Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe fights Noemâs effort to desecrate Black Hills with fireworks party
The granting of Noemâs permit would illegally abort ongoing National Historic Preservation consultation
Author:
News Release
Big Fire Law & Policy Group
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has moved to join a lawsuit brought by the state of South Dakota and Governor Kristi Noem that asks the court to force the National Park Service (“NPS”) to grant the state a permit to hold a July Fourth fireworks spectacle at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills. The National Park Service’s recent denial of Noem’s permit cited the severe risk of wildfire, environmental threats, and threats to public safety and health, including risk of transmitting COVID-19. The National Park Service also cited concerns raised by tribes, including the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
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Gerard Baker began his illustrious career with the National Park Service at 20. As a young patrol ranger in the 1970s, he often overheard the park interpreters while he collected trash or mowed lawns. One thing I noticed, the Mandan/Hidatsa man from the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota told me, is that we were never talked about. From the early, early days of the philosophies on American Indians, we were looked at as being nothing but so-called animals without even a soul. The animal that they move out of the way so they can have the land. And so, when they start making national parks, they didn t think about taking Indian land. They didn t think about that we had spiritual places. They didn t talk about that. When Baker started out in the Park Service, the park interpreters were mostly whi
But there’s controversy. Trump’s visit will be capped by fireworks for the first time in a decade, notwithstanding worries that pyrotechnics could ignite wildfires. And Native Americans are planning protests, adding Mount Rushmore to the list of monuments around the world that critics see as commemorating histories of racism, slavery and genocide and reinforcing white supremacy.
As I show in my book, “Memorials Matter: Emotion, Environment, and Public Memory at American Historical Sites,” many venerated historical sites tell complicated stories. Even Mount Rushmore, which was designed explicitly to evoke national pride, can be a source of anger or shame rather than patriotic feeling.