Dear friends,
It’s been nearly two years since I updated this journal. Oops? Sorry about that. A lot has happened in that time, and hopefully you’ve been following along on Instagram and Facebook. Suffice to say, I’m still on the road. Next week I will be writing a long overdue update, formally announcing a change of direction for this project. At least I think I will. In the meantime, though, here is something I wrote up for another outlet, but it was killed at the last minute, so I thought I’d publish it here. If you haven’t seen the images yet, please take a look at them over at www.instagram.com/brentdangerrose and I’ll be embedding the video here shortly as well.
Thanks for reading. More soon.
-BR
7.8.20
Inside the Mount Rushmore Protest, July 3rd, 2020
On July 3rd, 2020, President Trump traveled to Mount Rushmore to preside over a controversial fireworks show and deliver a speech that was, even for him, remarkably divisive. I had a ticket for the event, and I drove for more than 1,350 miles to be there, but I didn’t quite make it. Instead, I stopped two miles short of my destination, where I found something more interesting going on.
Protesters were setting up on the side of SD-244, the road that leads up to Rushmore from the small tourist town of Keystone, SD. I asked one of them if they minded me sticking with them to cover what transpired. He said, “Ask Nick,” and pointed at a man wearing a red bandana as a mask. I recognized him as Nick Tilsen, and realized I’d stumbled into what I had driven two days hoping to find.
Tilsen is the President and CEO of NDN Collective, a Rapid City, SD-based organization designed to “Build the collective power of Indigenous Peoples, communities, and Nations to exercise our inherent right to self-determination, while fostering a world that is built on a foundation of justice and equity for all people and the planet.” The organization does this though a focus on building infrastructure, funding, advocacy, philanthropy, and creating movements for change.
Today, they had gathered to protest Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore, which they view as a symbol of “repression, imperialism, white supremacy, and systemic racism that the history of this country was built on, and that is continuing to perpetuate in society today,” Tilsen told me. “So, we’re here to stand in deep solidarity with our people, and the movement for Black Lives, and all BIPOC people throughout this country. And we know that that mountain represents injustice to all of those people, too, and so our collective liberation is bound up with one another.”
This is not a new conflict. The whole region of the Black Hills is the historic land of the Lakota Nation, and not just by tradition, but by law. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 recognized the Black Hills as a part of “the Great Sioux Reservation” and was to be set aside for their exclusive use. This was broken within a decade, as the United States realized there may be gold in the Black Hills, and quickly began making greater and greater incursions, leading to more war and more treaties, which the U.S. would also violate. It wasn’t until 1980 that the U.S. Supreme Court finally admitted that the U.S. had not upheld its end of the treaty. The U.S. was ordered to pay financial restitution. The Lakota basically said, “No thanks, we want our land back.” And it’s been at that stalemate ever since.
Rushmore didn’t come along until later. The natural mountain, originally known as Six Grandfathers by the Lakota people, was a stunning granite cliff face in its own right, as well as being on land that was highly sacred. In 1927, fresh off a large-scale project for the KKK, a man named Gutzon Borglum began dynamiting and carving up Six Grandfathers at the behest of the U.S. Government. It was originally supposed to depict western pioneers as well as several prominent Native American leaders, but Borglum pushed to include the likenesses of the four American presidents you see there today, two of which were slave-holders, and all four of whom were ruinous for Native Americans. The monument has been protested since its inception.
On July 3rd, with the consent of the local authorities, the NDN Collective set up shade structures on the side of the road next to traffic heading up to the monument. A number of vehicles that drove by honked and raised fists in solidarity, but there were at least as many who raised middle fingers and shouted epithets, including, “Go home!” and “Go back to where you came from!” to which the protesters would reply, “This is our land! You go home!"
Around 4pm, NDN Collective had negotiated that they be allowed to span the four-lane highway for 15 minutes in protest. At the appointed time, the protesters poured into the street, chanting, singing, and making speeches through a megaphone. It was a powerful moment. It was also a brilliant diversion. While the authorities were watching the main gathering of protesters, others managed to slip away and park three large passenger vans end-to-end, barricading off the entire road. They quickly jacked up two of the vans and removed some of the wheels to make them more difficult to tow.
SD-244 belonged to them. The protesters, now around 150 people deep, continued to occupy the street. Late-coming Trump-supporters, trying to get up to the venue had to pull over and wait. Many assembled into a small group on the other side of the road, holding signs and waving Trump flags. One carried a sign that said “All Lives Matter” on one side, and simply read, “FUCK YOU” on the other. I spent about 20 minutes interviewing various members of that party, nearly all of whom were wearing Trump apparel.
Some members of the pro-Trump contingent acknowledged that the Native Americans had been given a raw deal and been “screwed over” in the past, but none thought that they should be required to pay for it, even though I pointed out that they still benefit from it. Some hadn’t come to protest, specifically, they just wanted to see the fireworks show and hear Trump speak, and were frustrated that they were being prevented from doing so. Other conversations devolved rather quickly. One alleged that the protesters were ANTIFA. I asked how he could tell. He said he could see the insignia on a bunch of their shirts, but then couldn’t point them out, and immediately backed off the allegation when an ACLU observer standing nearby told him there was no ANTIFA there. Others alleged that they were being paid to protest.
Unlike the protesters, not a single member of the Trump cohort of them wore masks. I asked one why he wasn’t nervous about it, and it went down the rabbit hole of COVID being “phony” but also being a bioweapon created by the Deep State at Fort Detrick at the behest of the CIA and the Rothchilds, etc. Another man in an American flag bandana was advocating for grouping up and going over to the protesters to “kick some ass.” That same man later confronted some of the protestors and shoved a young woman before the police had to restrain him.
Back on the other side of the road, things remained explicitly non-violent. I spoke to attorney Bruce Ellison who was there as an ACLU Legal Observer. He was helping to act as an intermediary between the protesters and police to ensure that things didn’t escalate into violence. He acknowledged that arrests may be made, but that the NDN Collected wanted to keep things peaceful. It was on track to remain that way until the South Dakota National Guard showed up.
Around 5:15pm, the line of local police and sheriff’s officers stood down and were replaced by a solid line of approximately 22 members of the National Guard in full riot gear. They stood shoulder to shoulder, and once the line had fully formed, they shouted “Move!” over and over, and slowly advanced on the protesters. The protesters attempted to hold their line and pushed back when the Guard pressed their riot shields into them. This briefly stopped their progress, but moments later they started chanting “Move!” again and began shoving the protesters. The third time the Guard pressed in, some shoving matches broke out, and a protester managed to grab a shield away from one of the guardsmen and use it to push back against them. Mostly, protestors used their signs to brace themselves against the shields. Several of the protestors being shoved were teenage girls.
A protester shouted through a megaphone, “This is a peaceful protest. You are the ones who are making it violent. Look at yourselves. There are children here. This is our land!” and “How many soldiers died for Putin’s bounties? How many of your brothers have died? And what is your President doing? You’re on the wrong side.” During this time I was shooting still photos with my main camera, while I wore a GoPro strapped to my chest, which I let run throughout the encounter, like a bodycam. After about 10 minutes of this incursion, the National Guard shouted orders to “fall back,” and the crowd erupted into cheers.
The respite only lasted a few minutes though. When the National Guard reformed their line they began to push into protesters more aggressively, shoving people violently with their shields and trying to force them back behind the vans. Female leaders were among the most prominent trying to hold ground and resist, but the group was forced back every time the Guard moved forward. I shouted that I was press, but the Guards continued to push forward, eventually smashing me into the side of the van, pinning me there for a few moments before I was able to slip through a gap between the vans’ bumpers.
I have seen several reports that close-range shells and pepper balls were fired at the protesters’ feet, which may have happened, but I did not see or hear any. Pepper spray, however, was used extensively, temporarily blinding several protesters and forcing them to withdraw in agony. I wasn’t an intended target but there was enough of it in the air that some got in my right eye as well as my lungs. My eye recovered in about ten minutes, but those who had been hit directly were in extreme pain for far longer, as volunteer medics and other protesters rushed to provide them water and rags.
Once the crowd had been forced to the other side of the vans a second company of National Guard arrived on the other side of the protest, effectively surrounding them. Wreckers were brought in and the three vans were towed away. Tilsen negotiated with the authorities for a half-hour reprieve to allow anybody who wanted or needed to leave to leave safely. Those who wished to remain would be arrested. Over loud speakers the police counted off the time. “This is an unlawful assembly. You have five minutes to leave the area.”
When the clock ran out, the local police rushed in on the protesters who remained and zip-tied their hands behind their backs. Nobody resisted and there was no further violence. In all, 21 people were arrested, including one minor and one counter-protestor (which I believe was the man with the “Fuck you” sign that had shoved the female protester). All were released quickly except for Tilsen who the group was surprised to learn was being charged with two more serious crimes.
After being held in jail for the weekend Tilsen appeared in magistrate court on Monday, July 6th. In addition to the misdemeanors for disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly, and impeding a highway, he is being charged with second-degree robbery (a class 4 felony) and assault. In all, he is facing up to 14 years and 30 days in prison, but was released on a $2,000 bond. I was told by Tilsen’s lawyer that the robbery and assault charge stemmed from the allegation that Tilsen had stolen a shield from a National Guard officer during the conflict.
While it is true that Tilsen held the shield for a brief period before it was returned to the guard (within 15 minutes of it being taken, though not before “landback” was spray-painted on it, which made it rather hilarious when a National Guardsman began using it again), my video footage only captured a different protester taking a shield from the guard. It’s possible that multiple shields were taken, but I only ever saw one make it into the hands of protesters, and I assumed that it was the same shield which had been passed down to Nick, though I cannot confirm this.
Some terms had been negotiated before the protest to keep things safe. I have seen the police allege that the protesters reneged on this and made things violent. This does not hold up under scrutiny and is not supported by video evidence. While the vans blocking the road were certainly not something the authorities knew was going to happen, there was absolutely no violence whatsoever until the National Guard pressed into protesters with their shields. One protester was carrying a small piece of an antler late in the day. An officer approached him and asked him to put it away because it could be considered a weapon. The man immediately complied, saying, “Of course. That’s not why we’re here. We do not want any violence.”
By the time the road was cleared of the protesters, Trump had already landed, and the highway patrol limited access to the event. Despite having a ticket (as well as press credentials), I was not allowed up the road. I didn’t want to be surrounded by so many unmasked people anyway. Instead, I made my way up a side road, parked, and then climbed a ridge so I could photograph it from a distance. A family had set up camp a short distance away from me and were watching a livestream of the event on a phone with the speaker blaring. I thought of those who were in jail as I listen to the president make incendiary remarks about protesters, and those who are fighting for justice. My jaw dropped when he stood there on Lakota land and, apropos of nothing, began to praise the “great” Andrew Jackson, the architect of the Trail of Tears, one of the most horrifying things to happen to Native Americans.
There was no joy for me in the fireworks. When they ended, I packed up and got stuck in an endless line of traffic heading back through Keystone. As we slowly drove away the sky opened up in a torrential downpour. One man stood in the street, dancing, hollering, and waving a Trump/Pence 2020 sign as cars drove by. I shot a photo of the drenched, grinning man, and thought it might be the most realistic portrait of the United States I’ve ever taken.
