Mount Rushmore is causing a fire storm. The president’s July 3rd fireworks display outraged environmentalists who worried about sparks starting a wildfire. Health professionals worried about creating another covid-19 hotspot. Black Lives Matter activists are outraged by a memorial honoring two slave owners and a eugenics enthusiast.
Amid the uproar few people noticed the rage felt by Native Americans. Mt. Rushmore is located in the Black Hills, a site sacred to several tribes, including the Lakota. The Lakota creation story is based on these hills and they consider it the center of the world.
Unfortunately for the tribes, in 19th century America, the Black Hills were close to the Oregon Trail traveled by white settlers heading west. After years of fighting to prevent white encroachment, the Plains tribes signed the 1868 Ft. Laramie treaty. The treaty said the Black Hills belonged to the Indians and ¾ of all adult male Indians had to agree to a sale.
Rumors were circulating about gold in the Black Hills and in 1874 brevet General George A. Custer was sent on a reconnaissance mission. Contrary to the 1868 treaty no one bothered informing the Indians or asking their permission. Custer announced that he had found gold. Within a year over 1000 white miners were swarming into the Black Hills.
Instead of removing the illegal white settlements, the federal government tried to bribe the tribes into giving up their rights. The Indians replied that the Black Hills were not for sale. The negotiators returned to Washington, D.C. and advised the federal government to force the Indians to sell the Black Hills.
To enable the forced sale, Indian agents ordered the tribes to assemble for their annual survey. Annual surveys were used to count the Indians, ostensibly to dole out government rations but also to demonstrate white power over them. Many of the tribal members were off hunting for food and didn’t receive the summons until after the deadline expired, an outcome expected by the government.
The cavalry deployed to round up the “hostiles”. A few months later on June 25, 1876 Custer and elements of the 7th Cavalry died after underestimating the fighting capabilities of the Indians at the Little Bighorn (Greasy Grass to the tribes). In retaliation for Custer’s death, a new federal law required the Indians to give up their rights to the Powder River country (then pristine wilderness, now open pit mines) and to the Black Hills.
To enforce this new law, the tribes were hustled into another meeting in September 1876. The tribal leaders pointed out that less than ¾ of all Indian males were present to vote; many Indians were still in the field fighting the cavalry. The government negotiators breezily claimed that the 1868 treaty meant “friendly” Indians only. The negotiators then threatened to arrest everyone, take all their land and send them to reservations in Oklahoma.
The Indians signed away their rights to the Black Hills. They’ve been trying ever since to either recover the Black Hills or force the federal government to pay compensation. (See my blog Land Is Not For Sale to learn more.)
Although never admitted, the federal government’s policy toward Native Americans was genocidal with forced assimilation and suppression of their culture, substandard health care, withholding food rations, and willful neglect. It almost destroyed the tribes. But two World Wars provided the impetus for both cultural pride and assertiveness. (19% of Native Americans serve in the military today compared to 14% of all other ethnicities.)
Native Americans currently make up about 2% of the U.S. population but Indian men are 38% more likely than other Americans to be incarcerated in federal prisons. Indian men are as likely as black men to die in police violence. Indian women are 2.5% more likely to be raped and 10% more likely to be murdered than the national average for women.
COVID-19 is the latest threat in Indian Country. Decades of poor housing, underfunded healthcare and poverty means tribal members meet virtually every CDC criteria for susceptibility to the virus. Their infection rate is 4% higher than the general population.
Mt. Rushmore is a constant reminder of what they have lost. Their outrage at the fireworks display passed mostly unnoticed because our country has a tradition of ignoring them.
For a general history of Indian – U.S. interactions, see Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown (1970). A history of the 1970’s activists in the American Indian Movement (AIM) can be found in The Road to Wounded Knee, by Robert Burnette and John Koster (1974).
Want to receive this blog straight to your inbox? Sign up for my mailing list.
You can also follow me at HerSavvy.com. My column appears the 3rd Tuesday of each month.