Sioux Leaders Demand Destruction of Mount Rushmore
Powerful Native American leaders are calling for the destruction of Mount Rushmore ahead of President Donald Trump’s July 3 visit.
The Argus Leader documented one Sioux official’s desire for the monument to fall.
While Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner told the South Dakota paper that he doesn’t want to see Mount Rushmore demolished with explosives, he stressed the mountain’s importance in his tribe’s culture.
“I don’t believe it should be blown up, because it would cause more damage to the land,” Bear Runner said. “Removed but not blown up.”
According to the Argus Leader, the native president noted that important cultural relics and artifacts could potentially be harmed by any overly destructive removal.
Bear Runner called the monument “a great sign of disrespect” over how Mount Rushmore was sculpted without the input of the surrounding Sioux.
But Bear Runner is not the only tribal leader calling for the dismantling of the American icon.
“Nothing stands as a greater reminder to the Great Sioux Nation,” Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier wrote in a news release, “of a country that cannot keep a promise or treaty then the faces carved into our sacred land on what the United States calls Mount Rushmore.”
— CRSTChairman (@CRSTChairman) June 30, 2020
Frazier demanded the removal of the monument, vowing to do it himself if need be.
Bear Running, Frazier and others intent on the removal of the stone presidents are facing some stiff opposition over their destructive plans.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, bucking the trend of state and local leaders who have bowed to anti-monument protesters, vowed to protect Mount Rushmore with the power of her office.
Responding to conservative personality Ben Shapiro’s musings about if Mount Rushmore would be the next target for the radical left, Noem responded with four simple words:
In other words, any attempt by protesters to destroy the monument will likely end in a swift response.
While it doesn’t look like Mount Rushmore will be falling anytime soon, the wave of renewed criticism over the monument hints that our nation’s struggle with the revisionist mob is far from over.
It’s unclear if shifting cultural tides will eventually lead to the monument’s destruction, but for now, Mount Rushmore appears to be secure.
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