Mount Rushmore Isn’t Everyone’s Monument to Progress

By Michael Pearlman, 5-19-09

	The view from Harney Peak's fire tower includes the Needles, granite pillars that rise from the forest in the Black Hills.

To most of America, the Black Hills are best known as the location of Mount Rushmore, South Dakota’s most popular summer tourist destination. Eager for an escape from Sheridan, Lindsay and I packed the dog and the tent into the car and headed east for a weekend getaway, eager to get a jump on the Memorial Day crowds. We spent the first night in Spearfish, a town located at the northern end of the Black Hills which has a well-appointed, city-owned campground.

The next morning, we took a drive through the dense forest of Spearfish Canyon, made a short stop at Spearfish Falls and passed through Deadwood before arriving at Mount Rushmore. The monument has undergone quite the upgrade since my last trip there in 1993, with multi-level parking structures, an elaborate display of state flags and a well-stocked museum detailing the history of the monument’s construction. We gazed at the monument and watched the informational film in the museum, which told us that the images of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln were selected by sculptor Gutzon Borglum to “communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States.”

The scale and sheer beauty of Mount Rushmore was effective in bringing out my sometimes-hibernating patriotism. It’s a monument to American greatness and determination, a Depression era project completed by hard-working men who were proud of their role on completing the massive project.

Of course, the monument’s museum doesn’t mention that the United States seized the area from the Lakota Sioux after the Great Sioux War in 1877. There’s no reference to the criticism the monument has received from Native Americans in the Black Hills area, many of whose ancestors were forced from the area and onto reservations after gold was discovered. American progress is the emphasis at Mount Rushmore, not alternative views of American imperialism.

Later that day, Mount Rushmore was still on my mind when we decided to take a late-afternoon hike to the summit of 7,242-foot Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota. The trailhead was jammed and waves of people were descending from the summit as we climbed the wide trail to the summit of the peak, the highest point east of the Rockies until the Pyrenees Mountains in Europe.

During our hike, we came upon a ponytailed man in tennis shoes carrying a staff with a giant overcoat accompanied by a boy of about 11 or 12. We passed them a few minutes later and proceeded to the top of the mountain, which offers a gorgeous view of the Needles. When the man entered the fire tower, he approached Lindsay and I and introduced himself.

“I’m Scott and this is Mitchell,” he said by way of introduction. “We’re going to have a prayer ceremony, would you like to join us?”

I didn’t hesitate, sensing the rare opportunity to share a cultural experience with Native Americans.
“We really appreciate the offer, would it be all right if we respectfully observed?” I asked.

Scott answered in the affirmative and led us to a wind protected spot just off the summit. As we walked with them, Scott explained that they were Lakota people from a reservation about 200 miles to the east and were visiting Harney peak because of a dream that Mitchell had. Mitchell’s great, great grandfather was the warrior Crazy Horse, Scott told us, and he and Mitchell had been trying to make the trip for the last month. Their glee over having reached the summit was infectious.

We sat down and he pulled out a pouch of rolling tobacco, from his waist the skin, he told us, was a badger skin. Mitchell dumped out the tobacco onto the ground as an offering, while Scott prepared the pipe of natural herbs. He led Mitchell in a song and then passed us the pipe, asking us to say a prayer.

Scott made us feel comfortable sitting with them, and after thanking them for allowing us to participate in the ceremony, we left them and began our descent. It wasn’t until I got home that I learned that Harney Peak is a popular destination for Lakota religious ceremonies and where Black Elk received his “great vision” when he was only nine years old in 1872.

On our way down Harney Peak, I tried my best to imagine what the hike meant to Scott and Mitchell. I wondered if they’d ever visited Mount Rushmore, and was curious how they felt about that monument to American greatness. Most of all I felt honored that we were welcomed to take part in a ceremony and witness the perpetuation of an ancient culture I have had almost no firsthand exposure to.

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