Mount Rushmore is an American icon. Its majestic, 60-foot-tall carved presidential heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, overlooking South Dakota's Black Hills, remain a bucket-list destination for U.S. travelers. However, Mount Rushmore has a checkered history, beloved by some, detested by others, and an enduring symbol of America's complicated past. To some people it's a point of great pride, but to others it's an evil symbol of the horrible things done to Native people. Until recently, we never heard the fact that it's on stolen land. Now we want to understand the whole complicated story. You can be impressed by the artwork and still saddened by the whole process around it.
