Audio Tour in Lakota Language Invites American Indians to Mount Rushmore (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Audio Tour in Lakota Language Invites American Indians to Mount Rushmore

Friday , September 22, 2006
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215172,00.html

MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. — Ben Black Elk was a staple at
Mount Rushmore National Memorial during the 1950s and '60s, posing for
photos with tourists intrigued by his single-feather headdress and
stories of his Lakota people.

Black Elk wasn't part of the official tour, but he became known as the
"fifth face on the mountain" after years of sharing American Indians'
history and their perspective on the monument, said Gerard Baker, who
became Mount Rushmore's first American Indian superintendent in 2004.

Baker and his Mount Rushmore staff on Thursday kicked off an effort to
extend his teachings and invite American Indians to the monument with
the launch of a self-guided audio tour that can be heard in Black Elk's
native tongue.

Lakota spiritual leader and historian Peter V. Catches of Pine Ridge
welcomes tourists with "Ca wokisuya ki le justice na democracy ki
Americans Indians ki wicakco na wiyuskinyan He Sapa el unpi kta."

Translation: "This memorial to justice and democracy now invites
American Indians to celebrate and teach their culture here in the heart
of the He Sapa, place of the black cedar."

Baker, a member of North Dakota's Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, said he
hopes the national attraction can become a place to help heal wounds
stemming from the country's violent history with American Indians.

"America is full of all kinds of stories, both extremely good and
extremely bad. And I think it's one of our responsibilities to give as
much of that as we possibly can — not to make people feel guilty or
angry or anything else, but to understand the history of this place,"
he said.

Rushmore officials had kicked around the idea for a self-guided audio
tour for years. Presidential Tours led by a single ranger often draw as
many as 250 followers during the peak season, said Debbie Ketel,
publications manager for the Mount Rushmore Historical Society.

The goal was to not only memorialize the four presidents on the mountain
and talk about creating the sculpture, but to widen the scope of
interpretation and education to include the natural and cultural
resources of the area, said Judy Olson, the monument's chief of
interpretation.

For $5, visitors can rent an audio wand and embark on the 29-station
walking tour in English, Spanish, German or Lakota.

Olson said Rushmore visitors often ask about Indian views of the
monument and the Black Hills, and the audio tour gives rangers another
tool to share that side of the story.

"It's one story we had never really told, so I think people are
overwhelmingly positive about the whole thing," Olson said.

Baker acknowledges that not everyone will understand what's being said
in the Lakota translation — as a Mandan-Hidatsa even he doesn't — but
he expects people will listen out of curiosity.

"Lakota's a beautiful language," he said.