Stewards of History: The National Park Svc., 2
Indeed, as social attitudes have continued to evolve into more tolerant paradigms, the National Park Service has found itself with the unenviable task of toning down the patriotic rhetoric comon to the memorial's founders. (Glass, 271). This has presented several difficulties, since the propaganda of what Mount Rushmore's creators wished their creation to be seen to embody have permeated the popular culture for so long that even given recent attempts to broaden the history of Mount Rushmore to include the new Heritage Village Sioux display on the grounds gets met with puzzlement by non-Native tourists, or even dismissed as weak attempts at political correctness. (www.rapidcityjournal.com)
The National Park Service has a very difficult task ahead, since the driving purpose of the NPS indicates preservation of the history to be enjoyed by future generations. However, Mount Rushmore's history is difficult to pigeonhole, requiring a good deal of familiarity with perspectives at odds with one another, with controversy and doubt spanning cultural boundaries and across different generations. The modern policies of the National Park Service are slowly changing to incorporate the Native American perspectives of the monument's long historical timeline. By capturing this previously missing aspect of a history divided, perhaps the National Park Service will slowly aid us in coming to an understanding more united in the future — an understanding which empowers the individual to experience the multi-faceted history in all of its complexity and not reduce it to a shallow two-dimensional nationalism, whether Anglo- or Native American in focus.
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