Black Hills before carving
Date: Pre-1927
Location: Black Hills, South Dakota, USA
This photograph shows the Black Hills of South Dakota as they appeared before the carving of Mount Rushmore began in 1927. The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota Sioux, who called them Pahá Sápa (the heart of everything that is) and received them under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The decision to carve Mount Rushmore into the granite — a project led by sculptor Gutzon Borglum beginning in 1927 and completed in 1941 — was deeply controversial among Indigenous peoples. The Lakota had never ceded the Black Hills; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 (United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians) that the land had been illegally seized and awarded $106 million in compensation, which the Lakota refused, insisting they want the land returned rather than money. The fund, with compound interest, has grown to over $1 billion unclaimed.
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