South Dakota's Electoral Leaders Advocate for Proposed National Garden of Heroes in the Black Hills
An image of the proposed “National Garden of Heroes” features the Mount Rushmore National Monument in Keystone, SD in the background. Courtesy Photo.
Darren Thompson
Washington—Last month, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” was introduced in the U.S. House and passed with a vote 215-214 two days later, on May 22. The Senate version of the bill was introduced today, and would appropriate $40 million for plans to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, including a National Garden of Heroes featuring 250 American heroes.
Although the bill asks for $40,000,000 to be appropriated to carry out three executive orders establishing the support for the National Garden of Heroes, a location for the garden is not mentioned in the bill’s text. Both S.D. Gov. Larry Rhoden and U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson sent letters to President Donald Trump proposing the Black Hills as the site of the National Garden of Heroes.
“The Black Hills mark the perfect location to achieve your vision for the National Garden of American Heroes,” Gov. Rhoden wrote in a letter to President Trump on March 18, 2025. “I look forward to working with you, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, and Task Force 250 to make this project happen. Together, we will make this project happen in a way that honors America's heroes, takes advantage of South Dakota's natural beauty, and incorporates the most iconic monument to our greatest leaders: Mount Rushmore National Memorial.”
This isn't the first time President Trump has been presented with or discussed the idea of national garden. In fact, he signed an executive order, 13934, and discussed the National Garden of Heroes during a speech he gave at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 3, 2020. The initial executive order included a list of 31 names of who would be honored with a statue.
Trump would later sign another executive order in 2021, in the final days of his administration, that established funding for building and maintaining the garden, and included a list of 244 additional names. Trump's executive orders were later revoked by former President Biden on May 14, 2021.
In his letter to Trump, Rep. Johnson reminded the president of his comments at Mount Rushmore on July 3. “South Dakota was honored to be the place where you, Mr. President, announced the executive order to establish the National Garden of American Heroes in a speech at Mount Rushmore prior to Independence Day fireworks in 2020,” he wrote on Feb. 25, 2025.
Johnson also shared in his letter that a private landowner has already pledged to donate 40 acres one mile east of the Mount Rushmore National Monument, in Keystone, S.D., to serve as the site for the garden. “This particular parcel of land lies in the shadow of George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson, and would be a prime location for your vision,” he wrote.
“Lakota people will not stand silently while our Black Hills our desecrated to build and erect racist statues and gardens of colonizers, perpetuating an inaccurate historical narrative that erases us and our lived experience,” said Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, in a statement to LRI Native News. “These are the lands of the Oceti Sakowin. Our very future as a people is tied to the land. It’s both our right and responsibility to protect it.”
The list of Indigenous leaders who would receive a statue include Hunkpapa Lakota Chief Sitting Bull, Akimel O’odham U.S. Army veteran Ira Hayes, former U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, Nez Perce Chief Joseph, Shoshone interpreter and guide Sacagawea, Osage dancer Maria Tallchief (America's first major prima ballerina), Mohawk Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, and Sac and Fox Olympian Jim Thorpe.
The list of those slated to receive a statue in the garden also includes Christopher Columbus, whose statues elsewhere were targeted and toppled after the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
“I m not surprised they want to include a rapist, murderer and slave trader to this garden, because that’s exactly what Trump is,” said Mike Forcia of the Bad River Ojibwe to LRI News. “And, of course, they’d put it in Indian country. Why not? We’re living in the backwards time and we must absolutely unite to rid ourselves of these people.”
Forcia was charged and prosecuted for felony criminal damage to property for the toppling of Christopher Columbus’s statue at the Minnesota Capitol Grounds on June 11, 2020. He later pleaded guilty to a deferred prosecution of the crime, in lieu of the state prosecuting others who were at the scene. His case was dismissed after a year of supervision.
If an amended bill passes the U.S. Senate, it will be reviewed by the House of Representatives for approval of any changes. The “One Big Beautiful Bill,” proposed by House and Senate Republicans, is focused on tax cuts, border security and energy policy. Some key points include making permanent tax cuts, increasing the child tax credit, and requiring those who receive Medicaid to work or look for work. The Senate’s version of the bill includes language that could make available for sale more than 250 million acres of public land across 11 states.
“When it comes to the Black Hills, and the unclean title that the United States and the state of South Dakota assert in regards to the Black Hills of the Sioux Nation, it is important that any American president obtain the consent of the original landlords to place of such magnificent symbols in sacred lands,” said Sacred Defense Fund and Lakota People's Law Project Executive Director Chase Iron Eyes to LRI Native News. “Treaty leaders of the Sioux Nation should be involved in any memorialization or commemoration of those historic personalities who helped shape America as it is known today. Native people must benefit from tourism and receive the federal lands in the Black Hills as recompense for 150 years of attempted illegal annexation and degradations.”
This year marks 45 years since the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of the Great Sioux Nation in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the decision. He determined that the Sioux Nation had a right to pursue a claim that their lands in the Black Hills were taken illegally from them and they are owed just compensation for those lands. The court awarded the Sioux Nation with interest the value of land when it was taken from them, in 1877, then judged to be worth at least $17.5 million. The Sioux Nation declined the award, which sits in an account managed by the Dept. of Interior. It is now valued at more than $1 billion.
“If Trump were to return federal lands in the Black Hills to the Sioux Nation, it’s conceivable that significant Sioux Nation leaders would support adding his image and face to the Mount Rushmore National Monument,” said Iron Eyes.
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Darren Thompson is the Managing Editor of Last Real Indians Native News Desk and the Director of Media Relations for the Sacred Defense Fund, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’s an award winning multi-media journalist enrolled at Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, where he grew up. He can be reached at darren@sacreddefense.org.