Tongue Tied and Terrified

Roaming

yes, lincoln! he may have been on the right side of the civil war, but like every president before him, he took part in the indigenous genocide. to make way for the transcontinental railroad, he oversaw the theft of land and the forcible relocation of tribes. the Long Walk of the Navajo, a 450 mile trek to the internment camp at bosque redondo, resulted in hundreds of deaths. his administration perpetrated massacres in minnesota and colorado.

teddy is beloved for the creation of our national parks—but obviously he kicked tribes off their land in order to do so. his administration forced native men to cut their hair and withheld rations to punish those who persisted in dressing traditionally. he signed the dawes act into law, which is considered one of the most devastating laws in the history of u.s.-tribal relations. it stole 100 million acres of land, dissolved tribal governments and tribal courts, and effectively ended america’s promise that the Indian Territory would remain in native hands forever.

and if you think it was all congress’s idea, please know that teddy was personally racist against native people: “i don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but i believe 9 out of every 10 are.”

but even if the men on this mountain didn’t have blood on their hands, the very act of defacing Six Grandfathers was racist. an act of racism by a very active racist: the sculptor, gutzon borglum, was one of the six knights of the imperial kloncilium of the klu klux klan.