Mt. Rushmore is carved into the mountainside, looming over the terrain on which the one of the bloodiest battles in the European colonizer's war against the Amerindians took place (Wounded Knee). Mt. Rushmore served as a blatant reminder of the brute force of imperialism to once and for all lay claim to the area.
In the 1930s, suffragists wanted Susan B. Anthony's face added to the monstrous sculpture.
Lewis and Clark, Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane were some of the original choices for the sculpture.
To this day, the monument is only about 60% completed, the sculptor ran out of funds and public support during the depression.
Some Information Related to Mt. Rushmore: Colonialism and Genocide in the U.S.
By the year 2050, people from the US who claim to be of European descent will represent the newest ethnic 'minority' nationwide. (Source: N. Murray, 1992, "Columbus and the USA: From Mythology to Ideology" in Race and Class, 33(3), p. 49-65.)
When the U.S. was being colonized, the fact that many indigenous peoples had writing and recording systems different from those in Europe served as a prime justification for colonization and genocide. It was reasoned that by having no written laws per se, these people had no legal claims to the lands they inhabited.
Colonialism, genocide and religious fanaticism go hand-in-hand when talking about what happened to the indigenous peoples of North America. The European Colonialists, by reasoning that these peoples were heathens, justified their domination of this land as a matter of christian duty.
WebSpider: Candida Albicanso
margaret@cea.edu
