Post by Moon Seeker on Jun 1, 2009 11:54:48 GMT -5
American Indian history part of Mt. Rushmore plan
Mount Rushmore National Memorial managers are formally planning the overall direction of the popular tourist attraction for the next 15 to 20 years, and American Indian history is a big part of it.
By: Carson Walker, Associated Press
MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. — Mount Rushmore National Memorial managers are formally planning the overall direction of the popular tourist attraction for the next 15 to 20 years, and American Indian history is a big part of it.
Besides the traditional education about the four presidential faces, the effort will include the current and planned attractions that expose visitors to native history and other cultures, said park Superintendent Gerard Baker.
“Our first mission is to talk about these presidents and the first 150 years of this country,” he said.
“They’re always going to be in the forefront. But that gives us an opportunity to talk about this land before them.”
Many natives see the memorial as a painful symbol of Indian treaties broken by the federal government.
Baker, a member of North Dakota’s Mandan and Hidatsa tribes who grew up at Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, became the park’s first Native American superintendent in 2004.
He has since added elements to teach the roughly 3 million annual visitors about Indian history.
Baker said the goal is to pique people’s curiosity about other another culture so they go home and research it.
“I want them to leave with more questions than answers,” he said.
Public comments on the proposed General Management Plan, which replaces the last one done in 1980, are being accepted until May 15. Then the process shifts to developing management alternatives for the park’s resources, facilities and education programs.
The plan is scheduled to be implemented by 2012.
Last summer, an exhibit called heritage village was set up along the presidential trail that features three tipis representing the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota branches of the Sioux nation. It’s below Washington’s head and has a southern view of 7,242-foot-high Harney Peak, a landmark considered sacred by Indians.
Visitors are allowed to walk around the tipis. One will be outfitted as it would have been when native people occupied the Black Hills. Another will be open to show how it’s built. The third is closed.
“What I want to concentrate on is how native people lived here in the Black Hills,” Baker said.
Native storytellers, dancers and others will again greet visitors at the site this summer.
Other programs at the memorial have featured a display on German-Russian culture, a Sons of Norway demonstration and a gospel choir performance.
Mount Rushmore will have more park guides on staff this summer, said Navnit Singh, recently hired as director of interpretation and education.
“That will give us an opportunity to handle more people and do more things,” he said.
Another part of the plan is the development of 7-10 miles of backcountry trails that would highlight natural aspects of the park, with interpretive displays along the way, Singh said.
“We’re going to emphasize vegetation, the vegetative diversity, old-growth forests, wetlands, the granite outcrops, wildflowers. So your classic back-to-nature ranger activities,” he said.
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum led the carving of Mount Rushmore from 1927 to 1941.
Public comments on the General Management Plan can be submitted until May 15 through that section of the memorial’s Web site.
www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/120695/
Mount Rushmore National Memorial managers are formally planning the overall direction of the popular tourist attraction for the next 15 to 20 years, and American Indian history is a big part of it.
By: Carson Walker, Associated Press
MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. — Mount Rushmore National Memorial managers are formally planning the overall direction of the popular tourist attraction for the next 15 to 20 years, and American Indian history is a big part of it.
Besides the traditional education about the four presidential faces, the effort will include the current and planned attractions that expose visitors to native history and other cultures, said park Superintendent Gerard Baker.
“Our first mission is to talk about these presidents and the first 150 years of this country,” he said.
“They’re always going to be in the forefront. But that gives us an opportunity to talk about this land before them.”
Many natives see the memorial as a painful symbol of Indian treaties broken by the federal government.
Baker, a member of North Dakota’s Mandan and Hidatsa tribes who grew up at Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, became the park’s first Native American superintendent in 2004.
He has since added elements to teach the roughly 3 million annual visitors about Indian history.
Baker said the goal is to pique people’s curiosity about other another culture so they go home and research it.
“I want them to leave with more questions than answers,” he said.
Public comments on the proposed General Management Plan, which replaces the last one done in 1980, are being accepted until May 15. Then the process shifts to developing management alternatives for the park’s resources, facilities and education programs.
The plan is scheduled to be implemented by 2012.
Last summer, an exhibit called heritage village was set up along the presidential trail that features three tipis representing the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota branches of the Sioux nation. It’s below Washington’s head and has a southern view of 7,242-foot-high Harney Peak, a landmark considered sacred by Indians.
Visitors are allowed to walk around the tipis. One will be outfitted as it would have been when native people occupied the Black Hills. Another will be open to show how it’s built. The third is closed.
“What I want to concentrate on is how native people lived here in the Black Hills,” Baker said.
Native storytellers, dancers and others will again greet visitors at the site this summer.
Other programs at the memorial have featured a display on German-Russian culture, a Sons of Norway demonstration and a gospel choir performance.
Mount Rushmore will have more park guides on staff this summer, said Navnit Singh, recently hired as director of interpretation and education.
“That will give us an opportunity to handle more people and do more things,” he said.
Another part of the plan is the development of 7-10 miles of backcountry trails that would highlight natural aspects of the park, with interpretive displays along the way, Singh said.
“We’re going to emphasize vegetation, the vegetative diversity, old-growth forests, wetlands, the granite outcrops, wildflowers. So your classic back-to-nature ranger activities,” he said.
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum led the carving of Mount Rushmore from 1927 to 1941.
Public comments on the General Management Plan can be submitted until May 15 through that section of the memorial’s Web site.
www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/120695/