"What does Mount Rushmore mean to us Indians?" asked John Fire Lame Deer

"It means that these big white faces are telling us, 'First we gave you Indians a treaty that you could keep these Black Hills forever, as long as the sun would shine, in exchange for all of the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana. Then we found the gold and took this last piece of land, because we were stronger, and there were more of us than were of you, and because we had cannons and Gatling guns, while you hadn't progressed far enough to make a steel knife.

And when you didn't want to leave, we wiped you out, and those of you who survived, we put on reservations. And then we took the gold out, a billion bucks, and we aren't through yet.

And because we like the tourist dollars, too, we have made your sacred Black Hills into one vast Disneyland. And after we did all this we carped up this mountain, the dwelling place of your spirits, and put our four gleaming white faces here. We are the conquerors..."

-In the Spirit of Crazy Horse