Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: You have to look at things historically in that the Black Hills were our point of origin, according to our oral history. And also the Black Hills were taken illegally from the tribes in 1877. And Supreme Court Justice Blackmun, when he ruled that the lands were taken illegally in 1981, said a more ripe and rank case of injustice will probably never be found in American history.

So you have a carving then of four presidential faces on our sacred lands that were taken illegally without-- and that carving is then in our lands, put there without our permission, without our consent. So it is a sore point. And I think if you take a look at those four faces up there and what they have done to the Indian tribes as individual presidents, I mean, you can go down the list.

The largest mass hanging in the history of America occurred at Mankato, Minnesota, at-- on the signature of Abraham Lincoln. 38 Sioux warriors were hanged for defending their country. Teddy Roosevelt took millions of Indian land, acres of Indian land, and turned them into national parks and national forests. Lands that we didn't give up willingly, but were taken by presidential doctrine.

George Washington, I read a letter signed by George Washington in which he said, let's clear New England of the Indians. Exterminate them. That was a direct order to his troops. So we go on Thomas Jefferson, who, of course, was a slaveholder and had an illegitimate child through a Black slave that he had and was no great shakes at some of the things he did to the American Indians during his presidency.

So historically, we have to, I think, be realistic. There's no bitterness that I see among my own people. There is just the fact that here is a huge celebration celebrating 50 years of democracy that has turned into an all-white celebration on our sacred lands, and we've been excluded from it.

SPEAKER 2: Did anybody give that any consideration at all, the idea of including the other side of the story?

SPEAKER 1: They never do. The Americas, particularly South Dakota right now, is showing its good side to the rest of the world. And what I think really I find appalling is there has not been one media in the state of South Dakota, whether it be public television, whether it be the local television station, the local newspapers that have gone out and interviewed one single American Indian about how they feel about this 50th anniversary of Mt. Rushmore.

All the interviews done with American Indians have been from outside of the state, either from radio stations such as yours, from Minnesota, from CNN, from National Public Radio. They are-- the only ones that have come into this state and said, yes, there is another side to this story, because there are people living here who are owners of these hills and still have a claim on these hills.

SPEAKER 2: What about that Crazy Horse Memorial? What's the reaction to that again, I mean, you're--

SPEAKER 1: Oh, that was done at the request of the American Indians. Henry Standing Bear of the Oglala Sioux tribe contacted Korczak Ziolkowski in Boston, and he said he would like him to come out to the Black Hills and carve a statue to show white America that the Indians also had their heroes. And that was in direct contrast to what he saw 20 miles down the road at Mt. Rushmore.

SPEAKER 2: And that project--

SPEAKER 1: I think the big thing you'll find that Crazy Horse is that there's a museum there. All of the artifacts in that museum, Ruth Ziolkowski, the widow of Korczak, buys from local Indian people. She contributes to the economy of the Indian people. There is no entrance fee to go in to see the carving taking place to American Indians. She allows American Indians through her gates at no charge.

You'll find American Indians working in every capacity within the facility. You're not going to find the same thing at Mt. Rushmore, something that is shared with the Indian people at Crazy Horse. Whereas Mt. Rushmore was done in direct violation and without even the permission or without even asking the American Indians if this would be permissible in their sacred lands.