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Why Native Americans Have Protested Mount Rushmore

The granite faces of four U.S. presidents overlook the Black Hills of South Dakota. While many view Mount Rushmore as the “Shrine of Democracy,” for Native Americans, it often represents a shrine of illegal occupation.

Despite attracting approximately 3 million tourists each year, Mount Rushmore has also been the site of numerous protests and occupations by American Indians. Among the most significant protests in the 20th century occurred in 1970 and 1971, when Native American activists climbed and occupied the monument to protest what they considered the theft and desecration of a sacred site.

The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie

The Black Hills have long been home to tribes such as the Shoshone, Salish, Kootenai, Crow, Mandan, Arikara, and Lakota, who refer to the area as “The Heart of Everything That Is.” Gerard Baker, a Mandan-Hidatsa Indian and former Superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial from 2004 to 2010, notes that Indigenous peoples were familiar with the land long before white settlers arrived.

The Black Hills were designated for the Lakota (also known as the Teton Sioux) in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. However, the discovery of gold in the area led U.S. prospectors to flood into the region, prompting the government to coerce the Sioux into relinquishing their claims to the land.

Leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse spearheaded the resistance against these land seizures, but by 1877, the U.S. government had officially taken possession of the land. Since then, the Sioux and other Native American activists have consistently protested the U.S. government's claims to their ancestral territories.

American Indian Protests of the 1970s

On August 29, 1970, a group of Native Americans, organized by the San Francisco-based United Native Americans, climbed 3,000 feet to the summit of Mount Rushmore and established a camp to protest the violations of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. The following year, on June 6, 1971, another group led by the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the monument, demanding the U.S. honor the 1868 treaty. Ultimately, twenty Native Americans—nine men and eleven women—were arrested for climbing the monument.

Marcella Gilbert, a Lakota and Dakota community organizer, recalls watching her mother, Madonna Thunderhawk, an AIM leader, during the 1970 occupation. The following year, at just 12 years old, Gilbert participated in the next protest. She describes the experience as “cool” but also somewhat tense. When they received a “let’s go” signal, she and others rushed to the top of the site.

As they occupied the site, the adults eventually noticed police and National Park Service rangers gathering below. A decision was made to escort the younger members, including Gilbert, back down the mountain before the authorities arrived.

From a hidden vantage point, Gilbert watched as federal agents raided their camp after the children were taken down. “We were in the trees,” she recalls. “I remember them tearing through our tents, just like they did at Standing Rock. They took all the food and broke into the shed.”

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court awarded the Great Sioux Nation $105 million in compensation for the loss of the Black Hills. However, the Sioux Nation rejected this sum, insisting instead on the return of their land, leaving the unclaimed money in a government bank account.

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