Politics

Native Activists Blast Trump For Celebrating July 4 At Mount Rushmore, Calling It A ‘Symbol Of White Supremacy’

U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are sculpted on Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, U.S. in this U.S. National Park Service photo taken on April 12, 2013. Courtesy NPS/Handout via REUTERS.

NPS/Handout via REUTERS

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Native American activists are planning to protest President Donald Trump’s Independence Day celebrations at South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore monument, calling it a “symbol of white supremacy.”

Trump is planning an appearance at the historic site, complete with fireworks and a flypast, according to Fox News.

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 04: President Donald Trump watches a flyover on July 04, 2019 in Washington, DC. President Trump is holding a "Salute to America" celebration on the National Mall on Independence Day this year with musical performances, a military flyover, and fireworks. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump watches a flyover on July 04, 2019 in Washington, DC. President Trump is holding a “Salute to America” celebration on the National Mall on Independence Day this year with musical performances, a military flyover, and fireworks. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

But for some indigenous peoples, the faces of the four presidents carved in stone are a reminder of United States government policies in the late nineteenth century that relocated Natives from their traditional homelands onto reservations. (RELATED: Whoopi Goldberg Is Ready To See More Faces On Mount Rushmore)

“Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, of structural racism that’s still alive and well in society today,” Oglala Lakota tribe member and NDN Collective activist Nick Tilsen told Fox News. “It’s an injustice to actively steal indigenous people’s land then carve the white faces of the conquerors who committed genocide.”

Tilsen’s  group and others plan to protest when Trump arrives on July 3. They have made no threats to deface the monument.

Vandals have toppled historical statues across the country, beginning with Confederate icons but moving to other American leaders. Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday that the statue of President Theodore Roosevelt would be removed from the entrance of the Museum of Natural History. Protesters Friday tore down a statue of President and Civil War Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco.

Hoover Institution Professor Victor Davis Hanson suggested the people who are toppling statues or demanding that they be removed wouldn’t travel to Mount Rushmore with the same thought in mind. (RELATED: COULTER: Get Ready To See Trump’s Face On Mount Rushmore)

The Theodore Roosevelt Equestrian Statue, which sits on New York City public park land is seen in front of the The American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West entrance June 22,2020. - The American Museum of Natural History will remove the Theodore Roosevelt from its entrance after objections that it symbolizes colonial expansion and racial discrimination, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

The Theodore Roosevelt Equestrian Statue, which sits on New York City public park land is seen in front of the The American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West entrance June 22, 2020. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

“So if you’re going to take down Teddy Roosevelt at the National Museum, why don’t you go to  Mount Rushmore and blow Teddy Roosevelt up? You don’t want to do that because the people in that area of the Dakotas might resist,” he told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum painstakingly created his masterpiece during the years 1927-41 after South Dakota historian Doane Robinson suggested the idea.