THE QUESTIONABLE PAST OF MT RUSHMORE

Joe McClain - Jul 6, 2009
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Two million tourists come to admire the Mount Rushmore National Memorial each year. Not many are aware that its glorious creation is shadowed by deceit and lies by former U.S. government and associations with Ku Klux Klan. Mount Rushmore is often considered a world’s wonder. Giant faces of former U.S. presidents carved into a mountain wall represent a true genius and years of hard work. Each year, nearly two million visitors head for the monument to admire its impressive features. Unfortunately, there are several hick-ups in the grand creation tale which are rather disappointing. The Black Hills where Mt Rushmore belongs were once owned by the Sioux Indian tribes. In 1868, the U. S. government signed a treaty with the tribes to let them keep the hills, including what later became Mt Rushmore. Unfortunately for the Sioux, gold was discovered on the land and the land was re-claimed by the government.A hundred years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Black Hills had been seized illegally, indeed and offered a settlement of $ 105 million to the Indians. The money was refused as the leaders of the tribes would much prefer their land back.Mt Rushmore bears its name after a prominent New York lawyer, who came here on an expedition in 1885. The author of the monument, Gutzon Borglum, spent some years prior to his engagement on Mt Rushmore working for Ku Klux Klan leaders in Georgia – carving a Confederate memorial. Still, he did a terrific job carving the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln into the rocky surface. Mt Rushmore remains a wonder and an attraction not to be missed – no matter what its past hides and reveals, the monument is an amazing example of hard work and determination and should be admired for that. Related:Mount Rushmore Pulls in the Crowds

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