United States
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Mount Rushmore may be a symbol of white supremacy
Last night on the History Channel′s ′Brad Meltzer′s Decoded′, the team investigated rumors that Mount Rushmore may be a symbol of white supremacy. That the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum was a racist. So Scott, Mac and Buddy begin in Texas visiting Borglum′s granddaughter. She tells the team that after her father′s death, she became custodian of her grandfather′s papers and letters. That she found some of what she found disturbing concerning his intolerance of immigrants and of African-Americans. She also mentions how the Lakota Tribe was opposed, and still is, to the monument, as it is located on the sacred lands of the Sioux Nation.
The team then headed for South Dakota and talked with the last living workman, Don Clifford. Don had nothing but high praise to say about Borglum. He was obviously very proud to have worked on the monument. Brad then injects some additional background info. Mt. Rushmore was ′discovered′ by a New York lawyer, Charles Rushmore, in 1885. As part of the Badlands, the US government had ceded it to the Sioux Nation in the Treaty of 1868. When gold was discovered in the Badlands, the area was opened up and prospectors were defended by Custer and the 7th Cavalry, until Little Big Horn. Later, the courts awarded the Sioux $106 million dollars for the site of the monument, but the Sioux Nation refused the settlement.
The Decoded Team next spoke with long-time resident, Martin Luschei, who grew up watching the monument′s construction. Started in 1927, it took 14 years to complete. Luschei raised the issue of Borglum being Anti-Semitic, as well as a member of the Klu Klux Klan. Borglum had previously worked on another major scuplture project, Stone Mountain, celebrating the Confederacy with the likenesses of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Stonewall Jackson and President Jefferson Davis carved into the side of the Georgia mountain. The KKK were major financial backers of this monument.
At a local saloon, the team meets a man who mentions rumors of a secret ′Hall of Records′ behind Mount Rushmore. Brad arranges for his team to meet with an official of the KKK for answers. They meet with Thomas Robb, who likens the Klu Klux Klan to any other group dedicated to preserving their racial/ethnic culture. Robb acknowledges that he has ′heard′ that copies of letters between Borglum and KKK leaders of the time are stored at the Hall of Records, located in a small valley behind Lincoln′s head.
Borglum′s original plan for the Hall of Records was impressive. Two massive 40-foot doors with a giant golden eagle above them. Each door would be flanked by a torch emitting a towering flame. But Congress wouldn′t pay for that. Instead, the Hall of Records is a 70-foot tunnel housing a time capsule. A titanium vault holds 16 porcelain tablets. The US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and biographies of each of the four presidents, as well as one of Gutzon Borglum himself are stored in the vault. Borglum′s vision was that the Mount Rushmore monument would last some 10,000 years. That its true meaning may become lost at some point, so the Hall of Records would guarantee that distant future generations would understand the meaning of the monument, America’s Manifest Destiny.
Brad Meltzer′s Decoded team′s last stop on their investigation of Mount Rushmore is with Ruth Ziolkowski, granddaughter of Korczak Ziolkowski, whom was fired by Gutzon Borglum. Ziolkowski was then hired by the Lakota Sioux to carve a monument of Crazy Horse. This massive monument is many times larger than Mount Rushmore, a deliberate move to show contempt for Borglum and his monument. The team considers all they have learned. Both Scott and Buddy do not believe that Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, but Mac does. All three agree that their views of the monument have changed forever.
http://law.rightpundits.com/?p=3235
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