Gutzon Borglum, Mormonism, Militarism, Mount Rushmore, and White-Power (White-supremacy and Conservation pt.4)

"Gutzon Borglum's Model of Mt. Rushmore Memorial" -- Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, & Lincoln. RISE STUDIO.

US settler-nativism and white-power is naturalized at Mt Rushmore National Memorial. Which wouldn’t have existed without its sculptor, John Gutzon Borglum, a white-supremacist and KKK supporter, who wouldn’t have existed without Mormonism.

The Borglum family

Gutzon Borglum’s father -- a polygamist and Danite -- was converted by missionaries in Denmark in the mid 1800’s. In 1864, he and his family emigrated to Mormon Zion in Shoshone-Bannock lands where Gutzon was born.

As the son of a second wife, Gutzon Borglum would not have existed without Mormonism.

Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe (Six Grandfathers) before being desecrated into Mount Rushmore

When Gutzon was 1-year-old, the “Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868” granted the Black Hills (site of Six Grandfathers aka Mount Rushmore) to the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux). But when settlers found “gold in them there hills,” the US attacked and stole the land for God, Gold, and Glory.

When Gutzon was ~3-years-old his dad left Mormonism and moved his family to Omaha land.

Borglum hanging out

When Gutzon was in his late teens he met Theodore Roosevelt and the two became and remained close friends and political allies. In addition to Mt. Rushmore, Borglum made at least 2 other busts of Roosevelt and campaigned for him in both Presidential election runs.

East Cherokee and Mvskoke land before desecrated by Borglum, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and KKK. 1910

"Stone Mountain" carving of Confederate leaders, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson

When Gutzon was 48-years-old he got a commission from the United Daughters of the Confederacy and KKK to carve Confederate leaders into so-called Stone Mountain on East Cherokee and Mvskoke (Muscogee) land.

​With this monumental monument experience, he then carved 4 other white-supremacist men (Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln) into Očhéthi Šakówiŋ’s (Sioux’s) sacred Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe (Six Grandfathers). 

Gutzon Borglum and a National Park Superintendent on Mt. Rushmore carving, 1932

When Gutzon was 60-years-old, he began work with 400 others blowing up the Six Grandfathers to carve the Great White Fathers into this sacred mountain, aptly setting-in-stone the history of this white-supremacist, genocidal nation.

39-years after Borglum’s death (1980), the US Supreme Court ruled that the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ had not received just compensation for the Black Hills and awarded $102 M. Očhéthi Šakówiŋ refused the money. Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota) said his People refused “because we won’t settle for anything less than the full return of our lands as stipulated by the treaties our nations signed.”

In its first 100 years, the US made over 500 treaties with Indigenous nations. The US has broken or violated every single one.