soap-stones:

hi y’all–

if you don’t already know (and i haven’t seen any major news coverage), indigenous land defenders have been protesting Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore. at least 12 were arrested yesterday (3 July)  and a number of their cars and trucks were impounded. 

the land that’s been carved into, called the Black Hills or, in Lakota, Pahá Sápa, is sacred to a number of indigenous peoples, particularly the Lakota, from whom the land was stolen originally. the faces engraved on this ancestral land belong to presidents with documented histories of white supremacism–and the carving itself was done by a member of the KKK. 

learn more + donate to the black hills legal defense fund HERE 

• video coverage via Indigenous Rising HERE 
• Layli Long Soldier’s poems on “Ȟe Sápa” are good reading on the Black Hills
• there are many places to learn about the actions of Roosevelt, Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, but for Lincoln in particular (who I think still often gets taught as a white savior), I’d also recommend Long Soldier’s “38″ and LeAnne Howe’s Savage Conversations.
• you can also donate to the Lakota Law Project HERE.