics. Trump has been criticized for his rhetoric and his symbolic actions towards the Native American community. He has defended the refusal of the NFL franchise in Washington, DC to stop using a slang term for Native Americans as its name. In the Oval Office, he hung a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson, who forced thousands of Native Americans to move from the Southeast to the West on the “Trail of Tears.”
And she continues to use the name “Pocahontas,” who was captured by the settlers as a girl, as a pejorative nickname for Senator Elizabeth Warren. She even wore it during a 2017 White House event with Navajo Code Talkers, which helped transmit secret messages that helped Allied forces win World War II. The incident angry Native American leaders.
“It is about being that leader who can transcend the fray and over the conflict and division to recognize and appreciate the points of view, perspective, identity, the extent of diversity of this country of a community” Sharp said.
While Native American criticism of Trump has been kept out of the national conversation, his decision to celebrate America’s 244th birthday with a striking display at Mount Rushmore has highlighted these disputes. It will be the sixteenth president to visit the site.
“Visitors look at the faces of those presidents and extol the virtues they believe make the United States the country it is today,” said Harold Frazier, president of the Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River. “Lakota sees the faces of the men who lied, cheated, and murdered innocent people whose only crime was living on the land they wanted to steal.”
But Johnson, the South Dakota Republican, predicted that Trump would be warmly greeted by the “overwhelming majority of South Dakotans of all races and creeds,” in the same way that President Barack Obama did in 2016 when he visited the state.
“Mount Rushmore symbolizes liberty, liberty and equality,” said Johnson. “It seems like the kind of symbol and monument that we should collect as a country during these times of political unrest.”
While many presidents have lacked strong relationships with the Native American community, tribal leaders praised Obama in 2014 when he became the fourth president, after Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton, to visit a Native American reservation. Obama also traveled to Mount Rushmore as a candidate in 2008, while First Lady Michelle Obama saw him with her daughters in 2012.
Four Presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, were chosen for the famous stone carving because promote “The foundation, expansion, preservation and unification of the United States” According to the National Park service. But Native Americans associate leaders with having slaves and mistreating the Indians.
“The honest men on Mount Rushmore were not perfect; No one is, “said South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Republican, in a statement after some called for the monument to be destroyed.” They all had flaws. But they all had tremendous virtues as well, and they did amazing things for our country “.
Noem has said that Trump once told him he wanted to be carved out of the mountain. At a 2017 Ohio rally, Trump suggested it himself.
“I would ask you if you think that someday I will be on Mount Rushmore, but here is the problem: if I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say, ‘He thinks he should be on Mount Rushmore’,” said.
About 7,500 people are expected at Mount Rushmore on Friday, even amid guidelines limiting meetings across the country. Attendees will receive face masks, but will not be forced to be socially distant in an area susceptible to forest fires.
“We are going to have a tremendous night,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “It will be a fireworks show like few people have seen.”
Trump will immediately fly back to Washington to celebrate July 4 on Saturday. Another protest will be waiting for you.
