RUSHMORE RE THINKING

In 1877, the US ederal overnment unilaterally seized the Black Hills — which contain Mount Rushmore — rom the Sioux, a direct violation o the Fort Laramie Treaty o 1868. The treaty lan ua e stated that these lands should be reserved or the "absolute and undisturbed use and occupation o the Indians.”

In 1980, the Supreme Court a reed that the Black Hills had been unconstitutionally taken. Rather than return the land, the court awarded the tribes a settlement o $120.5 million, equivalent to the value o the land at the time it was stolen.

But the Sioux have never accepted that payment — now, with interest and increased dollar value, worth more than $1 billion — declarin instead that “the Black Hills are not or sale.”

Today, we call on the ederal overnment to ri ht historical wron s, and to move our society orward. The United States must return what its own jud es admit it has stolen. Return the Black Hills to the Great Sioux Nation. Now is the time.

Founded in 2004, the Lakota People's Law Project (LPLP) began as a group of Lakota grandmothers organizing around issues relating to the Indian Child Welfare Act.

In 2016, the Lakota People's Law Project expanded its mission to include land and water issues during the controversial protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Indian Reservation in North Dakota.

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S2 - Episode 3 : Inseparable Separations: Slavery and Indian Removal.

IndianRemovalwasabrutal andcomplicatedeffortthat textbooksotensimpliy.Itis alsoinseparablyrelatedto slavery.Enslaversseekin profitdrovedemand or Indi enouslands,displacin hundredso thousandso Indi enouspeople.Someo theseIndi enouspeople participatedinchattel slavery.Focusin onthe ChickasawandChoctaw nations,thisepisodepullsthe lensbacktoshowhow Removalandenslavement mustbetau htto ether.This storymustbetoldi we're oin tounderstandthe ull hardhistoryo American enslavement. myclassmag.com with

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