rapid city airport to 21180 lookout trail, lead, sd

Since the completion of Mount Rushmore, Native Americans have staged protests to have the Black Hills returned to them. And thus, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln were carved into Mount Rushmore. Gutzon Borglum thought that the sculpture would have more national appeal if it portrayed four presidents. Robinson wanted to feature Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea, Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Buffalo Bill Cody, all heroes of the American west. With memories of conflict still fresh in the minds of Native Americans, Gutzon Borglum arrives to the area in 1927 with the intention to carve the likenesses of four presidents into the sacred Black Hills.ĭoane Robinson, a South Dakota historian, is credited with the idea of carving faces into the Black Hills in order to promote tourism to the area. Half of the Sioux killed were women and children. The Native Americans were later defeated at the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. One of these famous battles was against General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn, aka Custer’s Last Stand. Resisting the shrinking reservation sizes, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse retaliated with attacks on the US Army. The Sioux were forced out of the Black Hills so the area could be mined for gold. This promise only lasted until the 1870’s, when gold was found in the area, attracting large numbers of prospectors. In 1868, the US government promised the Sioux that they could remain on the land, including the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are sacred to the Lakota Sioux, the people who lived on this land before white settlers arrived.

Rapid city airport to 21180 lookout trail, lead, sd