He was born in St. Charles, Idaho, of LDS polygamist parents. And, he grew up to be the KKK practitioner who carved the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt into the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore. Now, since you're hearing rumblings of how Mount Rushmore should be taken down, listen up. You you are dismissing the very thought of them being dismantled as being too, too much -- way too much -- cancel culture, cancel culture run amok. Really? you ask. Take down the monuments to four of our greatest presidents? Now, there's some kind of patriotism.
Oh, it's his birthday. By the time you read this, it will be the 154th birthday of Gutzon Borglum, who was born March 25, 1867 in Idaho, as we said, to polygamous parents. Don't hold on to the part about him being LDS too tight. The family left the church not long later, perhaps without him even being baptized.
But, hold on to that part about him being tied tightly to the KKK. We'll address that more, later. But, first, let's deal with the question of whether if the Native Americans want to take those sculptures down, they have the right to do so. There's something about owning land that gives you the right to say how the land is used.
And, the Native Americans owned all of this land, right? And, we stole it from them by invading them, right? And, that's all we're talking about, right?
No, not at all. Their ownership has been much more definitive. What I'm saying is they owned it in very fashion. They pretty much deeded it to them, signed a contract and said, Here, take it; it's yours. Just like you have deed to your home, or your farm, they owned the Black Hills of South Dakota. The U.S. government signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, granting the Native Americans exclusive use of the region. But, when gold was discovered, the U.S. went back on its word, stealing the land right back. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Lakota Indians' favor, awarding them $17.1 million in damages. The natives said, No dice. It's not about money. It's our land. It's not for sale for $17.1 million or even more. Keep your money, because we're keeping our land.
Now, a little more about this Gutzon Borglum. Before he came to work on Mount Rushmore, he worked on a similar project in Georgia, aimed at creating a monument to Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis, the three heroes of the Confederacy. He worked with the KKK on creating that monument until there was a falling out, and he picked up his toys, so to speak, and erased his work, and left the project for another sculptor to finish.
Only to end up in the hills of South Dakota, carving Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Roosevelt. There's actually more to the story. You will want to study why he selected those four presidents, and how it was not so much they, themselves, he wanted to honor. Instead, he cited each one for something they did, and Mount Rushmore, to him, stood for those things. Study how their is a a vault at Mount Rushmore -- one not open to the public -- but how it contains documents that tell of his connections to the KKK and might suggest what meanings he had in mind for Mount Rushmore.
Take down the monuments? The Supreme Court has ruled that $17.1 million is all the Sioux deserve. At this point, with the Court having ruled as it has, it is all the Sioux have legal right to. It might take a new case reaching the High Court, but there are those of us who think that if the treaty gave the land away, it should be honored. Just like Roe vs. Wade could be overturned, so should this.
And, then, whether the monuments to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt come down should all be decided by the Native Americans who are the rightful owners of the land.
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