Rushmore Needs a Make-Over

[Verse One] Mount Rushmore is a monument to Manifest Destiny It’s propaganda for White Supremacy It’s a slap in the face To red natives who legally own the place Abraham, Teddy, George and Tom Carving their heads on the cliff was wrong Caucasian heads on stolen land Sculpted by a man in the Ku Klux Klan

[instrumental pause]

[Verse Two] Let’s remove the Presidential faces George, Tom, Teddy and Abe, too Lincoln ordered in 1862 the hanging of 38 Sioux Jefferson wanted natives removed Teddy Roosevelt did too Washington had his army destroy Forty villages of Iroquois.

[Chorus] Scalp the Presidential faces Strip them off the sacred cliff Replace with native petroglyphs Of Deer and Porcupine and Eagle What whites have done here is illegal

[Verse Three] Rushmore was robbed by white man lies Give it back to Native tribes Black Hills stolen from Lakota Broken treaties Burning teepees Today’s high rate of diabetes Sacred rock blasted by dynamite To honor genocidal whites

[Bridge] Shame!  Shame!  Shame!  Shame! Call Rushmore by it’s tribal name Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe Pahá “Six Grandfathers Mountain” Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe Pahá “Six Grandfathers Mountain” Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe Pahá “Six Grandfathers Mountain”

[Chorus] Scalp the Presidential faces Strip them off the sacred cliff Replace with native petroglyphs Of Elk, Coyote and Black Bear & Bison grazing everywhere

[Verse Four] Black Hills are best for vision quests - to find identity And for Sun Dances to deliver - strength and ecstasy Return the Black Hills, Return the streams                                                                                           Return Rushmore, Return the dreams                                                                                                     Erase the presidents from stone                                                                                                              Return the mountain let it be free                                                                                                          With the trees and with the Sioux                                                                                                         That’s what our government ought to do                                                                                             

[Chorus] Scalp the Presidential faces Strip them off the sacred cliffs Replace with native petroglyphs Of Meadowlark and Antelope A Landscape built on trust and hope