Mt. Rushmore. (cover story)

BAKER, Gerard; LAKOTA (North American people); MOUNTAINS; BLACK Hills War, 1876-1877; DAKOTA (North American people); ROBINSON, Doane; BORGLUM, Gutzon, 1867-1941; PLAINS peoples (North American peoples); CRIMES against Native Americans; LAND tenure

MOUNT Rushmore National Memorial (S.D.); BLACK Hills (S.D. & Wyo.); SOUTH DakotaReport Available; UNITED StatesReport Available

The article looks at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the changes that have accorded since 2004 when Gerard Baker became the monument's first American Indian superintendent. In 1924 South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson invited sculptor Gutzon Borglum to create Mt. Rushmore in hopes of attracting tourists. Baker states that there is a huge need for Anglo-Americans to understand the Black Hills before the arrival of the white men. The Black Hills remains a sacred landscape to many Indian nations. Charmaine White Face, a Lakota woman, compares Mt. Rushmore to a statue of Adolf Hitler in the middle of Jerusalem. The article describes the Great Sioux War of 1876 and the U.S. law that required the Indians to relinquish their land and stay on reservations.