Site Specific Monuments: Mount Rushmore

On August 9th, 2020, President Donald Trump tweeted about his wish to one day have his face added to Mount Rushmore. This would place him alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. His musings, of course, led to immense amounts of backlash, commentary, and memes of his face photoshopped onto Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore finished construction in 1927, and it has not been tampered with since. Donald Trump’s wish sparked controversy over the disruption of the monument, but it also allowed Americans to reflect once again on the controversies that come with the monument itself, and the ethics (or lack thereof) that surround the construction and existence of the monument.

Mount Rushmore is arguably one of the most controversial monuments in America. The monument was constructed in the 1920’s after the idea was conceived by Doane Robinson in 1923. It was decided that the site of Mount Rushmore would be in the Black Hills. However, the granite mountain on which the faces are constructed is sacred land to the indigenous peoples who are native to the area. The Sioux, in particular, had the land stolen from them illegally. In 1980, the United States v. Sioux Supreme Court Case ruled that the land had indeed been stolen from the Sioux and that the Sioux had not received any compensation. However, the monument still stands today, and people from all over the country (and the world) come to see the president’s faces and their stoic expressions that are immortalized in stones.

It is also known that the faces themselves were chiseled by Klu Klux Kluansmen, which perpetuates the themes of white supremacy that surround the monument. By illegally claiming the land and building an American monument on it, the American government was clearly demonstrating their values when it came to the importance of the land to the indigenous people. Simply put, the American government did not care about the importance of the sacred land to the Sioux people.

This values come full circle on August 9th, when Donald Trump tweets his wish to be added to the monument. Though the monument is still standing and is still being profited off of by the American government, the controversy that surrounds it is well known. There are campaigns against the monument, and it is widely known that the monument does not profit the Sioux at all, even though it stands on their land. For Donald Trump to tweet this is incredibly insensitive. If anything, it felt as though the government was going to just leave the monument alone instead of trying to “erase” it in any way. Trump, however, decided to bring attention back to the monument by stating his wish to be added to it. This addition would cause more destruction to the sacred land. By stating this fantasy, Trump was stating his values when it came to the land of the indigenous people. These values, however, are relatively well known already.

As of late, Trump has shown his blatant disrespect for indigenous people and communities by blocking them from critical pandemic relief. This has led communities of indigenous people to struggle during this time, even though they’re American citizens under jurisdiction of the American government. He’s also attempted to limit their voting rights in the past. These two actions show just how little Trump (and therefore his cabinet) value and care about the indigenous people in this country.

It is also becoming increasingly popular for the American public to “call out” the monuments in this country that stand for racist/white supremacist values and histories. This is a time of a changing political climate and a civil rights movement. For Trump to publicly disrespect indigenous people in this way was tone deaf, and complicates the reputation of the monument even further by imagining a future in which it is added to instead of erased.