Mount Rushmore: Legislation Protecting Memorial Proposed As Tribe Leader Calls For Removal

A new legislation proposed by Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-SD., Thursday (June 25), is calling for the protection of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota as historical monuments and memorials across the U.S. are being taken down, destroyed and vandalized in various protests to end systemic racism.

Johnson introduced the Mount Rushmore Protection Act that would "use of federal funds to alter, change, destroy or remove the likeness, the name of, or any of the faces on the memorial."

"These presidents championed the cause of freedom,” the congressman said in a press release. “Those seeking to remove these iconic faces are undermining the contributions these leaders made in pursuit of a more perfect union. Removal would do nothing to move our country forward.”

Johnson's proposal comes as Native American tribal leader Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner said that Mount Rushmore should be removed but not blown up to avoid damaging the land, which has several Indian artifacts. He said that the federal government never consulted with the Sioux leaders when the monument was built.

"To me, it’s a great sign of disrespect,” the tribal leader said.

Mount Rushmore was carved between 1927 and 1941 by sculptor Gutzon Borglum to depict some of the Founding Fathers of the United States -- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. But Borglum was reportedly aligned with the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, and tribes have claimed, over the years, that they own the land where the monument stood.

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

The debate comes as President Donald Trump is set to visit Mount Rushmore on Friday (July 3), a day before America celebrates its Independence Day. Fireworks are expected during the president's visit, but Native American groups are planning to stage a protest to demand Trump to return the land to the Sioux tribe.