Phoebe Rose Black-Toby

11/5 Essay

The ongoing construction of the Crazy Horse monument signifies a heated argument

between Native American values against their desire to fight back against white supremacy. On

one hand, the construction of the monument goes against so many beliefs of Indigenous people,

as well as the Lakota tribe in particular. The Black Hills are a place where Indigenous people

historically have gone to connect with the “Greater.” Many people of the Lakota tribe believe

that the hills are not there to be carved and given images. The Black Hills is a burial ground and

should be treated as such. As heard in “The Last National Park Documentary,” it is a common

belief of Native American people that you should not “hurt the Earth. That’s an actual living

being and there are spirits there, and you don’t hurt something that is holy.” The act of making a

monument to Crazy Horse, a Native American hero, by carving out the Earth seems to counteract

with the Lakota peoples’ agenda.

On the other hand, the Crazy Horse monument stands about a 30 minute drive away from

Mount Rushmore, arguably one of the biggest memorialized slaps in the face The Lakota people

have suffered. Nick Tilsen, the president and CEO of the NDN collective and son of the leaders

of the Black Hills Survival Gathering Anti-Nuclear movement calls Mount Rushmore a “false

narrative,” of a “shrine of democracy” which is really a shrine of hypocrisy. He draws attention

to the false national narrative of Abraham Lincoln being a hero who signed the Emancipation

Proclamation, which brushes under the rug the face that he ordered one of the largest mass

hangings in United States history. Placing a shrine to Lincoln in such a sacred Lakota area is

celebrating indigenous genocide as a shrine of democracy. It makes sense that the tribe would
want to construct a monument like Crazy Horse, something that is bigger and grander than that

of Mount Rushmore, and could potentially overshadow it.

As Tilsen as well as James Anaya stated in their testimonials, The Black Hills were taken

illegally from the Lakota people (which has been acknowledged by the Supreme Court). Some

sort of joint management should occur of Mount Rushmore so that both the federal government

and the Lakota people should have access and control over the land. It makes total sense that the

Lakota people have refused monetary compensation from the government because of their

spiritual connection to the land.

The difference between the PBS interviews scary and interesting, one in 2012 and one in

2019. Anaya seems to have a positive outlook on the US government’s cooperation, especially

after their endorsement of the UN’s declaration of Rights of Indigenous peoples. The 2019

interview with Nick Tilsen is much darker in tone, in which they discuss President Trump’s

desire to hold a gathering at Mount Rushmore on July 4th without following social distancing

guidelines and encouraging use of fireworks, which are banned in the area due to danger of

forest fires. This shows how this “shrine of hypocrisy” is a breeding ground for danger and white

supremacists. Tilsen notes that North Dakota in particular has a history of white supremacist

gatherings, which just illustrates the power monuments like these have of inciting violence and

hate within a community.