[News] President Trump’s 4th of July visit to Mt Rushmore is a continuation of Indigenous erasure

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1414592094 President
Trump’s 4th of July visit to Mt Rushmore is a continuation of Indigenous
erasure.
July 2, 2020
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  The Indigenous Environmental Network stands in solidarity with tribal
leaders demanding the removal of Mount Rushmore, also known as the Seven
Grandfathers. The Seven Grandfathers are sacred to many tribal nations who
lived and prayed freely in the areas surrounding He Sapa or the “Black
Hills.” We will not mince words, America was founded upon the genocide,
enslavement and theft of Indigenous peoples and land. There is no better
representation of this violence than the desecration of the Seven
Grandfathers with the Mt. Rushmore carvings of colonizer faces. This sacred
land was, is, and shall always be Indigenous land.

  The He Sapa is central to the spiritual and political integrity of many
native nations, including the Lakota, Shoshoni, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa,
and Crow. For the Lakota, the “Black Hills” is the site of their creation
story and was included in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, another broken
agreement by the United States to protect this region for Lakota living and
use. The federal government has been ordered by the courts to compensate
the Lakota for this stolen land, but for decades the tribes have refused to
take any money. You cannot commodify the sacred nor can capitalism erase
the trauma of colonization.

  President Trump’s Fourth of July visit to Mt Rushmore is a continuation
of Indigenous resilience and history being erased from national dialogues.
This spectacle is nothing more than  a reminder that settler colonialism is
alive and well. As the Indigenous Environmental Network, we will continue
to fight for Indigenous solidarity and the rights of nature because we know
the next seven generations of life deserve nothing less.

*###*

Established in 1990, The Indigenous Environmental Network is an
international environmental justice nonprofit that works with tribal
grassroots organizations to build the capacity of Indigenous communities. I
EN’s activities include empowering Indigenous communities and tribal
governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water,
air, natural resources, the health of both our people and all living
things, and to build economically sustainable communities.
<https://www.facebook.com/ienearth> <https://twitter.com/IENearth>
<https://www.instagram.com/indigenousrising/>

[image: Indigenous Rising Media Facebook]
<https://www.facebook.com/Indigenousrisingmedia/>
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