(Daily Mail)–A UN human rights official is urging the U.S. to turn over control of lands considered to be sacred to Native Americans, including the site of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, unveiled his recommendations in Geneva on Friday after completing a 12-day visit to the U.S. where he met with representatives of indigenous peoples in six states. The fact-finder also had a chance to meet members of the Obama administration and briefed the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, but no member of Congress agreed to meet with him. ‘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,’ Mr Anaya said in a statement. For over a century, he said, the government had seized lands and resources from Native Americans, removed children from their families and communities, caused the loss of languages, broke treaties with tribes and oppressed the indigenous peoples on the grounds of racial discrimination ‘The sense of loss, alienation and indignity is pervasive throughout Indian Country,’ Mr Anaya said. He welcomed the U.S. decision to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2010, reversing a previous vote, but said that more must be done. Mr Anaya’s findings will be included in a final report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council. While not binding, the recommendations carry moral weight that can influence governments.
Mount Rushmore and the Ku Klux Klan
Gutzon Borglum was born in the southeastern Idaho hamlet of St. Charles in 1867, the son of a polygamist woodcarver who quit the Mormon church and discarded the boy and his mother.Borglum learned his art in New York and Europe, and was famous in 1915 when the United Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned him to sculpt a bust of Robert E. Lee on Stone Mountain northeast of Atlanta. His fee was paid by the KKK.Biographers Audrey and Howard Shaff say Borglum joined the Klan — although the artist later denied it — to curry favor with his new patrons. By 1923 — two years before he was fired from the Stone Mountain project — Borglum was a member of the Koncilium of the KKK.“Frankly, Borglum had little time for anyone, white or black, who was not a congressman or millionaire, or happened to be in his way,” according to a PBS biography of the artist. “There is no indication, for example, that he treated his long-suffering black chauffeur Charlie Johnson any differently than any white employee — he owed him back pay just like everyone else.”The Mount Rushmore memorial includes a letter to Borglum from D.C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Klan and political kingmaker in Indiana who was subsequently convicted of kidnaping, raping and murdering a social worker. While on the Koncilium, Borglum had backed Stephenson’s candidate for Imperial Wizard — the overall leader of the Klan.In 1927, South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson commissioned Borglum to carve Mount Rushmore, the monument that made him a household name worldwide. He worked on it for 14 years, and the project eventually killed him.“Whatever drew Gutzon Borglum … into the Ku Klux Klan?” wrote Martin Luschei, professor of English at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, in his book “The Black Hills and the Indians.”“Borglum was a complex man, an impassioned political animal with marked agrarian leanings, and an activist … To Borglum the farmer was the heart of the nation. He reasoned that the KKK, with its primarily rural base, would be beyond the control of international bankers, most of whom he believed to be Jews … The Jews, Borglum believed, were greedy and antisocial …
Pretty ballsy move here by the UN. I mean where do these guys get off huh? Citizens of every other country in the world can’t get to the US fast enough and they have the audacity to say we have to give our most beautiful landmark back to some Indians who don’t even want it. Sounds like some petty jealousy there. And hey…I sympothize with the Indians. I really do. But I mean come on, I think the statute of limitations has run out on this shit. You don’t see me over here asking for a hand out from the Queen of England because they were selling food abroad while millions of Irish starved during the potato famine.MORE
thank you James
