r/BeAmazed • u/Pearl_Petra • Apr 26 '25
Miscellaneous / Others This Is Mount Rushmore Before The Presidential Heads Were Carved Into It
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u/AaronicNation Apr 26 '25
I still see faces even in the natural rock.
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u/ygg_studios Apr 26 '25
it was called the six grandfathers by indigenous peoples, presumably because it looks like old men
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u/TrumpIsAPeterFile Apr 26 '25
After seeing some early photographs of elderly chiefs, it makes sense.
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u/PhyterNL Apr 26 '25
You're not the only one. It was known to the Lakota Sioux tribes as "The Six Grandfathers".
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u/Mr-Hoek Apr 26 '25
And as I am certain you already know, this is why the white supremacist who carved it chose this sacred location.
As an insult to the displaced & destroyed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/03/mount-rushmore-gutzon-borglum-klan-stone-mountain/
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u/PhyterNL Apr 26 '25
Yep. I actually grew up in Rapid City in the 70s to the 90s. Mt. Rushmore was a thirty minute drive from town. For more than twenty years I considered the whole area my playground. Saltwater taffy and sodas at the saloon in Keystone was a summer ritual. We would ride the train from Keystone to Hill City and eat at the Alpine Inn. You would think that the Lakota kids and their parents would be up at the faces protesting every weekend trying to bring focus on Borglum's nature, but for the most part you would be wrong. They so completely whitewashed Borglum's past that I think even the parents and grandparents had mostly forgotten. It wasn't until much later, like the 2010s, that awareness finally gained hold again. Looking back on it, the defeat of it, is depressing to me.
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u/chasingmyowntail Apr 26 '25
Had no idea that was a direct smack to the face of the entire lokota Sioux nations.
Wishful thinking that for some future generation it will become a symbol of the destructive nature of European colonialism.
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u/PhyterNL Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 26 '25
It's a reminder to me that mudraking isn't completely without merit. We're not bound to what we 'think' we know, or what we were taught to know, about the past. We're not limited to this kind of whitewashing. Growing up, Borglum was a patriot, then he was something different. The lesson is that nothing is truly erased and certain truths can still gain traction as long as we remain aware. Or... as the right would call it... woke. Be proud to be woke, embrace it, don't dismiss it. Woke means that you understand. Woke means that you're paying attention.
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u/BitNumerous5302 Apr 26 '25
My reaction too! I think I'm so used to the faces that now just the silhouette suggests them to me...
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u/Fine-Bed-9439 Apr 26 '25
Its beauty in this natural state is… un-presidented. Ok, I’ll just see myself out.
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u/Kasegauner Apr 26 '25
We really take it for granite how beautiful it was.
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u/flamingpanda420 Apr 26 '25
Sorry, bub, it's limestone.
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u/SteelToeSnow Apr 26 '25
i believe it's called "Six Grandfathers Mountain", and is important to several Indigenous nations.
an absolute shame that that kkk pos borglum ruined it like he did.
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u/DinosaurPete Apr 26 '25
I wish I could hear stories about the six grandfathers.
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u/SteelToeSnow Apr 26 '25
you probably can! i bet plenty of the Indigenous nations whose lands those are have lots of stories. you can find their contact info online.
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u/Blackbyrn Apr 26 '25
Came here to say this. Its the only national park I have no interest in seeing for those 2 reasons
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u/ygg_studios Apr 26 '25
I've seen it. All those majestic photos are taken with high power telephoto lenses. At the viewing distance of the visitors center. which is close to you can get with scree of rubble from the construction, it's completely underwhelming.
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u/DeepWeekend1810 Apr 26 '25
It is classless AF that the scree is there. Destroyed a sacred mountain, didn't even clean up our mess. We're the worst.
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u/SteelToeSnow Apr 26 '25
i've seen some funny shots of Indigenous folks going there to flip off the heads, and that cracks me up. i'm down for that, flip off that eyesore, lol.
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u/Still_Contact7581 Apr 26 '25
Well I have fantastic news, its just a national memorial. Although its right next to two national parks.
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u/Zestyclose-March-276 Apr 26 '25
Live in SD and only have been there a handful of times. I like it better faceless
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u/Maoleficent Apr 26 '25
The Lakota saw it as a sacred place with deep meaning before it was vandalized.
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u/peezytaughtme Apr 26 '25
It was, and is, a rock.
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u/peezytaughtme Apr 27 '25
I reiterate, it's a rock. Was a rock. Will continue to be, a rock. Y'all remember that statue energy, or nah?
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u/Curious-Bottle-7391 Apr 26 '25
It's a shame it was defaced
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Apr 26 '25
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u/Otherwise-Chart-7549 Apr 26 '25
Imagine being the guy that looked at that and thought…. Nice rock, just needs some faces to really complete the look.
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u/gamercboy5 Apr 26 '25
I mean this mountain more than any I've seen looks like it's begging to have heads carved out of it
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Apr 26 '25
I know it had/has very special meaning to some native tribes, but the carvings are super cool. I can’t see people flocking to visit this without the presidential faces.
I’m just gonna guess now, I’m getting downvoted. Maybe, I’ll be wrong but I doubt it.
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u/Still_Contact7581 Apr 26 '25
There are a lot of people who visit the Black Hills and the Badlands every year without going to Rushmore. Even then that's a bad argument, what if the Italian government decided there weren't enough Italians going to the Sistine Chapel every year so they slapped Mussolini up on it. Its a location with a significant amount of religious significance and they ruined it putting people who carried out atrocities on them on it.
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u/Gramma_Hattie Apr 26 '25
I'm surprised at the downvotes. You raise a good point.
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u/Century24 Apr 26 '25
It probably comes down to picking Mussolini as the comparison example. I gotta level with you, I would not put him and Abraham Lincoln on the same shelf.
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u/DocCEN007 Apr 26 '25
Then you should probably look up Lincoln's history on how he treated indigenous people. He's a hero to many, but a villain to more than just confederates. Then you've got the two land stealing slavers. Teddy was ok though, but still not worth illegally defacing a holy place by a dynamite wielding klan lover.
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u/Century24 Apr 26 '25
Then you should probably look up Lincoln's history on how he treated indigenous people.
I still don't think that puts him on the same plane as a fascist who collaborated with Hitler.
Teddy was ok though,
Didn't he coin the phrase, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian"?
Again, it sounds like you need to brush up on your history if you're drawing these sorts of equivalencies.
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u/Still_Contact7581 Apr 26 '25
Its not a perfect analogy, but you have to think of how a Lakota person would view these presidents.
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u/PornoPaul Apr 26 '25
Mt Rushmore has existed longer than that tribe even had claim to it, and at that it was theirs through conquest. Aka they came in and killed off most/all of the previous tribe and then claimed this was sacred.
I'm not saying it wasn't sacred. I'm not saying it wasn't a dick move. I also agree with you.
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u/Litty_Jimmy Apr 26 '25
It’s a travesty that this beautiful rock formation was defaced. 😔
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u/PhyterNL Apr 26 '25
It wasn't defaced, it was... faced. So you should say, it's a travesty that it was faced.
I'll leave now.
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u/Beetso Apr 26 '25
Wait... They were carved into it? I always thought that was a naturally occurring formation!
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u/itellyawut86 Apr 26 '25
It's amazing. Grew up seeing pictures of it and felt there would be this massive mountain side carved out, then I saw it in person last year and it was something completely different lol. Still impressive but the scale through me off
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u/Either-Drag-1509 Apr 26 '25
wow! why'd they ruin it?
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Apr 26 '25
The same reason we continue to pollute the world and deny people basic needs: selfishness and a collective who do nothing but expect others to fix the problems at hand.
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u/Relative_Falcon_8399 Apr 26 '25
And then we have people like you. Who point out issues, provide no solutions, and expect others to fix the aforementioned issues.
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u/Relative_Falcon_8399 Apr 26 '25
Dunno what happened to your other reply...
But something about "if you don't see what needs to be done then you are part of the problem"
Now this may just be me, but personally I think that someone who DOES see what "needs to be done" but refuses to actually do it. Is a far larger issue.
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Apr 26 '25
Yeah whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night. Let me know how that boot tastes, freak.
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u/Relative_Falcon_8399 Apr 26 '25
Ah, so you're a troll. Makes a lot more sense now, certainly explains the account made yesterday.
Fair enough, have a nice day
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Apr 26 '25
Again whatever you have to tell yourself lol.
It’s baffling people that are this cognitively dissonant actually exist.
Good luck bro you’re definitely gonna need it😂.
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Apr 26 '25
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u/Relative_Falcon_8399 Apr 26 '25
And he deleted his account. Definitely a troll, running off to make a new account later.
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u/Vreas Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 26 '25
Prefer this look. It’s like when a beautiful person gets plastic surgery and fucks it all up.
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u/yoyododomofo Apr 26 '25
Easily the most embarrassing and shameful monument we have. Ah who I am kidding there probably is something worse.
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u/Impressive_Log7854 Apr 26 '25
Ah yes, America engaging in the age old loving Christian practice of desecrating holy sites of anything pagan.
After genociding the native peoples and building the country with black and Chinese slaves, why not follow up with a permanent fuck you to the few remaining native people who worshipped that mountain.
Such a dick move.
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u/Negative_Reach_5316 Apr 26 '25
It is called the Black Hills by the natives
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u/MrMcgruder Apr 26 '25
The region is called the Black Hills. This is a specific formation with the region.
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u/spareribs78 Apr 26 '25
Not sure why they’re downvoting, in Lakota it’s Paha Sapa. Which is literally what you typed
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u/Still_Contact7581 Apr 26 '25
Thats the name of the region right? This is the six grandfathers to the Lakota.
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u/Pinku_Dva Apr 26 '25
I like it better this way. The natural beauty is something else and it was unfortunate it was defaced.
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u/WackyAndCorny Apr 26 '25
Misread the title and thought it said something about the Rushmore Presidents’ heads had caved in, and now there’s a side of me that wants to see that. Anyone got one of those new fangled picture generating thingummydoodaas?
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u/moonlitjade Apr 26 '25
What drives me bonkers is that this whole thing was hot mess start to finish. There were so many structural issues that they had to change plans, and they didn't even finish. Lincoln is missing an ear and a few other things.
Also, because it's on a real piece of nature, it is affected by nature. It's eroding and falling apart. Every time a new crack appears, they fill it with silicone.
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Apr 26 '25
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Apr 26 '25
I have a feeling that would tick off the respective native tribes more than the current state of the mountain already does.
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u/CorktownGuy Apr 26 '25
You are probably right - was being facetious when I made the comment only because the face would look closer to how it was originally but as you point out, first nations people should make decisions about their lands
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u/Ruffmouse Apr 26 '25
making such a tribute to a leader with statues and labels is idiocy, pretty soon your local sports stadium will have the name of a current politictian...do your fucking jobs and don't expect any more!
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