Mt. Rushmore Site Should Be Returned To Indigenous Native American Tribes, U.N. Official Says

South Dakota's Black Hills, home to the granite faces carved into Mt. Rushmore, should be restored as Native American tribal lands, a United Nations official recently said.

James Anaya, a U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, completed a fact-finding mission on Friday that included meetings with a number of Native American tribal leaders as well as White House officials. His investigation led him to suggest that the United States take additional steps to repair the nation's legacy of oppression against Native Americans. He'll officially propose the plan in an upcoming report. From the Associated Press:

Anaya said land restoration would help bring about reconciliation. He named the Black Hills as an example. He said restoring to indigenous people what they have a legitimate claim to can be done in a way that is not divisive "so that the Black Hills, for example, isn't just a reminder of the subordination and domination of indigenous peoples in that country."

The Black Hills, home to Mount Rushmore, are public land but are considered sacred by the Sioux tribes. The Sioux have refused to accept money awarded in a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision and have sought return of the land. The Black Hills and other lands were set aside for the Sioux in an 1868 treaty. But Congress passed a law in 1877 taking the land.

According to Anaya, handing over these lands would be a key step toward repairing relations with the indigenous people who once controlled them. It would also further the nation's compliance with the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a measure that President Barack Obama endorsed in 2010, reversing a previous vote.

"I have heard stories that make evident the profound hurt that indigenous peoples continue to feel because of the history of oppression they have faced," Anaya said Friday in a statement issued by the U.N. human rights office in Geneva. "Securing the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands is of central importance to indigenous peoples' socioeconomic development, self-determination, and cultural integrity. ... Continued efforts to resolve, clarify, and strengthen the protection of indigenous lands, resources, and sacred sites should be made."

Anaya will outline a full set of recommendations regarding Native American relations in a report set to be released later this year.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[Frankie Rivera]

03:56 PM on 06/26/2012

UNA Protesting The Hearst Corporation's Illegal Theft of The Black Hills & The Homestake Gold Mine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMZuunNHzug

[Frankie Rivera]

03:46 PM on 06/26/2012

US Owes Native Americans Millions: Supreme Court
It underpaid Navajos, other tribes for years of service
http://www.newser.com/story/148393/us-owes-native-americans-millions-supreme-court.html

[tsmith7088]

07:09 PM on 05/12/2012

While I don't agree with all the "wrong" that happened to the Native Americans and not sure whats the best solution, because the history of this whole world involves wronged peoples of various ethnic backgrounds. I have to ask this question. Has the United States given up its standing as a sovereign nation? The question needs to be asked and answered because the United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous people, seems to be the ground their standing on to attempt to force their way on this issue. It seems alarming to me that a treaty endorsed by Obama in 2010 is giving the U.N a voice in this conversation!

[Filthy]

02:13 PM on 05/15/2012

First off, the fella voicing the opinion is American. Secondly, why is it alarming to hear an ethical, moral or legal opinion?

[tsmith7088]

05:43 PM on 05/15/2012

It is not alarming to hear an ethical, moral or legal opinion. Its alarming because part of the grounds for this is based off a U.N treaty. This is the U.N entering the internal affairs of the United States based off an endorsement to a treaty.

That's my point, thanks for the question.

Also, when it comes to what's ethical, moral or legal, we all know those points can be twisted.

[booker76]

11:42 PM on 05/11/2012

It isn't necessary to minimize the injustices done to Native Americans or to dismiss any suggestion that we can do better by them to say that in some cases, after a certain amount of time has passed, what's done is done.

[responsible4self23]

08:55 PM on 05/11/2012

Jimmy Carter - Panama Canal
Bill Clinton - U.S. Parks to the U.N.
Obama - Mount Rushmore? It depends on how many votes he'll gain or how many it will cost him. Like he cares about anything else? Otherwise, he might just have to get a real job.

[Hoodooman]

04:49 PM on 05/11/2012

The U.N. should mind it's own damn business.

[Treasure State]

04:12 PM on 05/10/2012

Uhh, the US bought the land from the French. If we were to give anything back, the French may want to have first say. The Louisiana Purchase contained what now equates to portions of 15 states in the US. The land that was bought enclosed all of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and of course Louisiana. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase now makes up about 23% of the territory of the United States. I don't think people in those states will willingly give up their property. Does this mean we wil have to fight for it all over again? If so, I want to be compensated for the improvements, taxes, insurance, etc. for my home and get enough money to build elsewhere.

[creativeness]

12:17 AM on 05/11/2012

lol. The French didn't own it. Native Americans were here long before the French. All the French did is say it was theirs to sell. Be like somebody coming to your house and selling it to some family. Then you get home, and they are moved in. When you got home, would you say, "huh?...oh.. okay, I guess I don't own this land." and walk away? And if you tried to fight for it back, what if the government arrested you and forced you to live on some land 1/4 of the size you had and it was right beside a prison and the city landfill. prime property, huh? So you tell the government, "Hey! I got rights! I deserve my land back", and the court decides you've been duped, so they force the man that sold your house to pay you five bucks. Are you good with five bucks? Oh, and by the way, the government just forced you to speak another language and change your religion, because the only other option they gave was prison or death. Sound unbelieveable and ridiculous? Look it up. It's U.S. history.

[Treasure State]

12:21 PM on 05/11/2012

Exactly my point. How will you persuade me and all the other home owners to give their property "back" to the Indians? How do you plan to reroute the Interstate highways, railroads, utilities, and distribution centers? What do you intend to do with the records at the county courthouse? What will you use as a tax base since all Indians are exempt from paying taxes? Where do you propose to relocate all of the businesses, homeowners, farmers and ranchers? How many Indians even want the burden of maintaining such a large parcel of land? They have been on the government dole for so many generations that they don't know how to survive with a bow and arrow. They would freeze to death.

[responsible4self23]

09:08 PM on 05/11/2012

And if you all still had it, it would look like your reservations....dumps

[Filthy]

10:03 AM on 05/11/2012

It's not a question of who was there first but who owns legal title. The Lakota were given legal title to the Black Hills in the treaty of Ft. Laramie in 1868. The US government illegally seized the land about 10 years later according to your Supreme Court.

And if you buy land that was not the sellers to sell then you are not entitled to compensation from the original owner. That's why it's important to buy title insurance.

[aaronshomeinspe]

01:55 PM on 05/11/2012

I wonder what the chance of title insurance in Wyo. in 1868 and what do you think the chance the government's drunken emissaries told them if there was? It totally was a rip off of the Native Americans but 150+ years later what is it we can do? And giving the land back to them and all other Indian nations would tear this country apart. If you thought there was a blood bath in the 1800's wait, if NATO keeps trying to change our nation with the help of a socialist President there will be an uprising that won't be put down as easy as the Indian Wars.

[ronin8404]

09:51 AM on 05/15/2012

Legal title? I think a native american might argue that "legal title" is a white man's construct. Many don't even recognize the concept of owning something God/s created.

[Mack753951]

12:38 AM on 05/10/2012

Maybe we should tear down all monuments around the world and put up dinosaur statues. They were here before any humans....now that just makes good liberal sense. BTW, we need to ban baked goods that they are selling at the tourist center as the base of Mount Rushmore. That makes good sense too. Let' not forget to turn the Washington Monument into a big arrow. And while we're at it, let's make the Capitol a teepee. Kind of looks like one. that wouldn't cost more than a few hundred million.

[creativeness]

12:29 AM on 05/11/2012

looking for a laugh and some attention, huh? Bully mocking at people's expense is rude, but if you don't care, then you don't care. I see that trending. So you might make it big in today's world. By the way, there already are dinosaur statues in the Black Hills. You should visit the Black Hills, it really is a great place to vacation if you like camping or the outdoors. Or if you own a Harley.

[paradiseladyi]

04:03 PM on 09/25/2012

You obivously have a roof over your head that doesn't leak, a room to yourself that you don't have to share with 20 or more others, warmth in the winter and cool breezes in the summer. I bet you even may be lucky enough to have a job and some form of transportation. Do you know what the average wage is for an native living on the rez ? No I'm sure you don't, it's lower than the national average of living in poverty. Someone made a comment that the "indians" probably would freeze or starve to death because they couldn't remember how to survive? How arrogant. Natives have been forced to live on less than the basics for hundreds of years. They're forced into a small patch of land compared to what they originally had, and hoped that they would died out. They can't farm on the land because a good bit is desert.
Try for one day to live under the harsh conditions that those on the rez are forced to do, day in and day out........you won't. Suicide rate umongst teenagers and anyone for that matter living on the rez, are higher than in the nation. Sad thing is not enough seem to care because it's not your children. So many people are only motivated for what something will do for them and the hell with anyone else......well that's the kind of thinking that will be the demise of this country.

[Mack753951]

12:31 AM on 10/12/2012

cut the diatribe. This is board, not a book writing contest. Can't even get through that clap trap.good lawd.

[reinenVernunft]

11:03 PM on 05/09/2012

I agree that treaties made with the Tribes should be honored and the abuses remedied, retroactively if necessary. It is a matter of equity and justice.
No demonization of people now living for the deeds of their long dead ancestors- on both sides of the conflict- should be involved.
And a good trade off would be- the US stops meddling in the affairs of most of the nations of the world and the UN stops meddling in America's. America out of the rest of the world, and the UN out of America!

[Joseph Blosch]

05:38 PM on 05/10/2012

I agree with you for the most part. The problem is that each treaty is unique with its own set of problems. Honoring them is a nightmarish ordeal for all involved and usually inflames racial tensions in the rez/border areas when they come up in the news.

Honor some, settle the rest, and get over it... :) It may sound harsh to some people, but we are all Americans. All of us are native at the moment. The time for inciting racial hatred up over a few acres of land is well past its sell date.

The UN suggestion to hand over a national monument only serves to inflame the divide at the moment if we are being honest. The Lakota might not like the idea, but settling is the best spiritual path, imo, if they want to get on with their lives instead of digging up historical points to fight over with "white people".

[ShayanMirza]

03:50 PM on 05/09/2012

Get over it? You lost fair and square?

50% of Native women are raped, 4 times higher than the national average, and 95% of those are by white men.

Get over it?

Reservations are the poorest places in America, period. Many people survive on less that $2000 a year.

Get over it?

Twenty million Native Americans died due to a combination of unintentional illness and VERY intentional ethnic cleansing.

Get over it?

The average life expectancy on many reservations is on par with AFGHANISTAN and HAITI. The infant mortality is as well.

Get over it?

"We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children."
~General William Tecumseh Sherman, decorated American military "hero" with statues in NYC and DC

Get over it?

Every conceivable treaty broken by the U.S. government intentionally, a 35000 year way of life destroyed, and the cultures of hundreds of sovereign nations diluted or annihilated.

Get over it?

Get over yourself, and your arrogance. The Indian Wars never ended, and the descendents of these proud peoples continue to be physically, emotionally, financially, and culturally damaged by American colonists and a hostile federal government. And chances are they have "gotten over" more horrors in their foreshortened lives than you ever will in 80 years.

[Brian Henderson1492]

08:53 PM on 05/09/2012

I hope to get my law license when I transfer to my next school so I can do my part to help the indigenous people get the justice that is long over due and I tell you this, I will drag the evil people thru the mud and over the coals. There will be justice and if those people don't like it. TOO BAD!!! If you want to ignore the truth...fine. But I won't and I will remind the evil doers of every evil deed with every lawsuit filed.

[Joseph Blosch]

11:15 PM on 05/09/2012

Yup, get over it... White Guilt is what some people are using to guilt trip white people into doing stupid things. The UN suggestion is one of those stupid things. It is silly for the United States government to give land back to people that stole the land from another tribe. So yeah, you can get over it.

[ShayanMirza]

11:51 PM on 05/09/2012

Glad your inhumanity is plain to see for all.

Also, did the Lakota slaughter the Cheyenne wholesale, rape nearly every one of them they captured, obliterate their language and culture, and intentionally spread diseases to them? No. They intermarried after a short period of largely symbolic warfare to such an extent that many Cheyenne are part Lakota and many Lakota are part Cheyenne. They fought together with the Arapahoe against Custer and died together in places like Sand Creek.

Comparing tribal warfare to a concerted campaign of genocide against millions of people is asinine, morally dishonest, and reprehensible. And it says a lot about you.

No one needs to feel guilty due to the accident of their heritage any more than they should be utterly screwed over as a result of their heritage, not that the mild inconvenience of guilt (which you're clearly in no danger of experiencing) at all compares to enduring a genocide.

I pray someday you gain a sense of humanity and decency.

[ShayanMirza]

03:18 PM on 05/09/2012

As someone who is 1/32 Cherokee, raised in the harsh and wild suburbs of the U.S., I believe I speak for all Native Americans when I say we don't care about the murder, disease, rape, theft, and dishonor demonstrated by the U.S. You can keep the land. No biggie.

...oh wait, I'm being completely sarcastic.

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3ouatf/

Don't pretend you can speak as a Native American unless you are actually a participant in a Native culture on a daily basis, or unless you've paid in blood for what the government continues to do to Native peoples.

[Pamelahuber1]

04:12 PM on 05/09/2012

I love this meme so much =)

[Michael Steaphens]

02:35 PM on 05/09/2012

Once again,the UN has proven itself to be a body of fools that has no business telling any nation what it should be doing.

[Holypat777]

04:17 PM on 05/09/2012

Just like the US has no business in nation building, invasions and proping up dictators.

[Michael Steaphens]

01:54 AM on 05/10/2012

I'll agree with you on that!I say let's do both-get out of the UN,and stop being the world's policeman and sugar daddy!

[cajnjewel]

11:01 AM on 05/10/2012

Well I wish someone would TELL the US then. We go over and spend billions on wars, then turn right around and spend billions more by giving them money to rebuild their country. Funny, but I never hear of other country's contributions that aided us in the wars ...

[muhamed]

09:24 AM on 05/11/2012

without the US, the UN would be nothing and have no standing. It was originally established to do good, now it is nothing more than a platform for evil to spew hate and nonsense to those trying to make the world better for everyone....

[Michael Steaphens]

02:18 PM on 05/11/2012

Well said.It's also looking to undermine home rule in other nations,and to set itself up as a world governing body-something that all Americans should reject.

[Lorri Arnett]

01:36 PM on 05/09/2012

Since when is it the United Nations' place to suggest what we do with our land? I agree that we have not treated the American Natives fairly in the past, but is that really the concern of the UN? Why not suggest that some of the other member countries treat their own citizens with more respect? Why not mind your own damn business and stay out of ours? We, the United States, pay more in dues than any other country, get fewer votes than any other country, but we're still the first country to offer help to poor countries and gives more aid to other countries. We are not the barbarians here. Check your own backyard before suggesting we (and others) clean up ours. We are not the ones beheading innocent people. We are not the ones sending planes into buildings,. We are not the ones sending innocent people to meet their maker by suicide missions. Why doesn't the UN take on these member and non-member countries? There's definitely more work to be done there than here in the US.

[Mark Jordahl]

02:38 PM on 05/09/2012

Doesn't feel very good when the tables are turned, does it? The US goes into nearly every other country in the world and tells them how to run their own countries, but when somebody else does it to us, we say "why not mind your own damn business."

[CelticMajic]

03:11 PM on 05/09/2012

Mark, are you an American also?

[Lorri Arnett]

07:43 PM on 05/09/2012

Mark, You are absolutely correct about the US telling other countries what to do. I do have to tell you, though, that whenever I hear about us interfering with the way other countries do things, I always say that we (the USA) should mind our own damn business. Unfortunately, those people we put in power do not listen to me.

[Pamelahuber1]

04:16 PM on 05/09/2012

Honest question: why do you say US gets fewer votes than any other country? Everyone in the General Assembly gets one equal vote and the US gets a vote in the Security Council and has veto status as one of the five permanent members of the security council. Yes, the US pays more, because payments are based on the current size of each nation's economy.

[Lorri Arnett]

07:34 PM on 05/09/2012

Pamela, I stand corrected. I meant to say that the US receives fewer supporting votes from other member nations. Also, I should have been more specific...the US pays more in combined assessed and voluntary than other countries.

[Sioux Indian]

03:16 AM on 05/09/2012

The Berlin Wall came down, Saddam Hussein statues came down and the world became a better place. I strongly agree with the UN officials. The land must be returned back to the original land owners. America needs to start honoring the treaties signed with the Native Americans/American Indians. Fix a little corruption here and there and America would become a better place to live in.

[DrDRT]

07:31 AM on 05/09/2012

There's a problem with your idea. The tribes on the land now known as the U.S were taken by force from other tribes multiple times in history. . . in fact thats true of any square foot of land thats settled. Just how far back would you go correcting this worldwide evil?

[Brian Henderson1492]

09:14 AM on 05/09/2012

all the way back to when Columbus showed his ugly face.

[Pamelahuber1]

04:17 PM on 05/09/2012

There's a difference between returning land that was conquered in war and land that was stolen after legal treaties that ended war promised that land to one party. This is not a question of returning land to original inhabitants, but honoring legal treaties.

[CelticMajic]

09:44 AM on 05/09/2012

Welcome to HP SI. We note you have only posted 2 times so far and only on this thread. Please tell us who are the "original owners" as Native Americans have inhabited the area since at least 7000 BC. The Arikara arrived by 1500 AD, followed by the Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa and Pawnee. The Lakota (also known as Sioux) arrived from Minnesota in the 18th century and drove out the other tribes, who moved west. So who do we return them to? Please tell us.

[justjeff]

09:55 AM on 05/09/2012

Bring in the expert on Native Americans, Elizabeth Warren. She can rewrite history as well as any dem.

[Pamelahuber1]

04:21 PM on 05/09/2012

And for the record, the Fort Laramie Treaty established land for the Cheyenne, Crow, Blackfoot, Sioux (Lakota, Nakota, Dakota - Sioux is a word made up by white settlers to mean "dirty snake"), Gros Ventre, Mandans, and Arrickaras, and Assinaboin. Of course, much of this land was taken away in 68 treaty and through court cases.
http://www.canku-luta.org/PineRidge/laramie_treaty.html

[WTH 2012]

03:03 AM on 05/09/2012

When the White House recently invited the UN to come in to help them and of course ex-Green Energy Czar_VanJones_)create even more division in the US (I know, it hardly seems possible) by using Native Americans before the elections, they forgot that if Native Americans h8 anyone, it is the c0rruptUN.

And if Americans should h8 anyone it's the UN and their international bankster buddies with their love for the destruction of sovereign nations and currencies in order to establish their global currency.
Hasn't the international bankster cabal financed both sides of every war the US and Europe have ever fought in? Divide and conquer seems to be their thing.