In the shadow of the stone presidential heads of Mount Rushmore - among rocks, forests, and the memories of a broken treaty - a project is taking shape that does not heal America's wounds but deepens them: Donald Trump's "National Garden of American Heroes." One statue after another is to rise - 250 in total, life-sized, conceived as monumental, as a patriotic bulwark against the supposed erosion of history. And of all places, where for centuries the spiritual homeland of the Lakota has been located: in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Governor Larry Rhoden, a Republican like Trump himself, praises the site in a letter to the president as the perfect location - "Together we will realize this project - in a way that honors America's heroes, uses South Dakota's natural beauty, and incorporates the most iconic monument of our greatest leaders: Mount Rushmore." What sounds like a hymn to national greatness is, for many Native Americans, a sacrilege. The land where the statues are to be erected is not empty - it is part of a historical injustice. The Black Hills, granted to the Sioux in 1868 through the Treaty of Fort Laramie, were seized by the U.S. government a few years later for gold mining - a breach the Supreme Court declared illegal in 1980. The compensation offered - 107 million dollars - was rejected by the tribes on June 30, 1980, on principle. Today, with interest, that amount would have grown to about 1.3 billion dollars. But to the Lakota, one thing is clear - their land is not for sale.
The Sioux - or more precisely: the Oceti Sakowin, the "Seven Council Fires" - venerate the Black Hills as the sacred center of their spiritual and cultural identity. Places like Pe' Sla or Bear Butte are regarded as holy sites for prayer, fasting, ceremonies, and visions. Further development - especially with statues of controversial figures such as Christopher Columbus, Andrew Jackson, or General Custer - is seen as desecration. The latter led the 1874 expedition into the Black Hills that triggered the gold rush and ultimately the dispossession of the land. For many Lakota, honoring him at this very place is a double provocation.
Crazy Horse was a famous war chief of the Oglala Lakota who bravely resisted the displacement of his people by the U.S. government. He was a key figure in the Indigenous resistance against the United States, particularly in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), where General Custer was defeated. 
Crazy Horse was a famous war chief of the Oglala Lakota who bravely resisted the displacement of his people by the U.S. government. He was a key figure in the Indigenous resistance against the United States, particularly in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), where General Custer was defeated. 
Crazy Horse was a famous war chief of the Oglala Lakota who bravely resisted the displacement of his people by the U.S. government. He was a key figure in the Indigenous resistance against the United States, particularly in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), where General Custer was defeated.
The new letter from Governor Larry Rhoden to President Trump, dated March 18, 2025, highlights the political dimension. Rhoden officially offers a plot of land overlooking Mount Rushmore for the monument park. The family of businessman Chuck Lien, owner of Pete Lien & Sons, is reportedly willing to donate the land - including designs, historical correspondence, and support from former Governor Kristi Noem. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Senator Thune, Senator Rounds, and Congressman Dusty Johnson are also involved in the project. The proximity to the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary and the open terrain appear to be an advantage to South Dakota’s government rather than a moral dilemma.
Crazy Horse was a famous war chief of the Oglala Lakota who bravely resisted the displacement of his people by the U.S. government. He was a key figure in the Indigenous resistance against the United States, particularly in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), where General Custer was defeated. 
Crazy Horse was a famous war chief of the Oglala Lakota who bravely resisted the displacement of his people by the U.S. government. He was a key figure in the Indigenous resistance against the United States, particularly in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), where General Custer was defeated. 
Trump's project, first announced in 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, was always more symbolic counteroffensive than artistic gesture. While statues of Confederate generals were being toppled in the streets, Trump called for preservation - "Angry mobs are trying to tear down the statues of our founders, desecrate our most sacred monuments, and unleash a wave of violence." In his vision, the garden is meant to be a counternarrative - with sculptures of Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs, Amelia Earhart, Martin Luther King Jr., Christopher Columbus, and President Andrew Jackson, architect of the Indian Removal Policy. Trump himself is reportedly under consideration for a future statue, according to extensive research and conversations with members of his support network. General George Armstrong Custer, responsible for escalating conflict in the Lakota region, is also on the unofficial shortlist.
The criticism continues. Other tribes of the Great Plains, including the Cheyenne River Sioux and the Rosebud Sioux, call the plan a "disgrace." In a joint statement, they wrote - "We do not need idols made of stone. We need respect, restitution, and truth." Former tribal president Harold Frazier said - "If Trump wants to immortalize himself as a hero, he should do it in Mar-a-Lago, not on stolen land."
An often overlooked site near the proposed monument park is the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. Spanning over 11,000 acres, it has offered a protected home to wild horses - mostly rescued through Bureau of Land Management programs - for more than 30 years. Mustangs roam freely across the prairie, far from profit motives, in a landscape rich in both biodiversity and cultural meaning. Particularly striking is the Engler Canyon, a remote part of the sanctuary named after Dayton O. Hyde, the sanctuary’s founder. Accessible only through guided tours, the canyon combines dramatic rock formations with grasslands, testifying to a vision of harmonizing nature and history - far removed from political instrumentalization.
The wounds are deep, the symbol heavy. In Trump's eyes, the planned "Garden of Heroes" may be a monument to national unity. In the eyes of the Lakota, it is a monument of disregard. Because the Black Hills are not just a place - they are the heart of a people. And this heart, they say, keeps beating - even without heroes made of marble. One can only hope that the voices of Indigenous communities will not just be heard but respected - before history is once again carved in stone without asking those whose story is being overwritten.
English 
German 
😓 wie ständig ist auch das wieder zum Würgen.😈
Indigenous, die Verlierer seit Entdeckung des amerikanischen Kontinents.
T**** guckt doch nicht deren Geschichte, deren Tradition.
Selbstverherrlichung und Deals, das ist das Einzige was zählt.
Wann wird dieser Wahnsinnige samt seiner Hintermänner endlich aufgehalten.
Bevor er die ganze Welt ins Verderben stürzt.