August 29, 1970

On this day in history Native American activists occupied Mount Rushmore to protest the broken Treaty of Fort Laramie.

A Treaty of Assimilation

The Peace Commissioners in council with Indians at Fort Laramie in 1868

The Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed in 1868 in the Wyoming Territory at Fort Laramie. It was intended to end hostilities between the United States and the Lakota tribe. The treaty stated that the Black Hills and adjacent lands west of the Missouri River belonged to the Indigenous peoples. However, Native Americans who did give up their traditional way of life for farming were incentivized by the U.S. government. Essentially the government was using the treaty to try to assimilate Native Americans into the white American culture. This meant U.S. courts, not tribal ones, were given jurisdiction over the reservation.

A Broken Treaty

American Indian Movement founder Dennis Banks at Mount Rushmore

Unsurprisingly, the United States broke the Treaty of Fort Laramie within a decade of its creation. In 1874 George Armstrong Custer's expedition found gold in the Black Hills and white prospectors and settlers flooded the area. This lead to the Great Sioux War of 1876 as Americans occupied most of the land that had been promised to the Lakota.

In the 1960s the United Native Americans were formed, an activist group out of San Francisco that fought for the rights and welfare of Native Americans. Members of this group climbed to the top of Mount Rushmore on August 19, 1970 to protest. They chose this site as it was a memorial to four American presidents yet was on lands considered sacred by the Natives. It was an obvious symbolization of the advancement of "white civilization" onto Indigenous lands. Supporters ran supplies up the mountain and the protesters continued their occupation for several months. By November the winter weather forced them to retreat.