Yup, that’s most definitely a Hamilton quote in the title of this post. Three years ago, I saw it on Broadway and I have certainly filled a few pandemic summer nights with the Disney+ film. Borrow someone’s log in if you haven’t seen it – you’ll be singing the soundtrack forever and that’s a very good thing!
This question “who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” is asked in the finale song of the musical and goes on to discuss all of Alexander Hamilton’s contributions to the United States as a founding father, a story that often isn’t told like that of George Washington’s or Thomas Jefferson’s. Both these US presidents (#1 and #3 respectively) are carved into Mount Rushmore, along with later presidents, Abraham Lincoln (#16) and Theodore Roosevelt (#26). Their stories are most frequently told in the US with admiration; they are the victors, the founders and enforcers of American democracy; in short, Americans revere them as heroes.
In middle and high school, we are not taught to critically challenge this heroic narrative (though this is slowly beginning to change in some schools). The carvings are all white men, and ultimately, they all are symbols of violent US colonialism: Washington and Jefferson enslaved hundreds of African Americans on their southern plantations and ordered campaigns against American Indians. Lincoln oversaw the hanging of the Dakota 38. Roosevelt openly despised Native peoples and enforced policies to take them from their lands in forced assimilation, continuing an ongoing genocide of their people and culture. These are the faces immortalized on a mountain sacred to the Lakota Sioux in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Yet, here I am 32 years old, only now learning the history of this place after being told my entire life Mount Rushmore is an iconic memorial to the great United States.
This first came to my immediate attention earlier this summer when President Trump traveled to Mount Rushmore for 4th of July remarks so I started researching, and I was reminded about context by a friend after posting a picture. You can look up the history of Six Grandfathers Mountain, as the Lakota Sioux call it, for the six directions, north, south, east, west, above, and below. The Black Hills are sacred and in an 1868 treaty with the US government, the Sioux were promised these lands forever. That is until gold was found a few years later and the government took the region by military force and more Native deaths. The compensation that was awarded to the Sioux in an 1980 Supreme Court case hasn’t been claimed by the tribe because doing so would relinquish their claim on these sacred lands.
These paragraphs above are just scratching the surface of the history of the Black Hills and the colonial legacy that has forcibly shaped and destroyed the way of life for hundreds of tribes. I have much more to learn, and to comprehend about my role as a white woman of European descent in continuing practices that further marginalize Native peoples. As my country begins to wholly reckon with the racist policies of the US, being an anti-racist means speaking out from my place of privilege and taking action – it’s not enough to read and educate myself. The context in which we interact and share our experiences is vital; take for instance my own visit to Mount Rushmore yesterday.
My dog Scout and I spent the night in Rapid City, SD, about 35 minutes from the memorial. The parking structure and gates open at 5:00 am local time. Since dogs aren’t allowed, I decided to get there by sunrise so that the car wouldn’t be hot for Scout (since it was supposed to reach 100℉ by midday) and so that we would skip the crowds. I had noticed that social distancing wasn’t being enforced in the outdoor spaces in the National Parks and neither was mask-wearing. It was gorgeous – the rising sun hit the faces of each president and washed the mountain in beautiful early morning colors. I strolled up and down the Avenue of Flags which documents when each state and territory joined the union. But the visitor center didn’t open until 8 am and I left the grounds by 7:00 am. I don’t know what information is in the visitor center about the true history of the site, if any. Even so, of the three million visitors a year, how many actually enter the visitor center during their visit? Who has done their research to learn the true context of presidential faces on Mount Rushmore and what it has cost the Lakota over hundreds of years of exploitation?
Just yesterday, on the day of my visit to Mount Rushmore, President Trump said that diversity training is anti-American and is banning it within federal agencies. I don’t know how far this policy will go, but for one thing, it’s true – it has been “anti-American” to acknowledge the ugly, violent, bigoted history of places and policies that have created the United States as we know it in 2020. In the same breath, our national voice claims to embrace the differences that make our country unique. If we are going to create a more accepting, equitable country, we must reckon with the true, disgraceful legacy that has touched all corners of this country and counter the white-washed history. We have to tell every narrative, not just those who “won” and write the stories. We will be better, more ethical travelers and citizens for it.
Here are some resources about Six Grandfathers (aka Mount Rushmore) and about Land Acknowledgement practices that you can bring to your community.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rushmore-sioux/
https://blog.nativehope.org/six-grandfathers-before-it-was-known-as-mount-rushmore
Sabbatical with Scout 
Elizabeth,
This is a very informative post. Thank you.
Safe travels and explorations!
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journal and tutorial. love it.
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